Maintaining consistency across different communication channels is crucial for building a strong, authentic brand. Fortunately, we’ve already covered these elements in the past modules, and we can keep this lesson brief.
Please reference our syllabus here. You can find the brand audit template here.
In plain language, you want to hone in on three critical aspects of your brand in your guidelines:
Brand voice: You’ll define and maintain a consistent tone, style, and language in all brand communications, whether on social media, website, advertising, or customer support. You do this by detailing any variations in tone based on specific channels or what stage in a relationship you are in with a customer/stakeholder.
Visual identity: Ensure that visual elements, such as logo usage, color schemes, and typography, remain consistent across different platforms and media. This is pretty straightforward.
Adaptation: Some brands are cemented into the ground and do not like variations, especially when it comes to external parties. However, you can clearly state where and when it is appropriate to adapt some of your brand elements to be more suitable for the situation. For example you may have a wordmark style brand that runs vertical, but you’re sponsoring a conference and the logos are all horizontal and many have a logo. You may not have nor want a logo, but having a horizontal version of your wordmark or a shortened version will allow the external party to adapt your brand to their needs, even if you do not commonly use it.
It’s important to consider the ability of internal and external parties to tailor your brand messaging and visuals to suit each channel while preserving core brand attributes. You should also detail the unique requirements and limitations of each channel to adapt accordingly.
And here is the why and why I felt the tactical process and checklist were necessary to cover before we answered such a simple question. Your brand guidelines empower everyone it touches (employees, partners, customers, etc.) to adequately extend your brand consistent with your strategy and align it with theirs.
Read on to lesson 4.3 where we take a quick detour to discuss branding as it relates to analyst relations and then chat with a special guest.
Driving Consistency Across Channels