BE.EMOTIVE
It doesn’t matter who you are or how long you have been around; small independent startups to corporate giants such as McDonald’s or Adidas, each and every one needs a set of brand guidelines to set the rules of behaviour; their rules of engagement in every way they communicate. These guidelines or brand bibles are intrinsically linked to your success or failure, they are the thread that holds the public’s perception in place.
Be of value
For a brand to breed trust with your audience, every single touch point needs to have the same rules in place – people don’t buy products or services for no reason, they make buying decisions based on an emotive connection. This connection with your brand will determine their perception of value – an often misunderstood word. Value could mean cheap or inexpensive to some; however, others will perceive it as what they get in return from you; does it make them feel good about themselves? Will the item last longer to generate them a better return on their investment? This is a personal decision that they alone will make.
The Human Touch
Touchpoints of your brand go beyond a printed or digital piece of communication, they are your employees, your human to human connection to your audience. These guys are your in-house brand advocates, they are the ones can have the greatest impact on your clients. With this guide in place, they will have the tools and knowledge to communicate with the brand persona, to know how to say and act, or how to spell certain words. Should they always use a certain phrase? How will they compose an email? Should they respond within a certain timeframe? What imagery can they use? …all should be covered to leave no doubt in their mind.
As always, we are here to first listen to you and your requirements, we’ll understand your mission or even help you create one
The Details
When done correctly, you will know what fonts to use and when, what colours to use, what layouts are correct on certain formats. You will know the tone and style of written and visual messaging and be clear on all the tools needed to get the job done. Have you even considered the correct use of bullet points? What size your headings should be? What’s the correct line height or character tracking? What’s the minimum size your logo should be shown at and how much space does it need? Are there sub-brands that need to work in harmony and how closely should these be associated? What are your marketing tactics and what channels of communication are preferred or disregarded?
In addition to internal clarity, your design and communications agencies will be perfectly aligned to save you time and ensure they understand you, your brand and your story.
Brave in style
As always, we are here to first listen to you and your requirement, we’ll understand your mission or even help you create one. If you are an existing established brand that has lost it’s way, is looking to realign your marketing strategy, or a newly formed conception that desperately needs help in direction, we’ll put listeners out there, we’ll think about everything we have gathered and help you get on track… Listen, Think, Create, Evaluate; it’s what we do.
