- 1. Win over the sceptics
- 2. Use multiple channels of internal communication and roll out the new brand face-to-face with workshops or presentations.
- 3. Ensure your senior management team are visibly involved
- 4. Create inspiring values that are easy to remember
- 5. Make sure staff and volunteers can sum up your charity on the spot
- 6. Bring your brand to life
- 7. Recruit Brand Champions and set up a Brand Steering Group
- 8. Give staff and partners tools to manage the brand and protect your Intellectual Property in contract
- 9. Make sure staff behaviour and customer service matter
- 10. Create an effective creative briefing process and monitor your brand at regular intervals
10. Create an effective creative briefing process and monitor your brand at regular intervals.
One of the main points where a brand identity can melt down is during the creative briefing process. It is absolutely crucial that anyone producing materials for your charity has easy access to your identity guidelines. Creating a Creative Brief template which already includes mandatory factors – such as compliance to brand guidelines – is highly recommended, as is a clear approval process. The application of a strong consistent brand requires careful policing, especially during implementation when designers are getting to grips with working to new guidelines. It is quite common for mistakes to creep in and for the visual identity to begin to drift. There is a simple remedy to cure this epidemic – regular (quarterly) reviews of everything that’s been produced.
I would highly recommend taking time out of the studio to review your progress. Book a meeting room and stick everything that has been produced up on the wall in your different workstreams. Now take a step back and see how consistent it all looks. It’ll be easy to spot where the irregularities have crept in and if there is anything outrageously off-brand in the mix. It is well worth involving the agency who developed the brand in these sessions, so they can provide guidance as the brand becomes more established. Don’t forget the agency will have put a lot of time and effort into creating the new identity, and they will want to see it be a success by helping you protect it.