How can you tell if you need a brand management platform?

You know what a brand management platform is, and you understand the benefits of using one. Now you need to decide whether it’s right for your organisation.

The best way to do this is to ask yourself the following questions…

How are you managing the creation of marketing materials at the moment?

If the creation of artwork and other marketing materials is causing you stress, perhaps it’s time to invest in one. Here are some instances where it might come in handy:

  1. There are numerous people working on design projects across different locations or teams.

  2. You constantly allocate artwork creation to other teams and it often comes back off-brand.

  3. There’s limited in-house design skills, meaning you need a helping hand.

  4. Your highly skilled designers are currently spending too much time handling smaller, low-level tasks.

  5. You have a new set of brand guidelines that you need to ensure all artwork adheres to.

Can you financially justify the investment?

All organisations need to consider finances when deciding on whether or not to make use of innovative new tools and products. Here are a few situations that may justify the cost:

  1. Your team is currently spending lots of time creating marketing materials and you’d like to streamline this process.

  2. You’d love to produce more artwork and marketing materials, but you currently can’t find the budget for designers.

  3. Your designers are spending too much time approving or making amendments to designs created by other team members.

  4. You’re spending large sums of money on licence fees for design software and spending time training team members and new recruits how to use them.

  5. You’re dedicating huge parts of your budget to outsourcing design work to external contractors.

A quick recap of the benefits

We’ve discussed these in detail in previous chapters. Here’s a quick recap to refresh your memory…

  1. Increase workforce ownership as people feel confident creating artwork and marketing materials.

  2. Empower your team members by allowing them to take the initiative and produce artwork themselves.

  3. Protect the value of your brand, and stop the creation of totally off-brand designs.

  4. Increase external brand awareness, as people make more consistent marketing materials.

  5. Maximise your design output without dramatically increasing your design spend.

Do you have what it takes to make it work?

Finally, you need to decide whether or not you can make good use of a brand management platform. So you’ll need to consider the following:

  1. Is there the capacity to roll the product out to your teams effectively ensuring everyone is on board and fully engaged?

  2. Do you have a set of brand guidelines ready to go which can be used as a framework within the platform?

  3. Are you able to budget for one, making good use of the savings a brand management tool will help you make?

  4. Will you need to go cross-organisation in order to get joint budgets?

Once you’ve answered these questions, you’ll have a better idea of whether or not your organisation will benefit from this digital transformation.

What are the ingredients of an effective brand management strategy?