You spent time and money defining your brand and visual identity. You even paid an agency to create brand guidelines. Great! That means you’re done, right? Actually, it’s quite the opposite. Developing a set of brand guidelines is just the beginning. Now the real work begins.
Your brand must be activated in order to highlight what differentiates your company or product from your competitors. It must be activated in order to reap the rewards because the brand is an enormous asset. It must be managed closely, directed, and supervised.
In addition to defining the brand, brand managers must engage in thinking strategically about the activities that follow and are necessary for its very real and appropriate development.
The highest valued brands in the world did not come to fruition by chance. Every detail and each touch point of those brands is thought out in depth in order to maximize the investment being made.
Activate your brand by exploring the following ideas.
Create. Cultivate.
You have defined the dimensions of the brand. Now, it’s time to create the team and/or teams that will activate, implement, and manage the brand.
It’s time to enable a team of experts to execute the brand.
Activate. Solidify.
You have also defined the visual and verbal elements of the brand. Now, it’s time consider the implications of the new platform. It’s time to think about what that looks like at each point of contact with your audience.
Ask yourself: How can we ensure that our communication is one with our brand? This exercise gives way to defining the specific activities that solidify the brand and make it great.
Assess. Strategize.
There are ZERO companies in the world with the unlimited resources necessary to activate its brand at any given time.
Successful brands establish a real plan to execute strategic communication deliverables in the short-, medium-, and long-term. They employ resources to assess the level of impact of these activities and how to prioritize them.
Protect. Preserve.
Companies look to acquire and enhance their assets. As such, each asset must be protected.
Creating tools for the control, measurement, and management of the brand is a fundamental step to understanding the correct, long-term development of the brand.
Support. Maintain.
A brand is constantly subject to the interpretation of its audience. As such, we can appreciate the critical importance of ensuring that each and every detail of the brand is closely maintained.
Providing a company asset with continuous support enables the asset to evolve correctly.
Maintaining the brand and preventing misinterpretations is as valuable, if not more so, than its creation.
Don’t rely solely on your brand guidelines.
Activate your brand.