At the mercy of the ‘brand law’? It’s time to relax that iron grip

Having a clear set of brand guidelines and applying them with consistency across your business is vital for branding success. But rigidity and detail in excess can do more harm than good—give a child too many rules, they’ll stop playing and exploring. Give a brand too many rules and exactly the same thing happens to them.

Restrictions can stifle artistry and rapidly make your content feel stale. Add unyielding brand guardians into the mix and your creatives will stop feeling like “creatives” and start feeling like robots inputting content to a template.

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Rigid guidelines + inflexible brand guardianship = zero creativity

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For the purposes of this article, let’s work from a basis that your brand already has guidelines that encourage creativity, rather than limit it, and all your employees understand and adhere to them. In this case, your problems lie not in the branding, the guidelines, or the way these are interpreted by your content creators, but in your brand guardianship. So let’s talk about it…?

What is brand guardianship and why is it important?

?Brand guardianship is all about maintaining your brand’s identity and values. It’s the glue that holds a brand together. It brings harmony across a portfolio of work, which can be especially challenging for large or global brands but is just as important no matter the size of your business.

The power of brand guardianship cannot be underestimated. It minimises the risk of publishing off-brand material that could weaken your brand. One line of copy in the wrong tone of voice can instil doubt and mistrust, a single image out of keeping with the rest can put someone off, and a misused logo can make you seem sloppy and unprofessional.?

When even small errors like these build up, customers begin to lose faith in a brand, ultimately harming engagement and buy-in. This is demonstrated in this 2022 survey by Salsify in which 47% of British consumers said they would pay more to purchase from brands they can trust. Inconsistencies across a brand or campaign can be detrimental to its effectiveness and success (and make these things harder to measure). This is why brand guardianship is vital.

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What does it take?

While all your employees should have a solid understanding of your brand, your guardians require an even deeper knowledge. Every aspect of your brand—styling, tone and values—must be known intimately so any diversions can easily be spotted.

Without proper training and expertise, ‘guardianship’ could turn into ‘policing’ and impinge on your creativity. It should go without saying that your guardians must appreciate the purpose of brand guidelines—to direct, not limit—as it is their duty to both adhere to them and ensure they aren’t misinterpreted.

Your guardians must also nurture in your various departments a respect for the branding process and the need to adhere to guidelines. Training and workshops are a straightforward and beneficial way of doing this on a company-wide scale and will save your guardians significant time (and grief) later down the line.?

Beyond having an exhaustive knowledge of your brand and fostering this in the rest of your team, a guardian’s role is to champion consistency in your brand’s messaging and visual identity. It can be a thankless job, requiring an eye for design and a copywriter’s head, meticulously scrutinising each detail of every piece of content that comes out of the brand.

But the advantages are evident. According to a 2021 survey conducted by Marq, 68% of businesses say brand consistency has contributed to revenue growths of 10% or more, so spending the time and resources on effective brand guardianship that will guarantee consistency across your brand is certainly going to be worth your while.

Written by Nanouri Winchester