Outside of the obvious reasons a company should consider a branding plan – strong identity, a clear message, the possibility of the holy grail of brand loyalty – there is the added bonus of speed.
With a well-crafted branding scheme in place, the designer and client hit the ground running on every project. There doesn’t have to be endless iterations of every single piece, with every detail scrutinized by everyone and everyone’s aesthetic two cents being offered ad infinitum – this can lead to a slow roll out of the end product or, worse yet, the project grinding to a halt.
With a strong brand, the ad/direct mail/tv spot/email blast/whatever can be put together (relatively) quickly, with the marketing manager and designer on the same wavelength since the broad strokes of the design were established ahead of time. Now this doesn’t mean everyone can’t have some fun (certainly copy and image won’t be the same from project to project and every product/service/target should be considered carefully) and the guidelines don’t have to be considered a hard-and-fast template; but if the typefaces, color palate, general logo placement, and tagline are concrete, a good design can be created with little fuss and virtually no conflict between agency and client.
A good brand should inform your design and will ultimately streamline the creation of a strong campaign.
Jason Polkovitz 