Hey, it’s Al Bergeron, Chief Creative Officer of bergeroncreative.com, and this is The Brand Whisperer Briefing, where I provide practical brand strategies that will grow your corporate or personal brands. Giving you greater influence in today’s technology driven society.

On this week’s episode I’m going to discuss brand standards. Brand standards are unquestionably one of the most critical elements of the branding process. Brand standards are a set of guidelines for the brandmark, colors and typography as well as the photography, graphic elements and messaging that comprise your brand. The value of specific yet flexible standards is inherently strong as the whole of a branding initiative should be greater than the sum of its multidisciplinary parts.

Brand standards promote consistency in the way that the brand is represented. For example, using different brandmarks or fonts can lead to brand identity confusion. The last thing you want is for consumers to be confused about who the brand is and what it stands for. When the brain processes familiar communications, there are associations and emotions that come with it. However, without brand standards, instead of seeing something natural and familiar, the brain ends up with conflicting signals, or the unease that comes when something is “off.”

So, your homework for this week is to answer these questions: Are my internal and external communications consistent with my brand standards? Do my employees and vendors understand how to consistently represent my brand?

That’s it for this week. Have a great week! On the next episode of The Brand Whisperer I will discuss touchpoints.