Brand Identity

An institution's brand identity is the face it presents to clients, staff, suppliers, or the general public. This face is not only the logotype and brand colours; it can extend to the tone and manner of marketing concepts and text, service methods, and, in some cases, how staff communicate with and treat their customers. In other words, it is its personality - its brand persona.

The brand identity graphics aim to improve the entity's profile and lend it wide recognition, professionalism, experience, reliability, prestige, and permanence, among many other attributes, depending on the entity's business plan, mission, and vision.

Its purpose is to brand the entity and sometimes, through this branding, to reveal something about what the entity does, often with the help of a slogan, while giving it a unique look, to set it apart - to create a brand that is instantly recognisable, often merely by a logo symbol. Its purpose is also to be the basis for a brand design language.

Consistency is the mainstay of building a strong, instantly-recognisable brand. It is crucial that we are all aware of this and that those of us who are involved in producing marketing material of any kind be consistent in what we use and how we use it. Therefore, the brand must have established rules and regulations for using the brand graphics. For this reason, it is necessary to have a detailed Brand Identity Manual, which may also include examples of a brand design language or elements of it.

In a large institution such as ours, where several campuses, faculties, staff, and third-party suppliers produce large amounts of material, it becomes necessary to have a system of capturing, archiving and updating advertising, graphic design, photography and brand identity files. This central knowledge repository includes an interactive training programme, a manageable and efficient approvals process, and a group of brand guardians responsible for ongoing brand maintenance.

The Marketing and Communication Department is the custodian of the CPUT brand identity. Before anyone can use the logo in any printed or electronic publication, approval must be granted.