Effective brand management brings more creativity and team spirit

A guest article by Patrick Hummel, Product Designer at Frontify. He works "fully remote" from Brazil. Ideally, everyone in the company should know about the central brand guidelines. If these are communicated - internally or externally - and are not correct, this can lead to confusion and a loss of trust, for example in social media campaigns. Particularly in the case of large, international brands with regional characteristics, confusion and incorrectly communicated information can quickly arise. The solution: digital brand management tools. They offer brands the opportunity to store and edit all important guidelines, presentations or assets in one central location. Everyone who works with brand guidelines is always up to date. No one has to send out PDFs or answer questions about logos or corporate design anymore. This saves time and makes work easier for everyone involved. The time saved can be invested wisely, for example in creative campaigns or team-building activities.

Brand Guidelines - The heart of every brand

Every company has brand messages and values that are directly linked to the brand and its products. When consumers identify with these values, the likelihood that a product will be purchased increases. These important brand messages are often stored internally in various places and created manually. PDFs and presentations filled with confusing information are still often found in internal databases. The associated administrative effort is high and time-consuming. In addition, the sometimes poor user-friendliness due to a multitude of folders and unclear data structure can lead to a loss of motivation in the team, among other things. However, the goal should be to create uniform brand consistency through quickly available guidelines. For example, before introducing a brand management tool, Bosch was working with a 3,600-page PDF for its brand guidelines. Accordingly, searching for specific information was tedious, despite the search function. Another challenge was to create a uniform and global brand consistency across all touchpoints. Now, everything related to the brand is centrally located on a platform with online access and can be accessed from anywhere. All employees can access guidelines, marketing materials and other documents such as brand assets or presentations, depending on their access rights. This makes optimal use of resources and increases efficiency - important elements for making business units more agile and reducing costs within the Group. When working with external partners, they can also access specific documents and information and incorporate their feedback directly into the tool. Access rights can be easily modified as needed. Marketing teams thus gain up to 16 hours per week that would otherwise be spent on unpleasant operational tasks (Source: TEI Study, 2021, Forrester commissioned by Frontify.).

More creativity and self-realization

A big part of projects is voting, approvals and feedback loops. Documents are downloaded, changed and uploaded again. Projects therefore often drag on and the distribution of tasks is not 100 percent clear. By introducing a brand management tool, marketing teams have proven to work more effectively. One click is all it takes to share. For remote teams working from different locations, a brand management tool is also an opportunity for better and faster communication. A brand management tool frees up time for other important tasks, such as brainstorming or the creative implementation of ideas, which are often neglected in everyday marketing. This time can also be invested in self-development on a professional level. For example, in continuing education seminars on a specific topic. It is not only the respective employees who benefit from this. In internal training courses, they pass on the knowledge they have gained and bring back new food for thought.

Good cooperation strengthens productivity

In addition to an effective, well thought-out brand management tool, however, good teamwork requires even more. The Corona pandemic has amplified and accelerated the rise of remote work and hybrid working over the past two years. With many alternating between working from home and working from the office, small talk or face-to-face conversations over lunch are happening less or not at all. Creative initiatives such as "speed dates" - short online calls between randomly selected employees - can help remedy this situation and have a positive impact on corporate culture. After all, it is precisely this culture that needs to be strengthened at the present time and adapted to new challenges. Creating a good atmosphere of togetherness makes a significant contribution to a better working atmosphere - and raises working relationships to a new level. This enables teams to work more productively. In addition, the hurdle to ask for help is lower, should something not work as desired. Challenges suddenly don't look so difficult when the whole team is pulling in the same direction. In addition, brainstorming sessions become more creative when everyone dares to present their ideas. In the end, the performance of any company is only as good as that of the individual employees. That's why it's enormously important to create a relaxed working atmosphere and provide the right tools that make working as easy as possible.