What a Brand Brain should actually remember
What a Brand Brain should actually remember
Guidelines tell you what a brand looks like. Memory tells you what it has already learned.
Guidelines tell you what a brand looks like. Memory tells you what it has already learned.
Storyflow team
Brand Strategist
·
·
7 min
read
Identity, tone and history in one place. The part most brands lose is what they learned along the way.
On this page
Guidelines are not memory
The four things worth keeping
How memory changes a brief
In short
Share
Copy link
Every brand has guidelines. Logo spacing, colour values, a tone-of-voice page that most people read once. What almost no brand has is a memory: what worked in Lisbon last spring, which hooks failed in Poland, why the team stopped using that format.
Every brand has guidelines. Logo spacing, colour values, a tone-of-voice page that most people read once. What almost no brand has is a memory: what worked in Lisbon last spring, which hooks failed in Poland, why the team stopped using that format.
That knowledge lives in people’s heads and old threads. When someone leaves or a new agency joins, the brand starts learning the same lessons again from zero.
That knowledge lives in people’s heads and old threads. When someone leaves or a new agency joins, the brand starts learning the same lessons again from zero.
Guidelines are not memory
Guidelines are not memory
Guidelines are not memory
Guidelines describe a brand at rest. Memory describes a brand in motion: decisions, results, exceptions and the reasons behind them. Without it, every brief starts from the rulebook instead of from what the brand already knows.
Guidelines describe a brand at rest. Memory describes a brand in motion: decisions, results, exceptions and the reasons behind them. Without it, every brief starts from the rulebook instead of from what the brand already knows.
A brand that can’t remember will keep paying to relearn.
A brand that can’t remember will keep paying to relearn.
From the Brand Brain overview
A brand that can’t remember will keep paying to relearn.
From the Brand Brain overview
The four things worth keeping
The four things worth keeping
The four things worth keeping
We keep four kinds of memory. Identity, the rules. Context, what each market needs. Performance, what actually worked. Decisions, who chose what and why. Together they let any team brief like someone who has been there for years.
We keep four kinds of memory. Identity, the rules. Context, what each market needs. Performance, what actually worked. Decisions, who chose what and why. Together they let any team brief like someone who has been there for years.
Past campaigns, tagged by market and result. New briefs start from what already worked.
Past campaigns, tagged by market and result. New briefs start from what already worked.
How memory changes a brief
How memory changes a brief
How memory changes a brief
With memory in place, a brief stops being a blank page. It arrives with the hooks that worked before, the formats each market prefers and the mistakes to avoid. The first draft is better, so the approval round is shorter.
With memory in place, a brief stops being a blank page. It arrives with the hooks that worked before, the formats each market prefers and the mistakes to avoid. The first draft is better, so the approval round is shorter.
In short
01
Guidelines describe the brand; memory explains it.
02
Keep identity, context, performance and decisions.
03
Briefs that start from memory need fewer rounds.
In short
01
Guidelines describe the brand; memory explains it.
02
Keep identity, context, performance and decisions.
03
Briefs that start from memory need fewer rounds.
Operating models
Essay
Essay
·
·
8 min
8 min
Why local teams rebuild what HQ already made
Read article
→
Governance
Field note
Field note
·
·
5 min
5 min
The Golden Triangle: a better test for every social decision
Read article
→
Localisation
Essay
Essay
·
·
6 min
6 min
One production, every market: the economics of localisation
Read article
→
Let’s talk
Let’s talk
Let’s talk about your structure specifically.
Let’s talk about your structure specifically.
Thirty minutes with a strategist. We look at your structure, not a slide deck.
Thirty minutes with a strategist. We look at your structure, not a slide deck.