Brand Curation - Beyond the Logo, what makes a brand great

I recently had the pleasure of speaking at an entrepreneurial meetup on branding and more importantly consistent branding. I thought it was worth sharing with my broader audience so here are a couple of thoughts I shared at the event.

NEW BRAND, NOW WHAT?

So you've paid a heap of money to a graphic designer, spent a bunch of time getting your brand identity perfect, now you've been given the logos, what's next? I find a lot of my clients are overwhelmed with responsibility once they are handed all of their design files to use. Typically they do not have a background in the creative industry and as such they feel they don't have the skills to make the right decisions in the application of their brand.

I would argue that the application of the brand is just as important as the creation, if not more so! A strong visual brand will only be achieved if both the original artwork and the application of that artwork are aligned. What does that mean? It means that if you are inconsistent in applying your beautiful logo to all your marketing material you will struggle to create a strong and powerful brand and that ultimately affects your bottom line.

WHY IS BRAND CONSISTENCY IMPORTANT?

Consumers are creatures of habit; they want to trust brands and to trust them they must first recognise them.

Your brand is more easily recognised if it is consistent. That means every piece of marketing collateral you create must be on brand and visually connected. Every point of contact your consumers have with your business must be presented consistently so that they build up a clear picture in their mind of who you are and what your brand represents. Once they know who you are and have established a reliable, comfortable history with you,they are more likely to trust you. Once they trust you they are more likely to buy your products or use your services. That's just how it works. Brand consistency is part of building trust.

So now you're thinking "that's all very well but how can I make my brand consistent, I'm not a visual person, I don't know where to start?". Never fear, there are a couple of tools you can use to help create a strong consistent visual brand. Here they are:

BRAND GUIDELINES:

When I give my clients their brand guidelines it's like I'm passing over a rule book. It's designed to give them a framework  to work from that gives them confidence to make branding decisions in the future. They know that if they stick to the rules they will be more likely to produce a consistent look for their brand. This is what you should expect to receive in your brand guidelines:

• Logo usage – where and how to use your logo, including minimum sizes, colour, spacing and what not to do with it.
• Colour palette – showing your primary and secondary colour palettes with colour breakdowns for print, screen and web.
• Type style – showing the specific fonts that you use and details of the font family and default fonts for web use. You should also have their use specified i.e Headings, sub headings, body copy etc
• Image style/photography – examples of image style and photographs that work with the brand.
• Business card and letterhead design – examples of how the logo and font are used for standard company collateral.

If you already have created your brand identity but have no guidelines don't worry, you can have brand guidelines created after the fact.

BRAND GUARDIAN:

Most of my clients do not have a bevy of marketers to help them manage their brand. It is up to them to manage the application of their visual identity and sometimes no one in their organisation is solely responsible for keeping it on brand. This is when the branding can slip.

To combat this I suggest that they appoint a Brand Guardian.  The Brand Guardian is responsible for quality control and uses their intimate knowledge of the the brand guidelines to assess whether the marketing material  being produced is consistent and on brand. This needn’t be a time consuming exercise, a quick informed glance over artwork should suffice.. If it is off brand they will make a list of things to amend. You'll be surprised at the small things that are picked up on the final step but these small variations on your brand all erode it's consistency therefore it's trustworthiness to consumers.

CONCLUTION

Just remember, to build a strong brand you must be consistent, consistent, consistent. You are not alone, use your tools (brand guidelines and guardianship) to help you along your branding way.

And don’t forget, if this sounds like something you could use a hand with I’m always here to help! :)