Ignore them only if you have money to spare.
As a consciously documented representation of your company, branding is the foundation of your communications. Marketing, PR, and sales are how you tailor the brand to specific people and groups. Refining your brand is an ongoing process, but in general major changes in brand happen less frequently than changes in marketing, PR, or sales approaches.
As least it should work this way. But when companies don’t develop brand guidelines, their employees are forced to improvise and readdress brand issues with each project. No fun and bad business.That is what makes brand guidelines so important. They articulate the brand, so employees are not forced to do so on their own. This might seem obvious, but our experience shows that many companies don’t feel guidelines are worth the time.
If you want the best from your employees—saving time and resources, and helping ensure success—provide them with corporate brand guidelines.
Guidelines can vary in length and complexity, but at their core they include how to talk about your company, and how to use the visuals associated with the brand, such as the logo, colors, and design elements (See Honeywell’s brand guidelines).
A few years back, we—in association with Lori Cohen and Mavens & Moguls—rebranded Bridgewell, a Boston-area service provider to adults with disabilities. Before the rebrand, the organization had been burdened with:
• An embarrassing and soporific name: The Greater Lynn Mental Health and Retardation Association, or GLMHRA
• A logo of a bird that seemed more fitting for an undertaker
• No specified talking points
• No rules for design
With the rebrand and guidelines, the employees were ecstatic. They said it was the first time they knew how to speak about their organization. It was the first time they felt the brand truly represented who there are and what they do. And it was the first time they didn’t put people to sleep reciting the name.
The Pros of Providing Guidelines
Providing clear goals—and brand guidelines are a set of goals—makes for happier employees, and studies show that happy employees are worth the investment. Goals are important because they are tangible, and accomplishing goals is pleasurable and motivating. On a practical level, they keep people focused on what is important, and away from what isn’t.
The Cons of Casting Away Guidelines
In the last two years, we’ve had two clients drop their brand guidelines. Interestingly enough, in both cases this corresponded with a new marketing hire or hires. This is not a surprise. Organizations often feel a need to start fresh in one fell swoop. It feels decisive, and the new hires are excited because it gives them a chance to “make their mark on a clean slate.”
In our experience, though, the new marketing hires lose focus. They want to please their new employer, but they are confused. What is the brand, and how will their work be measured? How will they know if their marketing is on target? With no clear guidelines, decision-making about messaging, colors, photos, fonts, etc. becomes subjective. When we start to hear, “I’ll know it when I see it,” we know that the new hire is casting about. The focus should always be, “I’ll know it, because we figured it out already.”
Remember, the dark side of “leaving your mark on a clean slate” is the wasteful “reinventing the wheel.”
Tips
• Assign a brand cop who is responsible for brand adherence.
• Don’t change brand guidelines at the same time as making important new hires. Let the new folk settle in first.
• As an employee, be wary of leadership that doesn’t respect branding. This will make your job more difficult.
Everybody Needs Guidelines
The beauty of guidelines is that they allow your employees to focus on more important details than figuring out your brand on a whim. They also give everybody a common set of goals, introducing a healthy degree of objectivity into decisions. Creating guidelines involves an initial investment, but in the long run they save time, money, and frustration. Your employees want to be happy and succeed—it is your job as a manager to provide the right goals to make that happen.
Chime in: How have you handled a change in brand guidelines?
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The Virtues of Brand Guidelines
Ignore them only if you have money to spare.
As least it should work this way. But when companies don’t develop brand guidelines, their employees are forced to improvise and readdress brand issues with each project. No fun and bad business.That is what makes brand guidelines so important. They articulate the brand, so employees are not forced to do so on their own. This might seem obvious, but our experience shows that many companies don’t feel guidelines are worth the time.
If you want the best from your employees—saving time and resources, and helping ensure success—provide them with corporate brand guidelines.
Guidelines can vary in length and complexity, but at their core they include how to talk about your company, and how to use the visuals associated with the brand, such as the logo, colors, and design elements (See Honeywell’s brand guidelines).
A few years back, we—in association with Lori Cohen and Mavens & Moguls—rebranded Bridgewell, a Boston-area service provider to adults with disabilities. Before the rebrand, the organization had been burdened with:
• An embarrassing and soporific name: The Greater Lynn Mental Health and Retardation Association, or GLMHRA
• A logo of a bird that seemed more fitting for an undertaker
• No specified talking points
• No rules for design
With the rebrand and guidelines, the employees were ecstatic. They said it was the first time they knew how to speak about their organization. It was the first time they felt the brand truly represented who there are and what they do. And it was the first time they didn’t put people to sleep reciting the name.
The Pros of Providing Guidelines
Providing clear goals—and brand guidelines are a set of goals—makes for happier employees, and studies show that happy employees are worth the investment. Goals are important because they are tangible, and accomplishing goals is pleasurable and motivating. On a practical level, they keep people focused on what is important, and away from what isn’t.
The Cons of Casting Away Guidelines
In the last two years, we’ve had two clients drop their brand guidelines. Interestingly enough, in both cases this corresponded with a new marketing hire or hires. This is not a surprise. Organizations often feel a need to start fresh in one fell swoop. It feels decisive, and the new hires are excited because it gives them a chance to “make their mark on a clean slate.”
In our experience, though, the new marketing hires lose focus. They want to please their new employer, but they are confused. What is the brand, and how will their work be measured? How will they know if their marketing is on target? With no clear guidelines, decision-making about messaging, colors, photos, fonts, etc. becomes subjective. When we start to hear, “I’ll know it when I see it,” we know that the new hire is casting about. The focus should always be, “I’ll know it, because we figured it out already.”
Remember, the dark side of “leaving your mark on a clean slate” is the wasteful “reinventing the wheel.”
Tips
• Assign a brand cop who is responsible for brand adherence.
• Don’t change brand guidelines at the same time as making important new hires. Let the new folk settle in first.
• As an employee, be wary of leadership that doesn’t respect branding. This will make your job more difficult.
Everybody Needs Guidelines
The beauty of guidelines is that they allow your employees to focus on more important details than figuring out your brand on a whim. They also give everybody a common set of goals, introducing a healthy degree of objectivity into decisions. Creating guidelines involves an initial investment, but in the long run they save time, money, and frustration. Your employees want to be happy and succeed—it is your job as a manager to provide the right goals to make that happen.
Chime in: How have you handled a change in brand guidelines?