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I would strongly suggest that you talk to senior management to determine
what branding strategy your organization wants to pursue and why...
Some companies take the P&G approach, others take the Microsoft
approach... far too many take no approach at all, and end up with the
kind of mish mash you've been tasked with trying to straighten out.
If there is no Marketing VP or Manager, someone has to set the
direction. You have as many qualifications, if not more, than anyone
else there. If there is, talk with this person to find out what already
may exist...
Brand manual or brand book-it's SOP among major companies around the
world, and is usually far more detailed about font choice, use of white
space, acceptable colors, editorial style requirements, and so forth
than any techwhirler I've ever seen post here (In my current and last
position, the brand books were well in excess of 150 pages, full color,
perfect bound, the works... Big companies pay big money to do branding
guidelines and enforce them). You are headed in the right direction!
Good luck
Connie Giordano
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+cgiordano=tiaa-cref -dot- org -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+cgiordano=tiaa-cref -dot- org -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On
Behalf Of David Tinsley
Sent: Monday, May 08, 2006 9:03 AM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Marketing Standards
Greetings,
I have been given the task of trying to convince a group of product
managers (who each serve a different market) that adherence to a
corporate marketing "look and feel" is a good idea. Currently each
product manager goes their own sweet way with the result that there is
very little consistency between product lines. The latest gem is that
something as fundamental as our website URL has been changed by one
product line! Of course, each product manager can see nothing wrong with
the way they are doing things and tell me "It works for my market". I
have a meeting next week that brings this group together and I am
looking for ideas or examples that I can present to support my case. I
have no experience in marketing, other than knowing that we need a
consistent approach to layout and style so any help or advice would be
most welcome.
I am thinking of presenting literature from companies that produce a
range of diverse products and showing that they still have the same
overall style. Boeing seems to do that, but if anyone has any other
examples please pass them on.
I am also thinking that I will present the idea of a marketing
literature style guide, similar to the TechComm style guide we have for
manuals. Any thoughts on that idea?
Thanks in advance,
David
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