Managing Your Visual Resources [Back]
If you’ve gone to the trouble to develop a strong, professional corporate identity for your business, you know how complicated it can be to manage that identity; to keep track of logos, print styles, colors, templates and all the rest. It’s a hard fact of corporate life, though: a strong identity relies on strong resource management. Time-consuming as it can be, however, it is worth the effort.
The Consequences
Too often businesses invest time and resources into developing a strong identity, and then drop the ball when it comes to making that investment pay off through resource management. The consequences of this common mistake are sometimes easy to overlook, but in time corrode the effectiveness of a sound marketing strategy.
What kinds of consequences are we talking about? In a word: details. The logo that doesn’t reproduce well in the newspaper; the building signage that doesn’t match the letterhead; a website that uses a corporate blue that is entirely different than any other piece of collateral. These details are, taken individually, seemingly insignificant. But in time they add up to an inconsistent and sloppy corporate identity, which helps derail the work of the best marketing efforts.
The Benefits
Beyond the sheer value in terms of consistency, good visual resource management has its own positive benefits. Maintaining a well-organized set of marketing materials also helps make any effort more efficient, and that saves money. Re-inventing materials from scratch not only increases the odds of inconsistency, but also wastes time and, in the worst cases, may actually discourage marketing activity.
Perhaps the most important benefit of good resource management is that it keeps control over your image where it belongs: with you. The artists and technicians who may handle your marketing materials have the best intentions, but they should not be making ongoing decisions about your corporate identity. Those decisions should be made once, and then followed through consistently. Managing your resources can help assure this.
What can you do to better manage your resources? Here is a short checklist of resource management activities:
• Keep a good set of logo files on hand. These files should be prepared specifically for various applications: print, the web, large reproduction, smaller reproduction applications, etc.
• Maintain a corporate color list that specify how your colors are to be handled for various media.
• Keep on file, or in a specified third-party location, whatever formats or templates are used in your marketing materials. Make sure that a “clean” set of such formats is maintained, not later revisions or adaptations.
• If certain images are used consistently in your marketing efforts, make sure that the most pristine and highest-quality versions are kept on file. If certain fonts are essential, keep copies of those fonts on file, too.
• Maintain a list of preferred production vendors, and keep their specific specifications on hand. When their services are needed, you will know how to prepare your materials, or have them prepared, to avoid unexpected variations in the appearance of your materials.
This is great way to start managing your most important visual resources. You will find that your look remains more professional and recognizable, you get more done in less time, and you maintain control over how your organization is represented in all media. Especially in today’s world, a visual identity isn’t a static thing; it’s something that is constantly challenged and should be constantly cared for.