Where to start? A fresh blog instance is like a calm pool just before you jump in with a big splash, right?

I’ve been working on brand related projects on and off for the last 5 years. The force of brand is strong with people working in marketing and advertising. New trends emerge and agencies struggle to keep reinventing the term and coming up with models on what defines a brand.

Gone are the good old days when a nicely designed logo did the trick. Today you need to have a tone of voice, sonic strategy, moving patterns, photography guidelines and participate in the online conversation with your clients.

This of course causes considerable headache for the people responsible for the day to day management of the brand, the gatekeepers of all things branded; the brand managers.

Some of the questions they get pounded with from co-workers, agencies and partners include:

  • Do you have the vector format logo file?
  • What is the HEX value for the corporate blue?
  • Is this the latest power point template?
  • I need a print resolution photo of this product.
  • I just deployed this new microsite and used a much better colour template than the standard one. Don’t you like it?
  • What is the corporate font and where can I find it?

I know from experience that there is always that certain someone who has the answers and associated files or knows who you should talk to. This is true for even some of the leading brands on this planet. These individuals are brand managers, even though it might not be stated on their business cards.

The brand elements exist in electronic format on some kind of storage medium. These range from CD’s in a drawer to highly sophisticated online brand management portals. In between we have lots of shared network drives and too many cluttered email accounts.

The same files are requested frequently and the same questions are asked by every newcomer to the brand. This is a great waste of everyone’s time and we want to fix that.

So, the plan with this blog is to start a dialogue around brand management and see if we can design and implement a solution to improve the quality of life for brand managers and save everyone some time by doing so.