What does it mean to have a responsive brand?

By Tim Brown
-
31 March 2020

There has never been a more important time than right now to think about brand responsiveness. If you’re looking after a brand that is flexible enough to shift with the market and with consumer trends, but robust enough that you can still maintain brand control while this is happening, then you’re winning. Right? 

Not so fast :)

What about response time? And what about volume? It’s all very well to have built a brand that can adapt in theory, but when the chips are down and things need to happen quickly and at scale — are you ready?

Responding in a crisis

Recent times have highlighted the need for brands to be able to respond quickly and get vital communication out to the right people – and at scale. Who could have seen how quickly COVID-19 would shut us down and fundamentally change how we work? Governments, hospitals and businesses worldwide have all had to make very quick decisions and adapt the way they work. This also means that they need to get quick information out there. We have journalists to keep us all informed on the day-to-day impacts, but there is a clear need for business and industry to get their message out, and of course, it needs to be on-brand – and it needs to be quick. Also, every single member of your team, from Lisa in Accounts to Bill in Customer Service, suddenly has a need to get comms out and they all need to do it right now. So, what are your options when you need comms produced quickly, with variations for each individual need, and then deployed at scale?

  1. Tell them all to follow the style guide – good luck staying on brand.
  2. Tell them to follow the messaging guide – good luck keeping a consistent voice.
  3. Work your internal designers day and night to get it done – good luck keeping them once this is all over.
  4. Forget about brand control and just let your team freestyle – good luck bringing your brand back to pre-crisis strength.

    How about...
  5. Use a Brand Management Platform to empower your distributed team to get the message out, guarantee it’s on-brand, do it super quick and put it everywhere – you win, and yes, that’s us :)

How are we doing it right now for our clients?

We are fortunate enough to have a diverse range of clients and each has had a unique set of circumstances, challenges and messages that they need to communicate to their customers:

  1. Universities – We have a number of University clients who have been able to self-create and produce kits (digital and print) to communicate day-to-day with their customers and stakeholders as circumstances rapidly change. This has enabled them to inform their stakeholders of new rules, social distancing protocols and digital comms around virtual learning. Read about how Monash University has benefited from Outfit: https://outfit.io/monash-university-case-study
  2. Franchises – We have franchise businesses who have had a unique challenge in keeping up comms with their franchisees who in turn have had to keep up comms with their customers. From social media tiles to more practical health and safety messaging, Outfit has them set up so they can do it on-brand and quickly. Read about how Bakers Delight has benefited from Outfit: https://outfit.io/bakers-delight-case-study
  3. Financial institutions – As our government delivers messaging around our rapidly changing economic situation our financial institutions have a duty of care to communicate this to their customers. Outfit has empowered our clients to be able to do this quickly and to maintain brand control and security as they do it. 

These are very difficult times and as we navigate this new world we need to make sure that we are as ready as we can be. If getting brand communication out quickly at this time has been made more difficult by the fact that there are not enough hours in the day, or InDesign skills in the building, let us help you. Request a demo and let one of our team take you through how Outfit can set you up so that all the trouble you have taken to make your brand responsive can be super-powered and delivered quickly by our platform.

Share

Choosing fonts for different channels

How to choose an accessible font