Once upon a time, I had to be the bad guy.
I was the Marketing Manager of our organization, and that meant I was in charge of making sure anyone who came in contact with our brand could instantly recognize and trust us.
A solid brand design can help you build that trust with your audience, as long as you keep within the bounds of the brand guidelines. Going outside of the guidelines = brand creep. This can be tiny, almost unnoticeable creeps or massively obvious creeps. Both are so very bad.
A few years prior to being the bad guy (more on that in a moment), we had performed an entire rebrand. We updated our color palette, messaging, graphics package, all of it. Along with this rebrand, we got a set of shiny new guidelines. They were crystal clear.
I presented the new brand design and guidelines to our staff and even handed out highlight cards that included the main pieces to remember, such as color codes and examples of how to incorporate our branding into anything that was created. I shared about the importance of the approval process and walked them through it.
But one day, a team of folks inside our organization made a decision to brand something without approval. They wanted to show off our brand to our customers. Awesome! This sounds pretty innocent, right? But they did it all wrong. In essence, they mimicked the logo too closely and used a color from the brand palette that was only allowed to be used in specific instances. And they never went through the approval process.
Their intentions were good, but they went rogue. We experienced brand creep. It was a costly mistake.
I found out about this incident when someone on the team told me proudly, “Look what we did!” and described in detail how it all went down. 😱
Immediately, I went out to see it in all it's glory. A giant, trying-to-be-branded thing for all to see.
I told them we had to take it down or change it. I received a LOT of pushback and unkind remarks. I was the bad guy. But I was upholding our brand standards. If I let it slide, it would spur on more creep, which would create confusion for our audience and muddy our hard-earned brand presence.
Look, Branding is Important Because:
It gives your organization an identity
It makes your business memorable
It encourages customers to buy from you
It supports your marketing and advertising
It brings your employees pride
Tips to Avoid Brand Creep:
Create Clear Guidelines: Make sure your brand guidelines are comprehensive and accessible to everyone in your organization. Include specifics like approved fonts, color codes, logo placement, and tone of voice. If it’s not in the guidelines, it doesn’t go out the door.
Conduct Regular Brand Audits: Schedule time to review your brand presence across all platforms and materials. Ensure everything from social media to signage adheres to the original brand guidelines.
Appoint Brand Guardians: Designate a team or individual responsible for reviewing all marketing materials to ensure compliance with brand standards. Make approval a non-negotiable step before anything is published or distributed.
Educate Continuously: Keep everyone on your team educated about the importance of brand consistency. Offer refreshers or workshops to remind them how critical it is to stay on brand.
Develop a Flexible System: While guidelines are necessary, allow room for creative expression within the approved framework. This ensures that employees don’t feel the need to go rogue when they want to innovate.
Brand creep may seem like a small issue, but over time it can erode your audience’s trust and weaken your brand identity. By sticking to clear guidelines, regularly reviewing your materials, and involving your team in the process, you can prevent brand inconsistency from creeping into your business. A strong, cohesive brand not only makes you memorable but also gives your customers and employees something they can trust and rally behind.