Do you have a brand playbook?

If you’re not paying attention to your internal brand (the rep you have with your team) you’re blowing it. 

Employees have a huge influence over your business reputation whether you realize it or not. So let's try to mold them into brand advocates, not brand repellants.

But how does someone learn and embody your brand's vision and personality?

How can they advocate for something if they don't know or don't understand it?

Brand guides help steer the ship.

Typically, brand guides are thought of as simple static documents that describe the rules and guidelines of the visual design. And they often are, but they can and should be much more.

A good brand system and guide can be spun out into anything really:

• Guidance specific to different types of jobs so it's easier for employees to embody the brand in ways specific to their roles (customer service, frontline, sales, field workers, etc.).

• A system of templates for anything from visuals to social media posts + captions to sales materials.

• Basically anything that has any contact with employees or customers in some way should have some sort of guidance, even if it’s minimal, to ensure that everything retains the intended spirit of the brand.

Think of the overall brand guide as the playbook. And the more specific mini guides are like the plays that fill the playbook.

Breaking a guide down like this isn't always going to be necessary. But you shouldn't assume that your team knows what's important to the brand because you told them once. 

Give them what they need to contribute to something bigger than themselves.

If they're psyched on what the brand stands for then everything they do will be better.