Guidance for Marketing Leaders
Marketing leadership, do you know your brand inside and out? Can you quickly and accurately communicate it to others? Consider the four Vs of branding to ensure you know your brand and can communicate it appropriately.
The Four Vs of Branding
Vision. Your vision statement explains what your company should look like once you accomplish your mission. Your vision should be inspiring. If you share your vision with passion, you will rouse others to follow.
Voice. How do you speak as a company? Are your words and tone erudite, witty, inspiring, or approachable? Your voice should reflect your team and their collective knowledge. It should help people understand the personality of your company.
Visuals. If voice is how you speak, visuals are how you dress. Visuals are another way to show your firm’s personality. Colors, graphics, and font styles all help communicate your brand.
Values. In the AEC industry, we continue to see a demand for innovative and sustainable design. B Corps are growing, showing that people increasingly want to work for, buy from, and invest in companies that have society and others top of mind. Value-based businesses are on the rise. Stick true to your values; these will be the cornerstone of your brand.
Brand Guidelines
Now that you can accurately communicate your brand, create brand guidelines that share the information with others. As the marketing leader, it is your responsibility to ensure that everything created represents your brand accurately. But the larger your network, the harder it can be to monitor content and make sure everything is up to par. This is why brand guidelines matter. They provide the guidelines any and all content creators, staff members, leaders and others need to represent your brand accurately, detailing everything from what to say, how to represent the firm during projects to how to design content. Not only does this provide consistency, it actually benefits your brand in the long run.
Work to make your clients, employees, and everyone with whom you have contact know what the firm stands for. That starts with you.
