Brand management

Brand Communication, Brand management

Mastering brand communication with a brand management platform

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Papirfly
4 minutes read

Without a clear brand identity, it’s hard to establish your place on the market – perhaps even impossible. At the end of the day, your brand is your ID. It makes you original and separates you from your competitors, driving brand recognition and helping you craft unique customer experiences.

But originality requires more than plastering your logo over every piece of content and last-minute messaging. Behind every logo, there should be a well thought out and defined identity, brand strategy and a story.

Creating and defining your brand identity and identifying core strategic measurements is a major assignment and includes a range of different tasks. In this blog, we’ll take you through why effective brand communication will improve your brand marketing, and look at why a powerful brand management platform should underpin your efforts.

What is brand communication?

In everyday life, communication is more than words and text. Communication encompasses how you act, dress, move, face expressions and what you do. Great communication helps build a great reputation. The same applies to branding.

For your company, a well-built brand with a good reputation is an essential intangible asset. How your customers feel about your brand, how they talk about it, and the position it occupies in their day-to-day lives, matters.

Underpinning this are the ways you communicate your brand. The look and consistency of your brand assets, your tone-of-voice, your customer engagement, social responsibilities, your values, your pricing, store location and more, all fall under brand communication. Said differently, every part of your branding processes is about communication. It’s the different approaches and methods you choose to use your brand and build brand awareness.

Establish effective brand communication

You have established your brand identity and your branding strategy goals are defined. Now you’re ready to tell your audience that you are here. It’s time to get to work.

The first thing you need to do is to acknowledge that nothing should be set in stone. Your audience and the market are destined to change, and you and your team members have to be prepared to adapt. Next, you need a communication strategy to keep you focused and aligned with the brand strategy.

Define your communication channels


You know who, but what channels and sources do they engage with and trust for their decision-making? Don’t limit this in the beginning. Most likely, marketing teams need to test and experience how your audience reacts to your brand before you narrow down the most effective communication channels.

Remember, just because a channel exists does not mean that you need to use it. It’s not about the channel, it’s about your audience. There’s little point in focusing too much effort on a social media platform like TikTok if your target audience isn’t using it – or indeed any effort at all.

Identify what your audience is looking for and is triggered by


Unfortunately, what you want to be acknowledged for and what your audience looks for don’t always match. You need to know these details when creating marketing strategies. Otherwise you’ll be spending a lot of time and resources shooting blanks – it’s ineffective and pointless.

Be flexible and adaptable with your message

“One voice – one brand” is a key attitude when building a brand, but don’t mistake this for one message. You need to acknowledge that your audience is varied and consists of different personas.

The better you meet your personas needs, the more relevant you’ll be with your message and the more precisely you’ll hit home with the target audience(s). It’s all about adapting to what the audience wants, but remember to be honest, reliable, and relevant. If your audience catches you lying or feels you’re wasting their time, you’ll lose them.In other words, don’t use a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Effective brand communication occurs when you use your resources wisely and meet your target audience with what they want to hear. The smarter you are about it, the less money it will cost you and the more successful you’ll be at building your brand.

Unleash your brand with a brand management platform

With the above in place, it’s time to initiate your strategy and build your brand. Through your website, chosen social media channels, a blog, advertising or any other channel or platform you see fit, you’ll present your brand. 

Bear in mind that a hectic work life puts strains on your ability to deliver on demand, and if you have limited resources as well, you may get careless with your brand assets. We’re only human after all, and inconsistency is a fact of life. 

Unfortunately, inconsistency quickly undermines your brand equity – the perception customers have of your brand, and the trust they place in it. Any ground lost here is very difficult to recover.

A brand management solution is a life saver. Great brand management tools will provide all you need to create memorable brand experiences, while also establishing clear brand guidelines to ensure 100% consistency in everything you do. It’s no use going to all that effort to create great brand communication, only to drop the ball on the touchline due to human error. With brand management software, you can be sure that your work will be embedded in a powerful platform that everyone in your organisation can trust and rely on.

 

Table of contents:

  1. What is brand communication?
  2. Establish effective brand communication
  3. Unleash your brand with a brand management platform
Brand management, Brand strategy, Branding processes

How to make your brand stand out?

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Papirfly
5 minutes read

A brand is your company’s most valuable asset, it’s the asset that attracts attention and when done correctly, it’s what establishes loyalty and engagement. When you master your brand, your business will grow. 

Branding would be easy if there was no competition, but of course unrealistic. Most brands and companies must work hard to get their markets attention, securing a growing customer base and loyal customers. So, what are the factors that will give your brand the outstanding edge? Logo colours? Images? Tone-of-voice? Or your choice of marketing channels?

What’s unique about your brand, why should the consumers choose your brand over your competitor? How do you make sure your brand stands out from the crowd?

There is no simple answer to this, it’s a bit more complex. Before you can build a stunning brand that stands out, you need to know how to communicate your brand, you need to know your audience and you need to know your competition. Let’s take it step by step.

1. Know your competition

One part of brand building is to separate your brand from your competitors. To do that you need to know who you are up against. Who are your competitors, what are their unique selling points and advantages? What marketing channels and to whom do they reach out?

There are a ton of questions to ask and answer, but your competitor analysis is an essential part when you’re going to find your brands identity and finding the gap where your brand can shine.

2. Identify your audience

Without customers you can’t succeed. So, you need to attract them. How? First of all, you need to understand their needs and their buyer journey. Who is your target audience and how do you communicate with them? What channels do they engage with and what are their buying triggers? Why is your brand relevant to them?

Just like a competitor analysis, a customer analysis is just as important. There’s simply no point in communicating your brand before you know what language to speak.

3. Define your positioning statement

Now that you know your competitors and your audience, identify what elements and features that differentiate your brand from the others and how you can take advantage of this to build an unique brand identity that fills the gap in the market.

The key here is to recognize the distinctiveness of your brand, but of course it needs to be appealing for your audience as well. Ask yourself what will make the audience choose our brand over your competitors? Spend some time on this one. It will set the grounds for your next steps in building a brand identity that stands out.

Before you start shaping your brand’s identity, investigate market trends that will impact your choices. For example, authenticity is a fairly new concept pushed forward by Millenials, is this also something you have to deliver upon? Trust is another important factor. In other words, you can’t get away with b…shit. Your brand needs to be authentic, reliable, and transparent if you’re going to have any chance of getting noticed. 

Your brand image is not enough by itself. The employees also play a crucial role in making your brand stand out. For example, your customer service representatives have a significant role as they interact with customers and potential new ones on a regular basis. For 73% of consumers the customer experience is an important factor in their purchasing decision.

5. Build your brand identity

For many marketers this is the fun part. This is the creative part where your brand comes to life. But let’s not forget that your brand will be your company’s most valuable asset, so as fun as it may be, this is also a crucial step in creating a stunning brand. As you are shaping the life of your brand, you’re also shaping how you want your customers to perceive you. Now thinking back on your audience, it’s a good idea to ensure that the way you want to be perceived lines up with what your audience cares about. If you don’t, you will be shooting blanks.

When shaping your brand’s identity, test different variations of your brand. Dare to be different and evaluate reactions and perceptions. Use focus groups for an external audit, but don’t forget your company and colleagues. Sales and customer service also know your target audience, and you can get valuable insight that could impact how you should shape the identity of your brand.

Also read: 7 steps on how to manage your brand

Elements you need to include in your brand identity are: 

  • Logo: This is your brand’s ID – your fingerprint and passport. Your logo represents your company, your offerings, your employees and more. 
  • Tagline: The short and memorable description that communicates your brand message. This is the element that alongside your brand name, needs to tell your audience in a few words, what you are offering.
  • Colour palette: The power and symbolism of colours is complex. You don’t have to be a colour expert, as luckily you can find information online for this. Nevertheless, do some research to define a colour palette that fits with how you want your brand to be perceived. Never forget that colour symbolism can be very different, and can carry different weight in different countries. And so if your brand intends to have a very wide international profile, you should take this into consideration.
  • Typography: Just like colours, fonts also have a significant purpose when shaping your brand’s identity. Make sure you choose the font that along with your colour palette shapes your intended brand identity. 
  • Brand assets: Illustrations, icons and imagery are visuals that really count when it comes to your brand’s identity. This is where your designers have to create that edge that differentiates your visual brand from the competitors.
  • Tone of voice: How do you want to communicate with your target audience? This can’t be random. You need to carefully choose your voice based on your target audience and how you want to be perceived. 

When the above is defined and neatly put together, you have your brand’s identity.

Make your brand stand out

The expression “one does not exclude the other” complies with brand building. It’s a process and it takes time. Most importantly, you can’t ever take your eye off the ball. Your audience will change, the market trends will change, and you need to make sure your brand changes with them. 

To make your brand stand out, you need to pay attention and preferably stay in front of your competitors 24/7. Yeap, managing a brand is hard work, luckily there are tools available that can help ease your brand management burdens significantly.  

Also read: What you need to establish proper branding processes

Create a home for your brand

What good does any of it do, if all of the above ends up in a drawer, never to be looked at again? If no one knows how to communicate your brand or apply your brand correctly, the harder it will be to manage your brand building with ease. 

Remember that branding is not a job for marketing alone, you need everyone in your company to move in the same direction if you’re going to have any success with your brand building. 

At this point you should look into a brand management platform and how that can help you establish a brand that stands out. 

  • Collect everything about your brand in one single place
  • Make your brand usable and self-serviced
  • Keep your brand relevant and updated

Also read: Where does your brand live? 

Brand management

Where does your brand live?

Avatar
Karl-Fredrik Lund
3 minutes read

Is it sensible to buy a boat without first thinking about a berth? The answer is an obvious “no”.


Yet many companies invest millions in rebranding or marketing campaigns without thinking about how to manage and care for them.

The summer months we have just left behind will probably go into our collective memory as the “stay at home” summer. Sales of leisure boats, among other things, are said to have exploded, and along the coast, there have at least been plenty of examples of clearly new captains where the pride in the new boat surpasses the knowledge of navigation and seaworthiness.

I recently thought about this in a conversation with a customer. They had invested several million in a new profile, followed by a rebranding campaign because their agency had said: «OK, this is the new you. But where will the brand live?”

Continue reading “Where does your brand live?”

Is it sensible to buy a boat without first thinking about a berth? The answer is an obvious “no”.


Yet many companies invest millions in rebranding or marketing campaigns without thinking about how to manage and care for them.

The summer months we have just left behind will probably go into our collective memory as the “stay at home” summer. Sales of leisure boats, among other things, are said to have exploded, and along the coast, there have at least been plenty of examples of clearly new captains where the pride in the new boat surpasses the knowledge of navigation and seaworthiness.

I recently thought about this in a conversation with a customer. They had invested several million in a new profile, followed by a rebranding campaign because their agency had said: «OK, this is the new you. But where will the brand live?”

Continue reading “Where does your brand live?”

Is it sensible to buy a boat without first thinking about a berth? The answer is an obvious “no”.


Yet many companies invest millions in rebranding or marketing campaigns without thinking about how to manage and care for them.

The summer months we have just left behind will probably go into our collective memory as the “stay at home” summer. Sales of leisure boats, among other things, are said to have exploded, and along the coast, there have at least been plenty of examples of clearly new captains where the pride in the new boat surpasses the knowledge of navigation and seaworthiness.

I recently thought about this in a conversation with a customer. They had invested several million in a new profile, followed by a rebranding campaign because their agency had said: «OK, this is the new you. But where will the brand live?”

Continue reading “Where does your brand live?”

Brand management, Brand strategy

How to manage a brand? You need brand management.

Avatar
Papirfly
5 minutes read

In marketing, brand management is an extensive field of expertise and a full-time job. Nonetheless, it’s not uncommon that marketers have to combine lead generation, communication, content creation, website administration and social media with building a strong, long-lasting brand. If you’re one of those who manages to do this with success, then hats off to you.

Luckily, many of the abovementioned tasks are digitalized and thus easier to carry out and manage. Let’s look at how you can also digitize and automate how you manage your brand through proper digital marketing tools

1. Centralize your brand

Your brand consists of multiple elements and rules. Your brand’s personality, it’s voice and appearance along with a ton of brand assets outline your brand.

Continue reading “How to manage a brand? You need brand management.”

In marketing, brand management is an extensive field of expertise and a full-time job. Nonetheless, it’s not uncommon that marketers have to combine lead generation, communication, content creation, website administration and social media with building a strong, long-lasting brand. If you’re one of those who manages to do this with success, then hats off to you.

Luckily, many of the abovementioned tasks are digitalized and thus easier to carry out and manage. Let’s look at how you can also digitize and automate how you manage your brand through proper digital marketing tools

1. Centralize your brand

Your brand consists of multiple elements and rules. Your brand’s personality, it’s voice and appearance along with a ton of brand assets outline your brand.

Continue reading “How to manage a brand? You need brand management.”

In marketing, brand management is an extensive field of expertise and a full-time job. Nonetheless, it’s not uncommon that marketers have to combine lead generation, communication, content creation, website administration and social media with building a strong, long-lasting brand. If you’re one of those who manages to do this with success, then hats off to you.

Luckily, many of the abovementioned tasks are digitalized and thus easier to carry out and manage. Let’s look at how you can also digitize and automate how you manage your brand through proper digital marketing tools

1. Centralize your brand

Your brand consists of multiple elements and rules. Your brand’s personality, it’s voice and appearance along with a ton of brand assets outline your brand.

Continue reading “How to manage a brand? You need brand management.”

Brand management

Why marketers need design templates for content creation

Avatar
Papirfly
3 minutes read

Consistency isn’t optional – it’s foundational. How your brand looks, sounds, and behaves when it shows up in the world directly shapes how it’s remembered. It’s critical that people encounter the same, recognizable identity across all marketing and advertising materials.

But how do you maintain control when so many different people are creating content across teams, regions, formats and multiple channels?

Digital design templates provide a practical, scalable solution, allowing marketing teams to streamline digital content creation while at the same time protecting brand identity.

Do design templates limit creativity? Debunking the myth

It’s a common concern. Some creatives see templates as restricting their freedom – a “production line” approach that stifles originality. But effective brands already put limitations on designers, through clearly defined guidelines. Templates simply turn those rules into tools, so every asset reflects your identity. 

In fact, templates often lead to increased creativity, not less. By freeing designers from repetitive production work, they allow more time for high-impact, strategic projects – where the real original thinking happens.

Key benefits of using digital design templates for marketers

Done right, digital design templates don’t just secure brand consistency – they enable you to deliver content creation services faster and more efficiently than ever before. Here’s how:

  • Anyone can create branded assets – Templates enable any team member to produce studio-quality materials, ranging from signage to videos to social media posts.
  • Brand protection is built in – Critical elements like logos, fonts, and color palettes are “locked” while features such as images, text and calls to action can all be changed.
  • Localization is easy – Teams can adapt content to match local languages, formats and cultural norms in minutes rather than days.
  • Assets can be produced on-demand – Flexible template technology allows users to define asset size and create the file type they need immediately. 

In short, it is a marketer’s dream – a world where any colleague can create their own collateral quickly, without any danger of straying off-brand.

4 steps to successful content creation with design templates

1. Define essential template elements for multi-channel content

The options can be overwhelming at first. Stay focused by considering the elements you need for your template before you even start. It’s usually best to go with the simplest option. You should also make sure your template is flexible enough to work across multiple channels and asset types.

2. Customize design templates to match your brand guidelines

Off-the-shelf options can be a good starting point. But in the long term, you should be customizing your templates in line with your brand guidelines. Your design team have a critical role to play in this process. With their oversight, templates can become more than simple content marketing tools – they can be true brand enablers.

3. Focus on clear messaging and content optimization within templates

Don’t get stuck obsessing over layouts. Use templates as a solid design base, then focus your time on writing strong, clear messaging, testing variations, and making content work harder. Templates take care of the format – you and your team can focus on results.

4. Integrate design templates into your long-term content creation strategy

Templates aren’t a shortcut – they’re a sustainable, scalable system. For small or growing brands, they offer enterprise-level structure at a fraction of the cost. For global brands, they unlock alignment across geographies and teams. And with Papirfly’s Templated Content Creation tools, you can make them an integral part of your brand ecosystem. Not only do you get complete control over how you create, adapt, and manage your design templates – you also empower all your team members to produce high-quality, on-brand collateral every time.

Empower your team with design templates for content creation tools

Discover how Papirfly’s Templated Content Creation solution can help you empower your people while protecting your brand.

Discover how templated content creation empowers teams to scale with brand-approved design templates

Table of contents:

Brand management, Marketing Tools

The ultimate guide to digital brand management tools

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Papirfly
7 minutes read

If you work with branding and marketing, you have probably heard about brand management and you have a decent overview of what this incorporates. But have you been able to incorporate proper brand management in your daily routines, or is this something you have on the agenda in the near future, but find it hard to find the time to focus on? 

We totally get it. Brand management requires thorough work and it is a jungle to navigate all the different brand management tools that exist in the market. Don’t lose faith, we are here to help you sort out your options and what you need to consider.

In this guide we’ll look at the following brand management tools and it’s capabilities: 

What is brand management?  

Before we get to it, let’s agree on what brand management is. Brand Management is the process of managing your brand’s identity and strategies with the purpose of building a strong, reputable brand that aligns with your company’s growth objectives. This includes how your brand is presented, communicated, and adapted across your company and your markets, and how it is incorporated into your overall marketing initiatives.  

All companies have some form of brand management strategy, but it is not enough just to have a plan. The success of your brand management is also determined by how effective your execution is. And this is where the right brand management tools come in handy. But first, what makes brand management difficult?  

Also read: What is brand management? 

Challenges in brand management 

If we look at brand management with the perspective of handling the processes manually, it is safe to say that trouble quickly follows. Brand management as a process is simply too complex and it requires the entire company’s involvement to be successful. In other words, implementing brand management with the help of emails, company chat channels, intranet and random actions is not a recipe for success.  

  • How do you make sure anyone reads your messages and executes as you request?  
  • How do you make sure everyone understands your brand and use it as you intended?  
  • How do you keep your colleagues from using old brand assets or marketing collateral?  
  • How do you make sure your brand is communicated and presented in alignment with your brand strategies?  

This list is long. What you have to ask yourself is – How can you secure brand control, when all you have to rely on is what you communicate? Brand Management is a company task, and you need to make sure you have the correct tools at hand if you want to succeed.  

Also read: This is internal branding and how you get started

These are the digital brand management tools you need  

Digital brand guidelines 

Every brand needs brand guidelines. With digital brand guidelines however, a world of new possibilities appears.  

Get rid of the traditional PDF document if you have not already done so. But be aware, if you are creating your guidelines using a standard CMS solution, you are missing out on some great brand asset management functionalities. A proper digital brand guideline tool provides capabilities you need to have in place if you want to succeed with your brand management.  

Capabilities 

  • Design your digital brand guidelines to perfectly match the brand’s identity and make it easy for everyone to follow your example.  
  • CMS technology with flexible section and content builders allows you to create, maintain, and always keep your brand alive. Digital brand guidelines will keep your brand valid and up to date 24/7.  
  • CMS widgets created for branding purposes allow you to create brand guidelines quickly and professionally. With widgets for adding color swatches, typography, marketing calendar, digital assets, code library ++, creating brand guidelines becomes seamless.  
  • DAM integration allows you to put your brand into context. By connecting your brand assets with the actual guidelines, anyone can easily apply your brand without any extra effort. Everything is in front of them, either downloadable, as a template or as a purchasable item.  
  • Automated workflows enable operational efficiency which is key for proper brand management. You can’t expect everyone to love branding, and this is where digital brand guidelines are magic. With the correct setup, applying your brand will be bulletproof. Your users can follow workflows from a-z without any extra effort or skills.  

Also read: What to look for when you choose your brand identity system 

Digital asset management 

A key ingredient in branding is having brand assets available and always updated. And most marketers will agree that this is a time-consuming, expensive task where stumbling is easy and brand inconsistency is the result. That is, if you don’t have a DAM tool to help you out.    

Digital asset management is the tool that collects, organizes, and distributes all your company’s assets from one single location. Stop wasting time looking for files and re-creating lost assets. It’s a time thief and a budget killer. And here’s the beauty of it. With a digital asset management tool, you kill two birds with one stone.  

First, you get to standardize how everyone in your company handles assets in a proper manner and streamline operations. Second, you get to connect your digital asset library to the online brand guidelines and establish reliable and seamless brand management.  

Capabilities 

  • Cloud software allows your company to collect all assets in one single place, establishing file transparency across your entire company. Instead of having multiple server locations, VPN connections, inaccessible folders, desktop storage or similar for storing valuable assets that more than one person needs access to, a DAM tool will keep everything safe and secure in one single location.  
  • Category enablement removes the traditional folders and naming conventions. Instead, your assets will be structured based on multi-leveled categories that match company needs and makes files searchable.  
  • Faceted search expands search’n locate by allowing you to add filters and tags to your assets. Additionally, you’ll have filters to narrow down your search based on file type, file format, orientation and more. Finding files has never been easier.  
  • Pre-defined file handling is a powerful capability that will do wonders for your digital asset management. Instead of the painful and time-consuming task, it is to manage and maintain multiple asset outputs, let the system do it for you. Pre-define crops, extension outputs, resolutions and more, and transform your assets for multi purposes. 
  • Share assets with style. No more “your file is too large for this email”. Simply share your files directly from your DAM system. Either as a single file, or perhaps you want to share a collection?  
  • Two-way asset workflow is pure magic. Make sure you don’t end up as the file coordinator. Pre-set your digital asset management tool to handle uploads from creative agencies or colleagues directly to your DAM without breaking your asset structure.  

Also read: This is how you organize digital assets 

Digital design templates 

Digital assets are more than static images. Elevate your brand management with digital design templates. This tool will transform the way you work, and it will keep you on-brand everywhere.  

Eliminate the stress of supporting your colleagues with customized brand assets. Whether it is translations, image changes, format changes and more, digital design templates will do the job for you.  

Simply transform your creative files to digital templates and define what can and can’t be altered and establish a self-service tool where all your colleagues can create their own assets without breaking the brand identity. It’s efficient, time-saving and brand consistency is at ease.  

Capabilities 

  • Multi-platform templates. Whether it is assets for print, social media, video or dynamic banners, a full range template tool will cover whatever template you need. Regardless of what platform you need assets for, your colleagues can easily create their own.  
  • Responsive templates allow you to go easy on yourself. Allow your templates to be flexible and fit to more than one occasion. You reduce the amount of assets you need to maintain, and your colleagues have the flexibility they need.  
  • Content-control secures your brand identity and keeps your content on brand. You decide what can and cannot be changed.  
  • Automated workflows make it easy to be a designer. Add guides and directions to your templates and lead your colleagues to design excellence.  
  • 3rd party connections are a great way of securing asset delivery when time is of the essence. Connect your template tool to printers, video platforms, media agencies and more.  

Also read: Why digital design templates are essential for your business 

Digital marketing planner 

Your brand guidelines are in place, connected to all the right brand assets and you are ready for a smooth brand management execution. However, as stated earlier, you need to include your colleagues to succeed with your brand management.  

By adding a digital marketing planner tool to your brand management, you’ll stay in complete control of the entire branding process and team alignment is at ease. Plan and collect all necessary information in one single place and make planning effortless.  

Capabilities 

  • Central management – Local execution allows you to control your activities with ease. Coordinate and collect necessary information and assets and ensure activities are initiated on time and as intended.  
  • Asset control enables secure planning. Only share relevant assets and make sure everyone can easily understand what is going to happen and secure brand consistency.  
  • Email editor and newsletter capabilities allow you to communicate your initiatives with greater control. Know who reads and engages with your information and act accordingly. No more guessing if your campaigns(?) will go as planned. This tool provides you the insight you need to ensure smooth execution.  

Benefits of brand management tools

With the above digital brand management tools at hand, your branding processes will never be the same. The benefits? Here’s a short list:   

  • Respond to market changes in a heartbeat: With your brand and assets available and updated 24/7, your response time will be impeccable.  
  • Reduce unnecessary expenses: This is a benefit for the entire company, not just the marketing team. By removing the time employees spend on looking for files, the time can be spent on value-added operations that contribute to achieving company growth. You will also remove unnecessary hidden costs that occur because assets are lost, and resources is spent on re-creations.  
  • Increase efficiency: Streamlining workflows doesn’t need further explanation, the easier the tasks are, the quicker you’ll execute and the more you’ll get done.  
  • Protect and grow your brand: Brand consistency is key to brand growth. With the right tools at hand, controlling your brand output is easy and achieving brand recognition is possible. Your one step closer to reaching your brand goals.  

How Papirfly’s digital brand management tools elevate your branding 

We know that branding is a team effort, and it takes an entire company to grow a brand. This is why our brand management platform is packed with time-saving tools and features that will boost your branding processes.  

In addition to brand guidelines, digital asset management, design templates and a marketing planner, our brand management platform has additional tools to complete the bits and pieces of your branding processes.  

With Papirfly you will also have the options for;  

  • Content proofing functionality that allows for seamless team collaboration across your entire company. Our integration with Filestage or Workfront enables powerful and efficient work lifecycles that make online proofing a blast.  
  • Connect your brand management platform to Adobe and Microsoft office for a truly two-way workflow that goes beyond brand and marketing needs. With the CI Hub integration, you’ll secure your brand everywhere.  
  • When in need of print and eager to keep the costs down, this option is a must-have. Our integration with Gelat allows you to keep your printing costs down by printing and distributing locally. 
  • More integrations? Check this out.

This and more powerful digital brand management tools are supported by the Papirfly platform. If you are interested in learning more about how we can help elevate your branding processes, reach out and we’ll show you with a live demo.  

 

Brand management, Corporate communications

3 steps to a successful branding process

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Papirfly
6 minutes read

Being a Brand Manager is a demanding job even at the best of times. Whether your brand is emerging, established or fighting for its place on the world stage, there are many areas you must consider to ensure brand strategy is effectively activated, developed, monitored, maintained and driven in the right direction.
If the global pandemic has taught us anything in marketing it’s that in order to thrive, brands need to be prepared for anything.

Every organisation should already have a brand management strategy where it belongs – right at the top of the corporate agenda, and marketers need to be ready for any eventuality. Brand management should be framed as a continual process of constant evolution – agile and responsive to global and competitive factors.

Brand identity is the most fundamental consumer touchpoint for your business and 77% of marketing leaders say branding is critical to growth. Your brand is your reputation, and therefore the most important asset your company has. If you’re authentic and keep your promises, and if your customers have positive experiences, they will tell other people. If they have a bad experience, you can be sure they will tell the world.

So when it comes to establishing a successful brand activation strategy and brand development process, what does an effective process look like? And what does being prepared actually mean in practice?

First, you need to create a plan that prepares you to overcome any obstacles and challenges which may lie ahead. We believe the best approach to creating or enhancing a successful branding process is as follows.

Step 1: Establish the foundations of your brand identity

Brand identity is about more than just logo, font, and colours. It’s a unique, consistent customer experience of an organisation’s purpose, voice, visual style, and vision. Consistency is especially important during times of change, when customers are looking for stability and trust.

3-steps-to-a-successful-branding-process

A useful starting point is to think about your current brand asset management processes and identify the key challenges you need to overcome. This is a critical element of the entire process as it will also establish the groundwork for measuring your brand development success further down the line.

Start by listing the issues and problems faced by the organisation with regards to brand management. Look closely at the challenges faced by your marketing department:

The ability to remain consistent:
  • Colleagues and local offices are struggling to access the latest branded materials resulting in off-brand assets and communications are regularly being distributed.
Lack of resources:
  • Your marketing team is struggling to deliver requests on-demand. There is simply not enough time to support ad-hoc tasks and you fall behind, unable to deliver brand assets on time.
Limited budget:
  • Budget cuts are not uncommon, and sometimes you are forced to cancel or limit brand campaigns.
Challenges staying relevant in the market:

The market changes fast, and if you’re already struggling with the above, your ability to remain relevant is a major challenge.

Next up is to analyse your current brand environment. New brands have the luxury of starting from scratch, but if you’ve been in the market for a while and the brand has stagnated, you need to know why. Key questions to consider include:

How loyal is your customer target group?
  • What elements does your group focus on when choosing a brand? Price, quality, purchase locality, etc. can all be factors in this decision-making process.
Is your brand perceived as it was intended to be?
  • Is your brand clearly understood and are you delivering on your promise?
What’s the competition?
  • Who are they and how well is their brand resonating with their audience? Know what you are up against and understand how to get in front.
How do you reach your target group? In store? Online?
  • You need to be where your customers are, so make sure you know where that is.
What is the length of the buying decision process?
  • If the purchase decision is made in store, you need to plan on how to convince and build-up brand recognition that puts you in front of your competitors. If the decision process is long and requires research, you need to plan on how you can help them decide and take part in their purchase cycle.

It’s important that these and many more questions are considered before you move on to deciding what branding and identity development strategy to choose.

Step 2: Optimise your brand strategy to ensure growth

There is no exact timetable to determine how regularly you should optimise your brand strategy. It’s a good idea to be constantly vigilant about your brand’s overall health and identity, always keeping in mind customer feedback, employee morale and the business’ growth trajectory.

When feedback, morale and/or growth aren’t where you want them to be, it’s a good time to take a step back and assess things. Taking the time to check the current strengths and weaknesses of your brand while evaluating where you want to go will only serve to strengthen your positioning. A brand asset audit is a useful exercise to conduct regularly.

An audit could include the following inventory:

  • Strapline
  • Purpose
  • Logo
  • Visual identity
  • Colour scheme
  • Brand marketing templates

A strong brand is the foundation upon which the business stands, which means it must always be firm and resolute. While a solid product or service remains the core of your business, few customers will take the time to explore your offering if there isn’t a confident and credible brand to back it.

Knowing exactly what your brand’s messaging is and what it stands for is crucial, and having a coherent strategy to communicate that to prospective customers and clients will propel future success.

3-steps-to-a-successful-branding-process-2

Step 3: Identify your brand’s development metrics

When you’re ready to execute your brand activation, make sure you have the necessary KPIs in place so you can measure your success based on facts instead of your gut feeling.

There is a significant amount of value in your strategic brand management process, but how do you accurately determine how much? Set KPIs that can measure the situation before and after activation. Consider these examples:

Metric 1:

As initially stated, consistency is key to brand growth, but your current state is showing that local offices are repeatedly using the wrong logo.

  • Strategy goal: Secure brand consistency
  • KPI: All local offices should within 3 months use the correct logo according to brand guidelines.
Metric 2:

Regardless of how much you try, you simply do not have enough resources and time to deliver brand assets on-demand and you lose out on brand presence. Yet brand growth is dependent on your ability to be visible in the market.

  • Strategy goal: Secure brand presence
  • KPI: No backlog of requests. Respond to requests within the same working day.
Metric 3:

Growing a brand demands focus. However, current status shows that you are constantly spending your time on ad-hoc and repetitive tasks, meaning your time for value-added brand work is reduced.

  • Strategy goal: Enable self-serviced brand assets
  • KPI: Eliminate requests for existing assets.

Tracking your brand KPIs can help validate everything you do as a marketing professional. Thanks to the countless tracking tools available today, businesses have the opportunity to gain more visibility over their marketing efforts and the continual progression of their brand than ever before. Get to know your marketing failures and fix them. Get to know your marketing successes and highlight them.

Supporting your branding process

By following the three steps outlined above, your branding process will be more robust and capable of supporting the constant evolution and progression that every brand goes through in order to survive and thrive.

But this is only the beginning – there is a lot more ground to cover. For more on enhancing brand management in your organisation, check out our whitepaper on the value of an investment in your brand.

3-steps-to-a-successful-branding-process

Take your branding process further with a brand management platform

Once you have a process and strategy in place to maintain your brand strength and security as it develops and evolves over time, it’s crucial that this is consistently applied across all marketing channels. This is where Brand Management, or the Papirfly Platform, will make a big difference for your brand.

With an all all-in-one brand management platform you can confidently streamline processes that accommodate multi-channel asset production to support building brand awareness and the efforts of multiple teams.

A brand management platform provides a single online destination for your global employees dedicated to preserving, protecting and propelling your brand. Teams can produce studio-standard marketing materials from bespoke templates, store, share and adapt them for their own markets and stay firmly educated on the brand’s purpose, guidelines and evolution – with no agency help necessary.

Whilst improving your workflows creates more time and saves money as internal bottlenecks are eliminated, relying less on external agencies and reducing time wasted on back and forth approval processes makes bringing asset creation in-house an appealing choice.

Start empowering your team with the all-in-one brand management platform by Papirfly.

Table of contents:

  1. Establish the foundations of your brand identity
  2. Optimise your brand strategy to ensure growth 
  3. Identify your brand’s development metrics
  4. Supporting your branding process
  5. Take your branding process further with a brand management platform

The best way
to manage your brand.
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  • Boosting revenues
  • Doing more for less
  • Activating brands on a global scale
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Brand management, Branding processes

What you need to establish proper branding processes

Avatar
Papirfly
3 minutes read

When you are cooking and you want to make it perfect, you need a recipe. After all, an excellent dish is not complete without the right ingredients, and you can’t skip a few of the steps in the process.

This is also how it is with proper branding. If you leave a few components out or take short cuts in the process, you will be left with an indigestible brand.

So, what do you need to establish proper branding processes?

Include the people in your branding processes

Many great speakers have spoken relentlessly about the people and the difference they make. And with good reason. The people do make a significant difference, and therefore it is essential that you have them on your side.

Continue reading “What you need to establish proper branding processes”

When you are cooking and you want to make it perfect, you need a recipe. After all, an excellent dish is not complete without the right ingredients, and you can’t skip a few of the steps in the process.

This is also how it is with proper branding. If you leave a few components out or take short cuts in the process, you will be left with an indigestible brand.

So, what do you need to establish proper branding processes?

Include the people in your branding processes

Many great speakers have spoken relentlessly about the people and the difference they make. And with good reason. The people do make a significant difference, and therefore it is essential that you have them on your side.

Continue reading “What you need to establish proper branding processes”

When you are cooking and you want to make it perfect, you need a recipe. After all, an excellent dish is not complete without the right ingredients, and you can’t skip a few of the steps in the process.

This is also how it is with proper branding. If you leave a few components out or take short cuts in the process, you will be left with an indigestible brand.

So, what do you need to establish proper branding processes?

Include the people in your branding processes

Many great speakers have spoken relentlessly about the people and the difference they make. And with good reason. The people do make a significant difference, and therefore it is essential that you have them on your side.

Continue reading “What you need to establish proper branding processes”

Brand management, Brand strategy

How to succeed with your brand development strategies

Avatar
Papirfly
4 minutes read

Having a brand development strategy is an essential part of company growth. In fact, as much as 77% of B2B marketers say branding is crucial for company growth. But how do you ensure success? 

First, you need to start with a plan – where you are going and how will you get there? And knowing that branding is more than just one task, your plan also needs a line of attack on how to overcome the obstacles and challenges that lie ahead.  

Planning is easy, execution is hard. Let’s have a look at what we believe are essential steps in succeeding with your brand development strategy.  

Continue reading “How to succeed with your brand development strategies”

Having a brand development strategy is an essential part of company growth. In fact, as much as 77% of B2B marketers say branding is crucial for company growth. But how do you ensure success? 

First, you need to start with a plan – where you are going and how will you get there? And knowing that branding is more than just one task, your plan also needs a line of attack on how to overcome the obstacles and challenges that lie ahead.  

Planning is easy, execution is hard. Let’s have a look at what we believe are essential steps in succeeding with your brand development strategy.  

Continue reading “How to succeed with your brand development strategies”

Having a brand development strategy is an essential part of company growth. In fact, as much as 77% of B2B marketers say branding is crucial for company growth. But how do you ensure success? 

First, you need to start with a plan – where you are going and how will you get there? And knowing that branding is more than just one task, your plan also needs a line of attack on how to overcome the obstacles and challenges that lie ahead.  

Planning is easy, execution is hard. Let’s have a look at what we believe are essential steps in succeeding with your brand development strategy.  

Continue reading “How to succeed with your brand development strategies”

Brand management

This is how easy brand control is with Papirfly

Avatar
Papirfly
3 minutes read

With Brand Management and Papirfly by your side, you make sure you have full brand control, every day and in every channel.  

A huge challenge for many organizations is how to keep track of branded material and digital assets. The system might be disorganised, and files spread all over, and as a result, unnecessary time is spent searching. Does this sound familiar?

Then a brand management solution might be just what you need. But how easy is it to use? And what are the benefits?

Continue reading “This is how easy brand control is with Papirfly”

With Brand Management and Papirfly by your side, you make sure you have full brand control, every day and in every channel.  

A huge challenge for many organizations is how to keep track of branded material and digital assets. The system might be disorganised, and files spread all over, and as a result, unnecessary time is spent searching. Does this sound familiar?

Then a brand management solution might be just what you need. But how easy is it to use? And what are the benefits?

Continue reading “This is how easy brand control is with Papirfly”

With Brand Management and Papirfly by your side, you make sure you have full brand control, every day and in every channel.  

A huge challenge for many organizations is how to keep track of branded material and digital assets. The system might be disorganised, and files spread all over, and as a result, unnecessary time is spent searching. Does this sound familiar?

Then a brand management solution might be just what you need. But how easy is it to use? And what are the benefits?

Continue reading “This is how easy brand control is with Papirfly”