- 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
8. Give staff and partners tools to manage the brand and protect your Intellectual Property in contract.
Staff producing their own publicity materials without following brand guidelines is a Design or Brand Manager’s worst nightmare, and yet it can be hard to prevent in large complex organisations. Establishing a clear understanding of the importance of a strong consistent brand is the first step. But investing in tools that make it easy for staff to stay on-brand is equally as important. The Team has recently developed a brand microsite for the Metropolitan Police, which has proved to be a great success. The website features easy-to-use templates so that police staff across the country can produce their own publicity materials (posters and leaflets etc.) without causing the central Brand Team sleepless nights (with nightmares of clip art!). When constructing templates ensure they are easy to use and download. Provide clear instructions or training sessions if required. Your staff really shouldn’t need to worry about the brand, so make staying on-brand easy!
We would highly recommend a similar investment to help a large charity engage with local partners or membership groups. Alternatively, a printed brand ‘toolkit’ or simple pocket or desktop ‘checklist for design and production’ could be produced. This tool has been used successfully by the NSPCC.
It is often far too easy to use and abuse a charity’s intellectual property, particularly their logo and visual identify. When issuing your logo to partners you should provide guidance on how it should be applied correctly, or ask for sign off before it is published. A short and simple PDF of guidance is usually all that is needed. When a partner, service or local group is required to use your brand’s assets on a more regular basis it is well worth specifying the usage within a contract. This will give your brand maximum protection.