Brand management 101
Managing your brand in the cloud
Lucidpress Guide
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Strong brands outperform weak ones by up to 20 percent. So what is their secret ingredient? Consistency. Your brand is a promise. An expectation. Your reputation. For your leads and customers, how they see your brand is a combination of all three of these things, plus any times they've interacted with it in the past. And since these experiences—both positive and negative—build on and reinforce each other over time, consistency is key. How important is being consistent with your brand? Enough to substantially impact your bottom line, it turns out. According to research by McKinsey, a leading management consulting firm, strong brands outperform weak brands by up to 20 percent. As they put it: "It may not seem sexy, but consistency is the secret ingredient to making customers happy." Unfortunately, consistency is difficult to maintain when so many people touch your brand – marketing, sales, customer service, operations, partners and more! Companies spend untold hours trying to wrangle brand inconsistency into submission. It seems most organizations fall into one of two traps. Either funnel every document, promotion, and message through an already busy design department, or give employees a static PDF of brand guidelines and hope for the best. As you've probably experienced, neither of these scenarios delivers a seamless brand experience. Because brand is so vital to the heart of a business, and because consistency is critical, getting stuck in these traps is unacceptable. Thanks to the cloud, there is now a better way to establish, uphold and maintain your brand guidelines efficiently. But you have to lay some groundwork to prepare your brand for the new web.
Introduction
How to adapt your brand www.lucidpress.com sales@lucidpress.com
MANAGING YOUR BRAND IN THE CLOUD www.lucidpress.com sales@lucidpress.com
Often referred to as brand guidelines, these are the bricks of an MVB—minimum viable brand. With these, you'll have the solid foundation needed to build a great brand experience over time. By arming each brand player with these basics, your organization can express your brand consistently across different media. Here's what you need to get started. 5 internal brand guidelines These guidelines aren't typically shared with the public, but they should be evident in all that you do. These are the core values and mission that drive the business toward success, and they set the tone for how employees, partners and customers should be treated. They include: Brand purpose Positioning statement Marketing personas Key messaging Value proposition
Section 1: brand basics pt.1
For brands who want to succeed, the positioning statement is an expression that defines its compelling benefit or reason to buy. Unlike mission statements, a positioning statement is made within the context of its market and competitors. (Because of this, it'll likely only be relevant for around 18 months.) By the way, if you caught that the above definition was written in the form of a positioning statement, bonus points for you. Example template For (target audience) who (description of need or opportunity), BRAND/PRODUCT is a (defined category) that (provides key benefit). Unlike (competitor/alternative), BRAND/PRODUCT (provides key differentiator).
BRAND PURPOSE
POSITIONING STATEMENT
What is your company here to do? The brand purpose (also known as a mission statement) aligns every employee with the same vision. It also expresses the values and goals of the organization, which may evolve over time. This single sentence should remain relevant for around 10 years. Fortune 500 examples ConocoPhillips: Use our pioneering spirit to responsibly deliver energy to the world. 
 Micron: Be the most efficient and innovative global provider of semiconductor solutions. 
 Darden Restaurants: To nourish and delight everyone we serve. 
 Nike: To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.
It's much easier to address an audience when you can visualize their faces. Marketing personas help your team relate to customers as real human beings, not just demographics and behavioral stats. Having a clear concept of who you're talking to promotes a consistent, resonant brand message. Traits to consider Name and job title Age, gender, location Education and salary Family and hobbies Values and fears Goals and challenges How you can help Example Erica is a marketing manager at a mid-size company. She is 32, married, and lives in the suburbs of Chicago. She has a Bachelor's degree and earns $60,000 a year. She wants to deliver the best content marketing results to her team without wasting time, and our software can help her do that.
MARKETING PERSONAS
KEY MESSAGING
What language resonates most with your audience? Market research, like surveys and focus groups, can illuminate what really matters to your customers. Once you've determined what works, key messaging helps to standardize the framework and phrasing that drive your point home. Example A tech support provider that focuses on seniors over 60 would speak differently to their audience than to digital natives. They might focus on safe, reassuring phrases like: "We're always there to help." "Our support gives you peace of mind." "Technology should connect family and friends together, not push them apart."
What are the features and benefits of your brand, products or services? How does this differ from your competitors, and what makes you the better choice? These can be tough questions, but the answers are invaluable. Sometimes in industries where products and services are very similar, your brand offers one way to be unique. Example A dentist in Colorado serves patients from several nearby cities and wants to set his practice apart from his competitors. While they each provide similar services, he discovers that he's the only one using a new, specialized piece of equipment. In fact, he often attends trade shows to learn all about new advancements in dental technology. This adds value to his service, as he can promise his patients the latest and greatest in dental care.
VALUE PROPOSITION
Once you have your internal brand basics in place, you can begin to think about how to share your message with the world. How can you translate your brand's purpose and positioning to your target audience in a way that is meaningful and resonant? Here are five key assets that help show others what your brand is all about. 5 external brand guidelines These are the assets most people think of when we say "brand guidelines." They're the most visible, and the most recognizable. Unfortunately, they're also the most vulnerable to inconsistency, because so many brand players need to use them. That's why brands in the digital age must craft these assets with versatility and ease of access top-of-mind. They include: Name & logo Slogans & taglines Color palettes Typography Tone & voice
Section 2: brand basics pt.2
NAME & LOGO
The brand vitals. Good ones stand out as they are memorable and meaningful. Because logos are the asset which gets used and shared the most, it's doubly critical to make sure everyone has access to current, approved versions. Suggested files High-res EPS file for print Med-res TIFF for office use Low-res JPG or GIF for web Suggested versions Color Black-and-white "Reversed-out" Favicon / app icons
Slogans and taglines are mostly used in advertising. When done right, they're impactful and easy to recall. After all the care put into wordsmithing these short phrases to perfection, it'd be a waste not to use them properly. Famous examples Southwest Airlines: The short-haul, no-frills, and low-priced airline. 
 Walmart: Save money. Live better. 
 Target: Expect more. Pay less. 
 Home Depot: You can do it. We can help. 
 BMW: The ultimate driving machine. 
 General Electric: We bring good things to life.
SLOGANS & TAGLINES
We know fonts are important, because people love to argue about them. If readers can have strong opinions about Comic Sans or Papyrus, you can bet they'll draw assumptions about your brand based on the font used to represent it. Example Let's say we're representing a brand of home surveillance and protection systems. Which of these fonts is a better fit? We work hard to keep you safe. We work hard to keep you safe. We work hard to keep you safe. The last font conveys a stronger sense of authority and security.
TYPOGRAPHY
Colors set the tone for your audience. We all know the psychological effects that colors have on us, leading to common choices in various industries (think "red and yellow" for burger joints). Traditionally, these would be Pantone shades. Online, hex codes are the way to go. Example AT&T is recognizable for its bright orange and blue colors. ATT Orange Pantone: 1505 Hex: #ef6f00 ATT Blue Pantone: 2925 Hex: #0574ac
COLOR PALETTES
TONE & VOICE
We all have our own voice, and tones vary with context. However, when you're representing a brand, multiple voices and unpredictable tones are confusing. Your brand needs a distinct voice which expresses its personality: formal or informal, serious or fun, authoritative or collaborative, the list goes on. 
Warning! Be mindful on social media Due to the instantaneous nature of the Internet, it's easy to get swept up by the latest trending tags and topics. But beware: brand voices are not always appropriate (or welcome) in every conversation. Before commenting, make sure you understand how your message could be received. There are instances of brands showing great compassion, but there are just as many instances when brands failed to consider how their message missed the mark. To learn more about adapting your brand to social media platforms, check out our companion eBook.
Section 3: 3 PHASES OF BRAND MANAGEMENT
As you likely know already, brands aren't merely "managed." They are shaped, guided, and cultivated over time. You may not control every experience a person has with your brand, but with the right tools, you can drive and influence their perception. Your assets will help you establish, position, and maintain your brand's image. Understanding these 3 phases, and where you are in the journey, will help you determine which actions to take and where to go next. They include: Establishing your brand Positioning your brand Maintaining your brand
This is the creation phase, where all the assets outlined in the previous section are drafted, iterated and finalized. It encompasses the big ideas and "whys" of your brand, as well as the nitty-gritty details of logos, fonts and colors. This phase should have a definitive beginning and end, with a strong brand identity as a result. If you join a company after the brand has been established, you probably won't participate in this phase—that is, unless you're faced with the formidable prospect of rebranding.
This is the communication phase, where marketing and advertising help to spread the word and build expectations around your brand. Each piece of communication must align with the assets established in the creation phase, which means every brand player needs easy access to the final, approved versions. No one should have to waste time tracking down and sharing assets or creating their own facsimiles. This is a great time to make sure your assets are widely available to those who use them. Otherwise, your efforts to create a strong brand identity are wasted.
ESTABLISH
POSITION
MAINTAIN
Once your brand has gone to market and resonated with an audience, it's time to move into the maintenance phase. You should be monitoring what's said about your brand online, such as social media posts and reviews, so that you can jump in where appropriate. These are opportunities to reinforce your brand to loyal customers, and to improve brand perception when a customer has an experience that's out of line. The maintenance phase also includes hygiene, making sure that assets are updated and available for new uses or mediums. The last two phases don't have distinct conclusions, as most brands will move back and forth as they execute marketing campaigns. Picture them more like a cycle, where positioning is more proactive and maintenance is more reactive. These phases complement each other to help deliver a consistent message overall.
Ensuring that all your assets are in order is only the beginning. Now that you know where you stand, it's time to take the next step. To make sure your brand can survive and thrive across all sorts of channels, especially digital ones, assets must live where they are needed. Not sealed in a flat PDF document or lost in an archive somewhere, but built directly into the creation process so they're always close at hand. Seamless brand management means: Empowering the right people to create the right content at the right time. Sounds easier said than done, right? Without hovering over their desk, it seems impossible to provide a brand player with the exact assets they need at the precise moment they need them. So is this even achievable? The answer is yes. In fact, Lucidpress is a design & brand templating tool which stores assets and templates in the cloud, so any authorized person can access them. Its intuitive drag-and-drop interface empowers users to create content or collateral online—no Photoshop required—and your assets will already be loaded inside the tool, ready to go. With advanced templates, your logos, colors and fonts can be "locked" into place, so anyone can create or edit documents without breaking brand guidelines. No more messy Word documents or over-complicated InDesign files. What will this do for you? Deliver seamless brand management, without falling into the traps. Gone are the days of overwhelming your graphic design team for simple flyers or visual content. No more emails asking "Where's our PNG logo?" No more time wasted chasing after the rule-breakers. It's true brand consistency, finally made easy.
Section 4: THE NEXT STEP
ABOUT LUCIDPRESS
Over 5 Million Users
Lucidpress is a design & brand templating platform that's changing how companies ensure brand compliance. Created in 2013 by Lucid Software, the cloud-based platform empowers teams to create high-quality visual content without sacrificing brand consistency. It brings user-friendly, professional design to creators in real estate, franchises, universities and more. To see how Lucidpress can help your organization stay on-brand, visit our Business page and schedule a free demo.
