Don't Dilute Your Brand

by Michelle Allmark published 3rd Dec 2009

Sam's recent blog 'Marketing on a Shoestring' has some great ideas for getting your brand out to people. It is really important however to make sure that you take good care of your brand and don't dilute it. Having brand guidelines and sticking to them is important especially when designing in-house.

In these thriftier times it is really important to be clever with the limited marketing funds you can access. It is tempting to throw something together in a mad panic to get much needed customers through the door, now is the time for creativity and imagination. That rushed flyer put together in Microsoft Word in an hour advertising the Credit Crunch Lunch offer or the advert that the newspaper have offered to design for you can be so detrimental to your brand.

In harder times customers turn to reliable, strong brands, so it is important that you send out the message that you are in control. If your brand looks weak then your message will be weak, people won't have faith in your restaurant or your hotel if your first point of contact is a rushed Word doc flyer. It is also important to keep the brand strong and dependable as people are eating out less so are getting selective about where they spend their cash. You must look the best and shout the loudest to be heard.

So set your brand guideline rules and make sure anyone that does any work for you sticks to them. Lets leave those Word doc flyers to the local village fetes!

Author : Michelle Allmark

Michelle Allmark is Creative Director at Ignite Hospitality and is always there when there is something creative going on! She is also passionate about farm animal welfare and the environment.
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Tags : Marketing | Branding | Strategy