Taking control of your corporate branding

The decline in the number of journalists and the rise of PR professionals are well documented. In the US, PR workers now outnumber journalists by about five to one. As Pew Research has pointed out, organizations are increasingly able to reach out to the public directly, in any number of ways, while journalists encounter greater difficulty in checking and confirming information from outside sources. This increase in PR power comes with corresponding changes in media relations and (therefore) PR responsibility. Media, stakeholders and target audiences increasingly look at PR departments for consistent, reliable and recognizable narratives.

Consistent branding

Protocols and standards enhance consistent branding. Consequently, from a sender's perspective, a natural first step is to set up and incorporate PR guidelines to be used by all global branches within the organization. They include general and specific instructions for press releases (format, layout, tone of voice, boilerplate), rich media (formats, sizes, resolutions, styles) and templates for documents like brochures and white papers.

Being in control of all this means making sure your PR output always looks like it came from one person, even though you may have dozens of teams around the world working on it. A lot of this has to do with your organization's visual branding. Consistent use of logos, icons, colors and fonts goes a long way in generating a brand that is instantly recognized by readers, viewers and visitors. For global brands with many different national websites, this means ensuring all newsrooms look the same at any given moment. Visitors who are familiar with a newsroom’s layout, instantly know where to look for the content you want to share with them. A good example of a company who is ensuring a consistent branding, is Velux. Not only their corporate office, but also local offices such as The Netherlands and Russia have the same look & feel to support the global brand. With minor differences in these newsrooms (such as a different social media channel), they all look and feel the same but are though personalised per office.

Workflow wins

This brings us to the why and how of workflow consistency. A major step in securing a unified brand look and feel is using the same tools and platforms throughout the whole organization. Working with the same system guarantees a level of consistency in PR processes, and facilitates easy and uniform coordination and training for departments worldwide. A corporate identity change is particularly straightforward when templates, logos and boilerplates can be simultaneously adjusted in all newsrooms and press releases. A SaaS solution that functions independently from the rest of the website can even be instantly migrated in the event of a complete website redesign.

The same goes for measuring the results of your PR efforts. Using the same monitoring system for all global outlets creates a comprehensive overview with easy comparisons of metrics from different locations. This in turn helps with choosing the standards for measuring and reporting on the return on investment (ROI) of your PR practices.

Win-win

An organizational workflow as described above derives consistency from its global PR guidelines and efficiency from its uniform use of tools and platforms. Internally, this makes for easier cooperation, training and managing of potential changes in corporate branding and identity. Externally, it ensures a consistent conveyance of your brand to all media, customer bases and stakeholders. A win-win situation for everyone involved!