Your brand and visual identity is how people recognize you in the marketplace. Maintaining a consistent look and feel of your brand is critical to making sure customers recognize your product or service and feel comfortable doing business with you. To ensure your visual brand or logo is always consistent, develop-and adhere to-a written policy of graphic standards.
Large corporations and universities, for example, typically manage all marketing efforts through a central communications department to ensure the organization's brand is always consistent. But what if you are a small business? How can you make sure your brand is always on point?
Begin by engaging a graphic design firm to create your logo. In addition, request documentation of graphic standards and brand guidelines to govern the use of your visual identity. Train anyone who communicates on behalf of your organization to follow these guidelines explicitly, including the specifications for the size, color, font and dimensions of the company logo. For print communication, specifications can include what color and quality of paper the company logo will be printed on, including standard formats for flyers, newsletters, letterhead, brochures, business cards and postcards.
By standardizing the use of your brand and visual identity across all marketing channels, you present a uniform appearance that communicates effectively with all audiences and maintains a consistent image for your organization.
