1. 1| © Bing Design
Consistency across multiple departments
Nick Gaskins, Bing Design
February 8, 2013
Organizational Branding

2. 2| © Bing Design
Bing Design
We’ve been designing longer than
Microsoft has been searching.
• Over 30 years developing custom solutions
for clients in technology, higher
education, healthcare, professional services
• Marketing Communications
• Publications
• Web and Social Media
• Branding and Identity
• Advertising
bingdesign.com

3. 3| © Bing Design
This is NOT Marketing 101…
we assume everyone has
a logo and brand guidelines
in use or in development

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…but this IS Consistency 101
• More of a journey than a destination
for most organizations
• Oodles of obstacles
• Let’s get over most of the hurdles

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Branding is for everyone
• Four traditional P’s of marketing:
Product, Promotion, Price, Place
• Marketing is done by all
departments – from answering
the phones to creating
marcom pieces
• Brand is the sum total of
experiences customers have
when exposed to your products
and people
• Everyone in your organization is
a brand steward

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Obstacles to
consistency
• Budgets – “more with less”
• Explosion of communication
channels
• Legacy names and imagery
• Lack of communication
• Staff turnover
• Technology – digital printing
• Internal boredom

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Results of inconsistency
• Brand messages are less impactful
• Market position becomes less memorable
• Target audience gets confused

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Brand Implementation
Broad strokes

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Developing
• Before – ask for list of needs from all departments
• During – allow one review by key representatives

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Communicating
• Introduce major updates
with meetings or webinars
• Distribute and promote
minor updates with regular
emails
• Regularly promote
benefits of one brand
direction
• Create energy and
excitement

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Supporting
• Customize and
promote templates
• Negotiate
organization-wide
contracts with
vendors
– Economies
of scale
– Consistent
creative

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Enforcing
• Make guidelines tight enough to be unified, but loose
enough to allow creativity
• Review most pieces for a period of time
• Selective review as standards become more familiar

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Tools for brand
consistency
• Kickoff presentation
• Asset repository
• Wiki guidelines
• Approved templates – don’t
reinvent the wheel every time
• Ongoing education
• Two-way communication
• Some form of corporate
oversight
• Peer-to-peer support
(private FaceBook group)

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Thank you
Nick Gaskins – nick@bingdesign.com
http://www.executiveboard.com/communications-blog/enforcing-brand-standards-carrots-or-sticks/
http://chiefmarketer.com/disciplines/branding/0511-brand-guide
http://saatchidesign.wordpress.com/2009/09/25/20-top-tips-for-designing-effective-brand-guidelines/
http://www.visibleworks.com/blog/?p=102