RTFM. Re-Imagining Your Brand Manual 2012 WHITE PAPER

Transcription

1 2012 WHITE PAPER RTFM Re-Imagining Your Brand Manual By Linda Hirsch, Assistant Vice President of Communications and Marketing, St. Ambrose University Karen Buck, Vice President, Zehno Cross Media Communications Ted Stephens III, Principal, The Numad Group

2 RTFM*. RE-IMAGINING YOUR BRAND MANUAL First published as part of the 2011 American Marketing Association s Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education. Let s face it. While brand and marketing have made tremendous strides as accepted and even relevant campus initiatives, they are still viewed with a lot of skepticism. A lot of that has to do with the struggles we, as brand marketers, have over process and ownership. How can we be inclusive in brand building without capitulating to the lowest common denominator? How do we respond to demands for creative (dare we say academic?) freedom when our focus is to develop systems, structures and order? We ll leave insights around brand articulation and platform development processes for another day. This paper will focus on approaches you can take to educate the wider community after a brand has been developed/redeveloped. Many of us default to the policing role for that education, with the easiest measuring stick being how things look. We create visual identity manuals with specific rules about marks and seals, colors and spacing. We show 15 million versions of what NOT to do, and then another 5 million examples of spacing for stationery. LOGO USAGE Follow these tips when placing the logo: DON T alter the dimensions of the logo, except to resize it proportionally. DON T change the colors of individual letters. The logo elements always appear in a single color. DON T add markings on top of or through the logo. DON T combine it with any other words, except as approved by GED Testing Service. These kinds of visual identity manuals were the right speed for 1985, when campus stakeholders had to work with a designer or printer to produce almost anything, and trained typographers and production artists needed guidelines for consistency. Logo Usage, GED Testing Service Learning Materials DO contact the GED Testing Service for the official logo file. The logo features customized typefaces that can t be easily recreated. The visual identity manual still has its place and use. But identity rules just scratch the surface of the education that needs to be done to help your campus stakeholders represent your brand in the most powerful ways possible, and even resonate with your crankiest constituents. What does that brand education need to include? Appeals to shared community values Connections to institutional history and traditions Relatable examples (not just the sexy new ad campaign) Accessible formats for distribution and continued top-of-mind presence *RTFM=Read the freaking manual! 2012 Zehno Cross Media Communications PH: of 7

3 So, are you focused on engaging and educating your audiences around your brand and institutional mission? Or are you enforcing a rulebook? A change in perspective can go a long way toward success. DEFINING YOUR BRAND Of course, before you can go about educating people on your brand, you must have come to some institutional consensus about your brand platform. Some institutions are focused on making their brands well-known. Others are working to address a brand gap the distance between what your audiences believe about your institution and where you want to move that thinking aspirationally and strategically. Knowing what you re trying to accomplish with a brand initiative is critical; it s how you ll ask campus stakeholders to measure your work and buy in to the movement. Various agencies and leading thinkers on brands have developed different brand platform, framework and personality structures (insert your agency s trademarked process here), which might include things such as Are you focused on engaging and educating your audiences around your brand and institutional mission? Or are you enforcing a rulebook? Position/Value Proposition Brand Promise Elevator Speech Sub-Brand Hierarchy Key Messages Mark/Logo/Avatars Typography Colors Sound Imagery Tagline Visuals Personality Voice & Tone These elements were not developed in a vacuum. They should all map back to brand strategy. Yet we forget that not every faculty member or alum sat through the brand creative presentation where those connections were made implicit. But they (should) know a thing or two about your brand they are, after all, living it daily. Brand standards manuals document these structures, but most still stick to the these are the rules framework adopted from visual identity manuals Zehno Cross Media Communications PH: of 7

4 ENTER THE BRAND CULTURE GUIDE Brand culture guides fill in the gaps that visual identity manuals and brand standards manuals have left in our brand education efforts. Brand culture guides work in tandem with rulebooks to foster an internal culture of understanding and appreciation of an institution s brand and, by extension, the institution itself. Guides can answer fundamental and often enduring internal audience questions about Who We Really Are and What We Really Stand For by including statements about the organization s mission and vision. They can also offer insights into the strategy behind brand decisions and describe how different areas of the organization fit into the branding structure. But what brand culture guides really do is connect faculty, staff, students and alumni with their brand, fostering a deeper connection with the whole organization and ultimately creating a more knowledgeable brand ambassador in each member of the community. The right approach for a brand culture guide has a lot to do with, well, your brand culture. A few examples for creative inspiration: St. Ambrose University (Developed by Zehno Cross Media Communications.) This small, diocesan Catholic institution in Iowa had been engaged in a brand effort throughout a shifting campus landscape. Conducted during a period of presidential transition, the branding initiative had a few champions, but also several vocal detractors. After focusing the brand rollout first on external audiences to address critical admissions goals, the second phase homed in on campus constituents. Preliminary outlines for the brand standards manual included the more conventional rules. But that project kept getting pushed to the bottom of the priorities list. Two years into the branding initiative, the team realized that it had gotten by fine without publishing a standards manual, but still needed to shore up community buy-in for the overall initiative. What brand culture guides really do is connect faculty, staff, students and alumni with their brand Zehno Cross Media Communications PH: of 7

5 The team concepted several creative directions that built on the brand creative theme of Goal/Reality. Discarded ideas included a journal where community members could plot their own St. Ambrose realities, and a version with extended foldout profiles of students, alums, staff and faculty members. In the end, the most powerful approach seemed to be a retrospective that connected St. Ambrose s history directly with the six key messages of the current brand platform. This would help longtime community members to see the St. Ambrose they knew in the brand expression. Titled Reality: What We Value, the booklet uses a now-and-then approach to illustrate key messages, their historical roots and how the St. Ambrose community lives those foundational ideals today. The brand education starts with a schooling on St. Ambrose the man and the values he represented that appealed to the college s founding fathers. It continues with a look at the six core messages, using examples from the past and present. Luckily, a professor at St. Ambrose has been researching the history of St. Ambrose the man and is forming an institute on him at the university. And two comprehensive books had already been written about the university s history. The team drew heavily from that compiled research and engaged the historians throughout the booklet s development. Earnest and approachable, the guide speaks plainly to its audience and invites partnership. The publication s specs contributed to a feeling of personal communication. At 5x6 inches and perfect-bound, the piece slips easily into a bag, desk drawer or back pocket and feels more like a keepsake than a marketing piece. Portfolio/Recruitment_Publications/Brand_Manual.html 2012 Zehno Cross Media Communications PH: of 7

6 St. Ambrose distributes the guide to students during new student week and to parents during campus visits. It sits on the desks of the administration, deans and many faculty and staff members. The brand team launched a corresponding website to allow the community to see additional examples of the brand campaign in action. KIPP (Developed by Landor; video written and produced by Rachel Young.) Not all brand culture guides have to be high-budget publications. This simple-yet-clever video, developed two years ago in-house and over a weekend by the KIPP foundation s graphic designer, reminds brand ambassadors that they had pre-exiting notions about KIPP before joining the organization. Essentially, they already intrinsically knew the KIPP brand. The video clearly connects the brand with the organization s mission: to enable more kids to attend college. It eliminates brand speak and marketing buzzwords and connects directly with those who can champion the brand, explaining the whys of the brand platform in ways that are easy to understand. The video also encourages teachers in KIPP classrooms (key brand stakeholders) to appropriate the brand s credos and slogans in their own classrooms. KIPP s brand website serves as an orientation for new staff members, most of whom are spread throughout the country Zehno Cross Media Communications PH: of 7

7 Preferred Health (Developed by the Greteman Group.) This guide for employees of Preferred Health sets the stage with an opening note from the insurance company s CEO: Sick care is for other guys. We care about health. Your health. The company s mission and vision take the lead before naming, logo, color palettes and taglines, all of which are explained in a very personal, casual style. The book closes with a reminder about the power of succinct messaging and differentiation, including The Power of Ten key messages. FOUR MUST-DOS WHEN EDUCATING THE WIDER COMMUNITY ABOUT YOUR BRAND Brand culture guides are really about education. And that education process needs to start before you launch your brand. 1. Test informally. During the development process, test that brand platform with your audiences in informal settings through conversations on the sidewalk and in the cafeteria. What resonates? What doesn t? Give them a taste of what you re considering. 2. Talk to the champions and cranks. Identify the champions AND cranks on-campus who will be vocal about your brand. Make a point to meet with them, but informally. Bring them into the process without them knowing and as you launch your brand, let them know how your conversation informed the brand s development. 3. Keep it simple. Explain your brand and how others can share it in English. Not everyone has the marketing savvy and background materials that you do. 4. Evaluate and refine. Take time each week to identify how the brand is or is not being lived across your organization, from the tone of s to a greeting in an office reception area to a discussion in the cafeteria. No matter where you are in the brand development and education process developing your brand platform, publishing a brand culture guide or launching a new brand website get out from behind your desk and start talking! 2012 Zehno Cross Media Communications PH: of 7