Graphic standards do not create a brand

I wish "branding experts" would read the Freaking Marketing blog, especially this post: Marketers Don't Know the Meaning of Branding.

What many nonprofits and companies call "brand guidelines are actually just graphic design guidelines. When that happens, you miss the point:

Real brand-building involves much more than graphics.

It's the product. Service. Guarantee. Employees. Customers. Stores. Offices. Values. Culture. Charitable giving. And yes, advertising.

... when a book of "brand guidelines" inhibits innovation, differentiation ... I suggest you throw it out and start over.

So many nonprofit branding efforts make this deadly double error: Instead of defining their brand, they button down their graphic standards, and doing so, they put their communications in a box. On top of that, many add the third error of having graphic standards that are unemotional and/or unreadable.

In the comments to the Freaking Marketing post, there's a great quote from the book Rivers of Revenue: What to Do When the Money Stops Flowing by Kristin Zhivago: "Your brand is the promise you keep, not the one you make."

You should consider tattooing that on your forearm.

If you have a great brand, your graphic standards hardly matter. And graphic standards, no matter how cool they care, do not move you one inch toward having a great brand.

Technorati Tags: fundraising, marketing, design

Comments

[Robert Rosenthal]

You're so right about businesses that box themselves in and lock out innovation with counterproductive "branding" guidelines.

Thanks so much for steering readers to Freaking Marketing, Jeff. Happy holidays.

[John Lepp]

Thanks for the post Jeff - if I had a nickel for every client who told me their brand was their logo reproduced at at least 2" wide and using pms 342 - I would be retired. Right now. I wrote about a similiar thing a while back.

http://www.ideadesign.ca/the-naked-idea/death-by-pms-576/

Cheers and Merry Christmas. John