How to put a rebrand into action

So, you’ve got that shiny new brand. Maybe it’s a new logo and a new color scheme. Perhaps it’s a brand-new name, a fresh voice approach, new fonts and a reimagined approach to imagery. Leadership has signed off and you’re good to go.

But are you?

The fact is, a big-picture rebrand is only the first step to making all that good work operate in the real world. Next up, you have to take those pretty designs, images and messages and make them executable and actionable where the rubber hits the road. Where do you start?

Ron Klein, a McGuffin art director and veteran of helping our clients build workable solutions after rebrands, offers this advice.

Providing the tools for success

This is the heavy lift: crafting a comprehensive style guide.

“There’s nothing more important than giving your team clear, actionable instructions for maintaining your brand,” Klein says. “You’re taking the guesswork out.”

A brand style guide provides an overview of how a brand should be presented and displayed both online and off. You can also include instructions on ensuring your brand’s voice, messaging and image remain consistent at all times whether your logos, colors or name are used in print, digitally or in video.

A robust guide digs deeper than the tools and tips companies typically get after a high-level rebrand. These are the plug-and-play instructions that help anyone touching your brand — designers, writers, photographers, web developers — ensure brand consistency whether you’re working with internal or external teams.

Chris McGuire, McGuffin’s Director of Client Growth & Engagement, puts it this way: “When we’re creating a client’s style guide, we look closely at and consider a whole range of use cases. It’s about thinking through every eventuality. Our goal isn’t to limit the possibility for creativity, it’s to give the many people who touch your brand the guidance to tell a consistent and recognizable story.”

McGuire points to McGuffin’s recent work for Mayo Clinic, which took an organizational rebrand and helped make it actionable with platform-specific templates for PowerPoint, brochures, internal documents and other assets.

“It’s very satisfying to go through a rebrand and get somewhere new,” McGuire says. “But making that brand perform for you requires guidelines and guardrails that ensure you’re projecting your best story.”

What should your style guide include?

A thorough style guide takes the uncertainty out of developing marketing materials among different departments, agency partners and even far-flung international satellite offices. The result should be a consistent look and tone at every point of your customers’ contact with your brand.

• Designer templates with consistent proportions, including image-size specifications, gutters and other dimensions
• Logo usage, including size and placement
• Color palettes and their use in both print and digital
• Font usage and hierarchy in layout
• Consistent usage of the brand across print, video, web and environmental
• Photo and video image styles
• Brand voice
• Use of charts, tables and infographics
• Dos and don’ts that illustrate acceptable and unacceptable usages of brand assets, from your logo to photography to copy

The importance of onboarding

Make your style guide rollout an event. Have a meeting of senior managers and creative staff to walk through the new guide and get in-person engagement, as opposed to simply making the guidelines available online.

According to Klein, “Show the employees why the brand matters and how it affects the public persona of the organization. Two separate meetings might make the most sense — a more generalized overview meeting for a wider staff audience, then one that provides more specific, detailed instructions regarding the templates, voice and so on for creative and marketing staff.”

The point is to get buy-in at every level of your organization to ensure your new brand rules are embraced and adopted enthusiastically, everywhere someone is communicating on your behalf.

Policing

They say rules are made to be broken. But while a brand’s guidelines can include some wiggle room, disregard or ignorance of your standards can muddy the waters and make your brand unfocused and ineffective — the opposite of what a rebrand aims to do.

Klein suggests installing senior brand ambassadors or department heads who oversee and enforce the implementation of your new brand.

“There are always those who resist change, like to do their own thing, simply don’t prefer the brand,” Ron says. “In addition to policing, a brand ambassador can also answer questions not addressed in the guidelines or provide guidance to those not bothering to reference it.”

Put your best brand forward

Arriving at a refreshed brand is a big step — but it’s a first step. Putting that brand into action and building a framework it can live and work in is essential to giving it traction. It’s worth the time and effort to craft a style guide that ensures your hard work works its hardest in the minds of your consumers.