What Marketing Teams Can Be Doing Now: Part 2

Does your work reflect your brand standards?

Remember that nifty brand standards your agency created with you? You know, that toolkit that your internal marketing team uses to make sure the integrity of your brand is upheld — across everything your team creates? Regardless of whether or not your team has it memorized or barely looks at it, now is a good time to take another look. You could approach this exercise in two phases:

Phase 1 – Review Your Brand Guidelines

Whether your guidelines or in digital format or printed, set aside time to really study the current direction for your company or organization. Here are a few things to look for:

• Is the brand tone still accurate?

• Are the key messages still accurate?

• Are there others that should replace what’s there?

• Has your audience changed at all?

  • Be as detailed as possible in any recommendations you have.

• Does the color palette still reflect who you are as a company/organization?

  • If not, what’s missing or should be replaced?

• Does the identified look and feel represent your brand?

• If included in your standards: Do your purpose/mission/vision/values still reflect who you are as a company/organization?

  • Make notes in those areas you feel should be reviewed.

During this phase, you could also consider anything that might be missing that can help your internal team elevate their work. During this time, many brands are considering what action they can take to help others. Putting people before the product has never been more prominent in messaging. Evaluate how human your brand is currently and what you feel might be a natural shift to support this.

Phase 2 – Compare Your Current Brand Standards to the Work

To take an even deeper dive, put together a small (or comprehensive) collection of the work your team has created. Include a range of media such as print, digital, and broadcast communications and lay them out or hang on a wall so you can see each piece and the bigger picture. Here are a few questions to ask yourself:

• Can you identify a clear message in each piece, and does it reflect what’s presented in your brand standards?

• Does the tone of the photography align with your brand standards?

• As a collection, is the look and feel consistent — and does it reflect your brand standards?

• Do you see areas of inconsistency: in look and feel or tone or messaging or even logo usage?

• List any freedoms that were taken that seem to water-down the brand.

• Similarly, list any pieces that show a strong representation of the brand.

• Note any areas that seem to create ongoing challenges that either need to be addressed in updated brand standards or in how the work is executed.

As part of this exercise, you might also want to take a closer look at internal processes. It’s possible the work isn’t fully representing your approved brand guidelines because of too few or too many steps (or people) in the process.

This is a great exercise to build into your calendar on a quarterly, bi-annually, or whatever feels appropriate for your team. Regularly evaluating your work against your brand guidelines can greatly strengthen your effectiveness and also help you determine when the next evolution of your brand is appropriate.