Deloitte 'As One' corporate guidelines. Every company out there should have comprehensive brand guidelines. Start with a brand guidelines template and a few of these helpful guidelines tips. Venngage Gallery. Brand Guidelines, Style Guides & More Templates. Branding + Idenity. The Penny Hoarder. A brand book (also referred to as: brand guide, visual identity guidelines, brand manual, style guide, brand identity book or brand toolkit) is an official corporate document that explains the brand’s identity and presents brand standards. Some brand books are focused exclusively on the design aspect, while others include a company overview.
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Many marketers know the value of defining a brand promise—the sum of what customers can expect from all interactions with a company. Yet for many organizations, especially ones that deliver products and services via customer-facing employees, achieving that brand promise can be a challenge. The brand vision may exist on paper but fall short when translated into the customer experience (CX). As a result, a company can invest significantly in external marketing efforts—advertising campaigns, social media outreach, or loyalty programs, for example—only to disappoint customers when in-person brand experiences don’t meet with expectations.While having brand standards and seeking to deliver a rewarding CX have long been a focus for marketers, the stakes have become higher in the past few years. The digital age has lowered many barriers to entry for disruptor brands, providing consumers a growing number of choices. At the same time, today’s customers increasingly seek authentic experiences.
Where brand standards have often been highly tactical—requirements intended to promote consistency—many companies are now seeking to create standards focused on the intended experience and the way it makes the customer feel.How can organizations more effectively create and implement brand standards to provide a more engaging and differentiated CX? Working in close collaboration with their operations counterparts, marketing leaders can provide employees with access to the foundational elements of the brand and guidance on how to apply them—the brand standards playbook. Whether creating an entirely new playbook or updating an existing one, organizations can consider the following steps.Begin discovery and initial assessment. Creating or revamping brand standards typically first requires organizations to have foundational brand elements in place.
This type of work, often done by a branding agency, could include brand identity, attributes, strategy, and positioning. These elements lay the groundwork for brand standards and can be referenced in the playbook. Leaders can also evaluate other materials that ultimately affect the CX, such as customer journey maps, employee training manuals, and existing brand standards. Discovery also may involve site visits to all locations to capture a comprehensive view of current brand perception and representation as experienced by the customer.
The goal of this initial phase is to help ensure all stakeholders agree on key elements of brand expression in the CX and to identify all relevant documents, manuals, and other content that requires updating.Create baseline standards. The second step in creating standards typically involves consolidating a company’s existing content, such as standard operating procedures and training manuals, that may be dispersed throughout the organization. Next, organizations can begin to create universal standards about policies—for instance, how to greet or recognize customers—that apply wherever a customer interacts with the brand, as well as touch-point-specific standards (e.g., those related to table service at a restaurant or an airline’s deplaning procedures). As part of this effort, organizations can seek to infuse a specific, branded service culture and the related ideal customer experience, detailing goals for how the brand intends to serve its customers.
Companies can also identify brand differentiators—the factors that set the brand apart from competitors—and incorporate them into specific standards, yielding rituals that allow customers to easily relate memories of the experience back to the brand.Refine standards and align stakeholders. Once baseline standards have been created, they can be revised and refined iteratively until brand vision is aligned with stakeholder execution of that vision. A brand standard for a hotel company’s bedding, for example, could note that, across brands, bedding must be clean, fresh, and wrinkle-free. It could then detail location- or brand-specific components such as the color of sheets, type of pillow, and use of a mattress pad.
The standard could also identify acceptable exceptions. For instance, if a hotel brand has recently acquired a property from another company, it could allow the new venue 12 months to adopt brand-standard sheets and pillows. Standards are most effective when they are specific—providing short, actionable statements and supporting content—and measurable. In the hotel example, supporting content could include links to a bedding-look book, instructions on how to properly make a bed, and linen reuse information. Gaining feedback and consensus among all stakeholders—operations, regional leaders, and procurement—is critical in this process.Make standards easily accessible. An effective content management system (CMS) can enable organizations to make brand standards easily searchable and allow a single source of content to be leveraged for multiple purposes.
This publication contains general information only and Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries ('Deloitte') are not, by means of this publication, rendering accounting, business, financial, investment, legal, tax or other professional advice or services. This publication is not a substitute for such professional advice or services, nor should it be used as a basis for any decision or action that may affect your business. Before making any decision or taking any action that may affect your business, you should consult a qualified professional advisor. Deloitte shall not be responsible for any loss sustained by any person who relies on this publication.Copyright © 2020 Deloitte Development LLC.
As business success and brand success become increasingly intertwined, more professionals than ever are playing a key role in simultaneously contributing to both. Regardless of title or level, employees are actively shaping their company's brand and being counted on to have a strong understanding of how to deliver consistent and quality experiences. Delivering this message in an easily accessible and engaging manner is Designing B2B Brands, a comprehensive manual covering all aspects of today's business-to-business brand management.Designing B2B Brands illustrates – literally and figuratively – the numerous components of an integrated brand identity system, and how it can be crafted and implemented for optimal effect. Unlike other traditional texts which cobble together examples from assorted B2C companies, the reader will find a visually rich, all-inclusive case study of harmonized brand activation. Here, theory is replaced by practice: a seamless framework for global brand success, created and followed by an organization renowned for its consulting and advisory services. Brian ResnickAssociate Director, Global Brand & CommunicationsNew York, United StatesBrian is responsible for leading the Global Brand & Communications Services group. This encompasses the most recognizable and definable components of the brand – specifically, all asset management and compliance activity, visual identity building, corporate repositioning, and advertising campaign development.Brian transitioned to DTTL from the U.S.
Member firm, where he’s been a member of the Global Brand team since 2006. He has been published in and assorted blogs.' Synonymous makes you anonymous – true and relevant differentiation in today’s cluttered marketplace requires big ideas, executed with confidence, clarity and consistency.' Carlos Martinez OnaindiaSenior Manager, Global Brand & CommunicationsMadrid, SpainCarlos leads the Global Creative Studio, with focus on brand identity building, brand asset enhancement, and the myriad guidelines, tools and templates created to deliver them in a consistent and quality manner.He is also frequently consulted as a creative ideation expert, providing art direction in the areas of brand activation and expression.Carlos first joined Deloitte as the leader of graphic design and creativity for the Spanish member firm. He later transitioned to Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, where he’s been a member of the Global Brand team since 2008.'
As competition intensifies, the need for creative thinking increases. It is no longer enough to do the same thing better.
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No longer enough to be efficient and solve problems.' What people are saying about Designing B2B Brands'You don't need to be an agency professional to appreciate the key insight of Designing B2B Brands; that brand excellence is best achieved through the creative connection of business goals, culture, and people.' – Sir Martin Sorrell CEO, WPP Group'For the first time in history of business books, an elite global professional services firm actually shows, touchpoint by touchpoint, channel by channel, what it takes to be a brand leader. In a world filled with B to C branding, finally, a book about B to B. We needed it.'
– Alina Wheeler Author, Designing Brand Identity“There are 195,000 professionals around the world actively shaping the Deloitte identity on a daily basis. Brand-building of that scale requires relentless focus on a unified vision and shared values, alongside a dynamic culture. There’s tremendous opportunity if you get this right.”– Barry Salzberg Former CEO, Deloitte Global.
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