The brand identity of an institution is the face it presents to clients, staff and 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, the way staff communicate with and treat their customers. In other words, its personality – its brand persona.
The purpose of the brand identity graphics is to improve the entity’s profile and to lend it wide recognition and a sense of professionalism, experience, reliability, prestige and permanence, amongst many other attributes, depending on the entity’s business plan, or mission and vision.
It’s 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, whilst 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 important that we are all aware of this, and that those of us who are involved in producing marketing material of any kind, must be consistent in what we use and how we use it. Therefore the brand must have an established set of rules and regulations for the use of the brand graphics. And for this reason, it is absolutely 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 there are several campuses and faculties, and where large amounts of material is produced by a number of staff and third-party suppliers, it becomes absolutely necessary to have a system of capturing, archiving and updating advertising, graphic design, photography and brand identity files – a central knowledge repository that includes an interactive training programme, a manageable and efficient process of approvals, and the appointment of a group of brand guardians responsible for the on-going maintenance of the brand.
The Marketing and Communication Department is the custodian of the CPUT brand identity. Approval must be granted by the Marketing and Communication Department before the logo may be used in any printed item or electronic publication.
