(Following up on STEP 4: Brand Communication)
Now your brand is established and being communicated regularly, it is important to make sure it is closely managed to avoid any mistakes, causing confusion for your audience.
Creating A Brand Guidelines Document
A brand guidelines document is an important part of managing this. The document essentially allows you to detail exactly what elements make up your brand and usually covers areas such as:
- Use of colours
- Defined fonts
- How the logo can be presented
- Use of imagery and styling of imagery
- Placement of shapes and icons
- Key messages and slogans
- Tone
You can also allocate Brand Ambassadors in different departments of your business, to police the use of the branding and maintain its connection to the Guidelines, notifying you if anything is amiss.
One way to maintain dedication throughout your team is run regular brand audits / check the collateral sales materials they are using are following the guidelines.
As well as running audits, it is vital to regularly update and refresh the team on the use of the brand and Why it needs to be so closely monitored.
Create A Brand Experience
Beyond the pure use of the logo, you will also need to monitor and manage the Brand Experience that each customer has. Big chains of coffee shops, for example, are great at making sure every experience has the same quality by having procedures for the staff to follow for greeting people, serving them and the product quality they deliver. Customer engagement plays a big part in maintaining engagement as it’s best to create an emotional connection between your brand and your audience.
However, you need to remember that your employees are the face of your brand, which is why we highlighted the importance of employee engagement in Step 3.
Making The Brand Work On All Devices
In Step 2 we mentioned the need to make sure that your brand is ready to respond to any changes in the industry or in the brand itself. One of these changes is the ever-increasing need to have your website and appropriate digital content created as a ‘responsive’ design.
This has become more important of late with the recent changes in Google’s search algorithms.
It’s worth looking at other communication channels online, determining if they are relevant to your brand & your audience and thinking of creative ways of using them. This includes the likes of social media platforms such as Pinterest, Tumblr and so on.
