A Guidebook for Your Brand
A Brand Book is an important part of ongoing brand management – it is a lasting document intended to guide future decisions regarding the brand.
A Brand Book is not just a graphics standards manual, but provides a thorough description of the strategic intent and pillars of the brand. The more powerful examples use a visual vocabulary (i.e., pictures that reinforce the brand) and a message map (i.e., words that reinforce the brand) and organize content in a question-and-answer format.
Contents of a Brand Book typically answer the following questions:
- How did we arrive at this decision for our brand?
- What promise are we making to customers?
- How can employees fulfill this promise?
- Why are we changing?
- How will our customers recognize the change?
- What’s in it for employees?
- How will we measure success?
A Brand Book also includes visual representations found on signage, in communications materials, and on uniforms. Tackling this naming issue before defining the brand promise is a mistake. Until you define the central tenets of your organization and your brand management strategy, it is often useless to address hospital names, logos and location designations.
All of these pieces must reinforce or roll up to the overarching brand promise. For example, if part of your brand promise is to provide seamless access, then this should be reflected in the branding conventions used by each program, center and institution. Furthermore, since many employees have high levels of emotional attachment to their respective divisional names, logos and location designations, they are often unwilling to initially embrace change. Overcoming these attachments is much easier if you solidify your brand management strategy and brand promise first. Doing this serves to build consensus around a common idea, from which implementation decisions are made.
To view an example, please see Gelb’s Brand Book.
For more information about brand management and how a Brand Book fits into the process, you can read this article: Building Sustainable Brands – The Brand Management Process
