by Miriam Hara | Jul 7, 2023 | Agency, Branding, Creative, Design, Marketing, Social Media
A brand style guide is more than just a collection of fonts, colours, and logos. It’s the roadmap that leads every piece of your brand’s communication, ensuring consistency across different platforms, media, and teams. An effective style guide is the cornerstone of a strong brand identity, guiding your brand’s voice and visual representation while leaving room for creativity and evolution.
Consider, for instance, the brand style guides of Mailchimp and Shopify. These aren’t just sets of rules or constraints; they are comprehensive narratives that tell the brand’s story.
Mailchimp’s style guide is renowned for its perfect blend of clarity, detail, and brand personality. It outlines the brand’s tone of voice, typographical choices, colour palette, and even provides specific examples of do’s and don’ts. It’s not just an instruction manual; it’s a reflection of Mailchimp’s quirky and friendly brand personality.
Shopify’s guide, on the other hand, strikes an exquisite balance between aesthetics and functionality. It delves into the details of the brand’s visual elements, typography, and even provides guidance for writing product copy. It’s a testament to Shopify’s commitment to providing user-friendly and aesthetically pleasing e-commerce solutions.
So, how do you create a brand style guide that informs, inspires, and tells your brand’s story? Here are some best practices:
Understand Your Brand: The first step in creating a brand style guide is understanding your brand’s mission, vision, and values. What does your brand stand for? Who is your target audience? What is your unique selling proposition? Answering these questions will provide the foundation for your brand’s visual and verbal identity.
Define Your Brand’s Visual Elements: This includes your brand’s logo, colour palette, typography, and imagery. Be specific about when and how to use these elements. Provide clear examples and guidelines to ensure consistency.
Establish Your Brand’s Voice and Tone: Your brand’s voice is its personality, and its tone is how it communicates in different contexts. Is your brand voice professional, friendly, or playful? How should it adapt to different situations? Outline these in your style guide.
Include Practical Examples: Don’t just tell; show. Include real-life examples of how to apply your brand’s style in various contexts. Mailchimp’s style guide, for instance, showcases specific examples of how to use (and not to use) their logo, typography, and colour palette.
Keep It Flexible: A brand style guide should be a living document that can evolve with your brand. Allow for flexibility and updates as your brand grows and adapts to new trends or market changes.
Creating a brand style guide is an investment in your brand’s future. It ensures consistency, aids in decision-making, and sets the foundation for all your brand’s communication efforts. Above all, it tells the story of your brand – a story that is uniquely yours.
Share your brand’s story here…we’ve love to hear!
by Miriam Hara | May 26, 2023 | Agency, Branding, Communications, Marketing
In my 35-years at 3H, I’ve grown quite fond of an expression I use quite frequently in strategy sessions and yes, even in brainstorming sessions. The expression: – “we are talking to ourselves.” It’s an amusing acknowledgment of a trap we marketers often fall into. We’re so involved with our brand’s world that we sometimes forget our audience isn’t. This awareness has consistently guided my commitment to audience-centric marketing, reminding me to always consider the creative, communication, and positioning from the viewpoint of our target audience
The Impact of Self-Talk.
It creates an echo chamber, amplifying our own assumptions and drowning out the voice of our consumers. We believe that they’re as familiar with our brand as we are. The result? A communication gap. We’re talking, but not necessarily to our audience.
That’s what I refer to as the Self-Talk Syndrome. This self-talk results in a marketing echo chamber. We assume our consumers have the same brand intimacy as we do, creating a detrimental communication gap. We’re in conversation, but are our consumers truly part of it? Our clever taglines and plays on words or even how to express the need and use of our brand to consumers , so clear to us, may not resonate with those unfamiliar with our brand’s intimate details.
Remember this, our target markets, and by default, our consumers are not part of our internal dialogues. They see our brand quite differently from how we see it.
The Antidote to Self-Talk….Audience-centric Marketing!
So, what’s the solution? A perspective shift. We need to step outside our self-talk bubble and see through our consumers’ eyes. The goal isn’t brand familiarity, but effective, engaging communication.
Keep is simple. Keep it Clear.
The heart of audience-centric messaging is simplicity and clarity. It’s not about diluting our message, but making it more accessible – a counter to the complexity often bred in self-talk. Consumers care about benefits, value, and practicality – these should be the focus, not intricate product details.
Let’s Open Dialogue!
It’s also time to turn our self-talk into an open dialogue. Embrace feedback. Listening to our consumers lets us adapt our approach to align with their needs and expectations, ensuring that our self-talk doesn’t drown out their voices.
Bridge the gap.
Escaping the echo chamber of self-talk brings immense benefits. Clear, relatable messages. A bridge between brand and audience. An engaged consumer who appreciates our brand. By focusing on the audience, we foster stronger, deeper connections.
Break free from the cycle of self-talk and embrace audience-centric communication. Examine your marketing strategy. Is it a product of self-talk, or is it truly resonating with your audience?
Always keep in mind, the conversation we need to have isn’t with ourselves, but with our audience. It’s about making our brand not just known, but understood and valued. We don’t just want to talk – we want to engage, resonate, and build relationships. The most meaningful conversations are those we share with others, not the ones we have in our self-talk echo chamber. For that, let’s step out and tune into the frequency of our audience. Ready to sing along?
by Jayne Christopher Bintle | Jul 24, 2015 | Business Success, Communications, Latest, Social Media
Publicity is all around us; now more than ever. Our eyes and ears are constantly fed information from all angles – we love it – we hate it – we crave it! We create new channels, we seek out more information, more detail – we want to know EVERYTHING about the celebrities we admire and even the ones we don’t! We get to do what we only dreamt of in the past – actually interact with our favourite celebrities, through the likes of Twitter and Facebook; gaining insights into their daily lives; even what they had for breakfast! The relationship goes both ways; if a celebrity takes the time to put the effort in and actually write their own blogs, tweets and posts, they have the opportunity to build more intimate relationships with their fan base – that all important, long-lasting emotional engagement, which to us marketers is the Holy Grail!
What about if the relationship turns sour?
Although publicity can be very rewarding for both parties; taking celebrity beyond superficiality – what about if the relationship turns sour? Like any other human, celebrities make mistakes – they speak (or post) before they think sometimes, forgetting for a second how much responsibility rests on their shoulders or how deeply people will think about what they say, no matter how insignificant it may have seemed to the celebrity at the time.
I am using celebrities as an example, but the same principle goes for businesses and any other public entity. Like any relationship, it’s the way you deal with ‘bad publicity’ that can make or break your relationship with your stakeholders.
PR is all powerful, now more than ever
Public opinion is everything – opinions are shared and reviews are readily available for any product or service that you may wish to purchase. Anyone with a public profile needs to be conscious of this and place this fact at the core of their communications strategies, if their career and / or business is to survive.
I was once asked (in a panicked tone of voice) to arrange for the removal of a scathing post about the organization I was working for at the time. It was posted to Facebook by the spouse of a disgruntled member of staff. There were some significant contractual changes taking place within the organization; some tough decisions were being made to ensure its long-term survival and it’s safe to say, many of the changes were not well received. My response: 1. We cannot remove this, even if we wanted to; 2. Even if we could, people have now seen this post and responded to it. Therefore, if it was removed, we would not only be coming across as opaque, rather than transparent, but we would be perpetuating the ‘them and us’ culture we were working so hard to move away from. In short, it would be entirely counterproductive. The best way to deal with this, was to minimize the damage by pushing out positive content through all channels and ensure that we had an appropriate response to the negative post, should the press pick up on it and request comment.
In this example, the negative publicity wasn’t damaging to the organization – it had been fuelled by emotion, rather than fact and this had been immediately evident to anyone who read it. However, the manner in which the organization responded could have done so much damage, particularly to the already strained relationship with employees. As it turned out, the ‘positive publicity push’ response, raised awareness of the organization and the whole situation went on to support the justification for a full digital and social media strategy for the organization (who had been previously ‘dragging their feet’). Great!
The statement, ‘All publicity is good publicity’, is much too general
Gaining positive results from negative publicity is dependent on so many factors:
- How ‘business critical’ the negative publicity was
- How visible it was
- Who said it (how influential they are)
- How you responded
- How timely you were in your response
- How visible it was
- Who demonstrated support for you / your business – how influential your supporters are.
So, [inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=”#SharedWisdom”]’Is ALL publicity GOOD publicity?’ – Not necessarily. Like any relationship, it should be handled with care. [/inlinetweet] And the short answer – it’s complicated!
by Camille McClane | Mar 19, 2014 | Branding, Latest
Who you are and how other people see you are sometimes two completely different things. Have you ever been surprised by seeing a celebrity behave differently than you had them pegged? Their personal brand, the self they sell to the public, was convincing enough that it become more real than their genuine self.
You have your own personal brand, whether you like it or not, a way that you present yourself to the world, even unintentionally.
If you aren’t paying special attention to it then there is a good chance it’s floundering. Here are some tell-tale signs that your personal brand is in trouble.
You Don’t Network to Get Work – Networking events are a terrific way to meet new contacts and potential clients, in fact, that’s the entire point of these events. If you already know people and choose to give them the majority of your time, then you’re missing the point. If you don’t have a clear enough brand to sell and aren’t sure how to approach new people, you can rest assured you won’t learn about it by spending all your time talking to your current friends. Reach out and attach your face to a positive idea in another’s mind.
You Can’t Summarize Yourself – Quick: What is your personal brand? If you’re struggling to think of an immediate answer, you don’t have one. What is George Clooney’s brand? What is Donald Trump’s brand? Hillary Clinton? Even if you would describe these people differently than they would themselves, you almost certainly know what they’re about. They have a strong, specific personal brand. You need to know your own brand clearly if you ever expect anyone else to do the same. Find your skills, find your goals and bind them together into a plan of action centered around yourself and your public image.
You Don’t Take Care of Yourself – Nobody is suggesting that you have to live your life by other people’s standards to be found worthy. If you aren’t concerned with fashion, you don’t have to pretend in order to “take care of yourself’. Though spending any time at all each day considering your appearance is hardly the same as selling out to public opinion. If you put in little effort, it reflects the value you give to yourself, and to some degree the rest of your life, both business and pleasure. Treat yourself, and your brand, with the respect you deserve as valuable part of society.
You Aren’t Promoting Yourself Properly – Whether you’re over-eager in your self promotion, or too docile to grab any attention, you’ll be able to judge the success of your social media impact by the size of your following. Now, if you’re just starting out, you need to give it some time before you measure your success. However, if you’ve been at it for awhile and are still struggling, it might be time to revisit your self promotion strategy. Do you have your own website in your name? Do you post too much on twitter or not enough? Is your LinkedIn profile up to date or outdated? Your self-promotional efforts are your only voice to the public. If you want people to know who you are and what you can offer, it starts with communicating with them in a way they can hear.
Your Business Cards Aren’t Up To Snuff – When you make a new contact in person, they are often left with only a fading memory of who you are, a conversation you had, and a business card with your contact info. This card ought to reflect not only your personality, but also your brand. If you got a bit lazy and picked whatever was easiest or cheapest, then you’re unlikely to leave a lasting impression on the recipients. If you spend some creative time to really come up with a design that screams your brand’s name, you won’t have to rely on that fading memory of a good conversation. They’ll be able to remember exactly who you are because of the card in their hand.
by Felicitas Ritter | Feb 4, 2014 | Latest, Marketing
For any business, having an integrated marketing plan really is the best way to optimize communications efforts. Without this, you could be missing out on great opportunities to reach your target audiences. Relying only upon traditional advertising outlets like radio, TV or newspaper to generate all the buzz you need, just isn’t as effective a strategy as it once was. In particular, if you have a smaller business, you might even want to skip these costly budget-busting vehicles for a while, depending on your market. Even when it comes to marketing for larger corporations, throwing everything into a splashy ad campaign is not generally the best practice. A more strategic approach is to examine all the marketing tools at hand, and take into account all the ways they might help you reach consumers.
If you are not yet working with social media, this is something that really does need to be incorporated into the mix.
As of December 2013, according to the Pew Research Center, 73% of online adults engage in social networking. Additionally, 42% are utilizing multiple platforms. If you aren’t leveraging Facebook and Twitter, at the very least, you are likely missing out on reaching a significant portion of your target audience. For niche markets, YouTube is another fantastic platform to reach very specific types of consumers.
Other considerations have to include direct marketing campaigns or promotions for consumer contests or giveaways, sponsorship opportunities, such as with local sports teams, and special events to launch new products. All are great ways to effectively get your brand out there.
Something many companies seem to take for granted are the impressions received through public relations. Having the opportunity to showcase products for free on local television programs or in specialty publications, or for the company spokesperson to be positioned as an opinion leader can be invaluable to future business successes.
The ingenuity of your campaign is only limited by the imaginations of your marketing and creative teams. And its effectiveness is not always a matter of budget, but rather of good planning and the ability to utilize a wide range of integrated marketing services that work synergistically together.
