In Conversation with Tanvi Pinjarkar on BRAND MANUALS

Hello and welcome to the podcast on industrial marketing by Bijoypita. With an experience of over 20 years, Bijoypita helps engineering and manufacturing companies implement modern marketing programs that deliver meaningful business outcomes through definitive brand strategies, production of media assets, marketing automation, and lead generation systems, transforming their digital footprint globally. Hope you find the podcast valuable to your business. Do visit bejoyapeter.com to stay connected. Hello everyone and welcome to, I believe, a refreshing episode on Industrial Marketing by Bijoy Peter. Hi Bijoy, how are you doing today? I'm good Tanvi, thank you. And thank you for especially using the word refreshing. Refreshing. I mean, I hope people who listen to this late at night also find it refreshing. I hope so too. Thank you. So finally we are here. This was long, long due. Yes. And with your profound experience into the world of industrial marketing, yes, I believe you have seen a lot of companies create their own personas through these years. Which is nothing but what we call as a brand or branding. Correct. So let's talk more on this, which brings us to a simple but very, very important topic that we are going to cover today— the brand manual. Right. Let's start small. How do you define a brand manual? All right, so when you say brand manual, uh, there are two words here. Let me Also, elaborate a little on the word brand. Now when you say brand, a lot of people associate branding or brand to be a very intellectual exercise, something that involves a lot of, I mean, I don't know, money and things of that order. But I think brand is nothing but just a gut feeling. It's a feeling in your stomach than a feeling in your head, you know, something related to a very intellectual feeling. It's nothing like that. Right, interesting. Yes, a brand is nothing but a feeling that you feel safe in the transaction, you feel predictable in the transaction. That is about creating a brand, right? That's why people tend to find value. Now speaking about the word manual, we could easily relate this with something when we go to a school. You know, a lot of schools or organizations like the defense organizations. Yeah. These organizations derive a lot of esteem from a set of rules that they follow, which are very basic. It could be their uniform, it could be related to their personal hygiene, right? Collectively, when these rules are followed, it becomes a manual. Okay. At an organizational level, people have different beliefs and understanding about what the organization is. Correct. So it could get deciphered through the journey. People will interpret it in their own way. So the best form is to make a lot of these areas tangible. Okay. And a brand manual contains such an information. Okay, so it's basically something that gets everyone on one single page together. Correct. As far as a lot of common parameters are concerned, you cannot moderate somebody's belief in the company. But you can always put in place areas like uniform, the go-to-market, in some cases the introduction, and those kind of laterals. Right, right, right. So I think we've also spoken a little bit on how you apply the brand manual rather. Yes. Across collaterals or across people and their beliefs. I mean, you basically give them a direction to follow. And they join in. Like, how exactly do you apply, apply this manual? So when you say you give them directions, that becomes a little dictatorial in nature. What we do is we— when you create a brand manual, if it is created involving stakeholders in the company, then you're welcoming people for a change. Because the moment directions are given, chances are in an organization people will rebel. So this should be something that should be a welcome change than a directional change. By the way, this particular coffee that we are having now, okay, what is the brand called? It's called Halved. Halved, yes, it's really nice. Thanks, Tanvi. Most welcome. Oh, thank you. You have to mention coffee in all your podcasts and it's not necessary. Is it a part of your brand manual? Yes. Okay, great then. Good cue. Most of my podcast episodes you'll find me commenting on the coffee. Yeah, that is a brand collateral. That is how we do a brand manual instruction. Amazing. So coming on to the next question, at what stage of any business should one start or design a brand manual? There was a time and stage where people used to think a brand manual can come as the business gets successful, or there was a traction point where they felt, ki, now I need a brand manual, now I need to go and do my branding. I personally feel those days are gone. Right. In today's time and era, there is no entry barrier to start a business. Businesses can start anytime, any day, yeah, at a very low-cost model. So you will eventually find yourself in a red ocean within a month. Uh, hence my suggestion to business owners or entrepreneurs who want to start up with their own, um, business or enterprise is to consider doing your brand manual the day you decide that your business needs a logo. Oh, yeah, you want a logo on day one, correct? Therefore you need to have a brand manual on day one. I'm putting this in place with your first question where you said that a brand manual— where, and we discussed that a brand manual need not be something very heavy. You need not always consider inviting an advertising agency who will come and do this. A lot of simple rules can be devised by the founders themselves or the stakeholders themselves, and maybe start off with creating 5 simple standard areas where all of them can perform at a given average. So that becomes your brand manual. But try and do it on day 1 as soon as you get your logo done. Okay, so if you see— look at rather at a brand manual from an overall perspective, what are the must-haves of a brand manual for any business? The must-haves obviously is got to do with one, the font that is being used. Okay. That's an area which is the last mile activity. Right. So if a company has branches in n number of locations, all of them are going to type in something. So the font is something that needs to be standardized. The colors used can be standardized. Okay. And the ratio of the logos, because these logos as they are placed on different media, it gets skewed, you know. So avoid all of that. So the geometry, okay, in terms of the logo can be standardized. So top 3 things could be, as I said, one is your font, the other standardizing colors, and third is standardizing the ratio of the logo. Other things can eventually follow on. I mean, yeah, there's no end to a brand manual, rather. You can keep on adding things as you expand or, you know, go on different platforms and go on into the market, you can keep on adding to the bank. And as the business grows into different demographics and geographies, you will find that the manifest ecosystem changes. Like color systems in India could be easily interpreted using the CMYK palette. For the printer people. Yes, they understand CMYK. The moment you move the business outside India, a lot of printers or people who do manifests require these colors in their Pantone shades. So it's a perpetual process. Right, and then there are different, you know, like vinyl as a medium, RAL codes as medium, so that's like an extensive brand manual. Correct, so the ecosystem differs as the business grows. Correct. Moving on, how do you think a B2B business who has a brand manual differs from a brand manual that's designed for a B2C business? Is there a difference or, you know, how do we look at it? If you have a B2B business, how do you design one? And if you have a B2C one? See, in the manifest or rather what is produced, there is a difference because B2C needs more channels like they have packaging, they'll have more ATL in terms of whole broadens and, you know, the brochures and of that order. Comparatively, a B2B business will not have those kind of channels or manifests. But this question needs to be taken in a more purposeful way, right? You know, so brand— why do you need a brand manual is the purpose, correct? So that does not change as whether it's a B2B or a B2C. But yes, a B2C channel's brand manual needs to be more elaborate because the channels involved are more, and demographics and geographies are more complex in a B2C business compared to what it is for a B2B business. True, right? So a simple example is like if you take McDonald's as a business, the top-of-the-line brand areas does not change irrespective of any demography or any geography. But what happens underneath it is aligned with that particular location's requirements. Requirements. Got it. And in case in a scenario there's a business that's going on for years, yes, you're still continuing to move on and does not have these guidelines, I mean the brand manual is absent, yes, what would happen? 'What would happen' in future tense is not the answer. The answer is what could, what has already happened. So because they didn't have a brand manual in place, this is not a blame game, but it's just a scenario where you have already lost so much time that you eventually have started probably looking negotiable. True. You know, people have perceived you in different ways. And you've lost that brand equity already, right? That's the reason why you should have your brand manual from day one. But if it's a business and probably you not have the priority to look at the brand and the marketing activities, then you could start any day. Any day is a good day. Any day is a good day to start. Yeah, like we took up the example of McDonald's, the, the golden arch that is there. Yeah. Is a standard that you will get safe and hygienic food here. Correct. What goes below it is, I mean, it's subjective, right? So they've never missed that opportunity. Like Ray Kroc, yeah, as an individual, never missed. Uh, if you see, he was standardizing. If you watch the movie, one good example is for our audiences to make sure that they watch the movie Founder, you know, and see how he had an understanding of developing his brand. Yes. Yes, the franchising model, standardizing it all together. Yes. And what do you think, how lengthy or what is an ideal, you know, size of a brand manual? I understand we've discussed about what are the minimum things required in a brand manual, but what is an ideal brand manual like? See, an ideal brand manual which is locked to one demographic will contain obviously the geometry, the font, the color palettes, the immediate manifests like the go-to-market that includes your visiting cards, customer-facing assets like envelopes, the uniforms, the mugs, you know, these little things, the pens, the diaries. Yeah, so it's like a mix of internal stakeholders as well as what goes outside the company. So there are areas which are customer-facing, people who are customer-facing. They'll need a little more standardization compared to what is happening inside the office. But having said that, a brand manual should contain, you know, cover minimum 15 to 20 areas of all manifests. Okay, okay. And is this like a one-time activity, or does this, you know, happen rather regularly, or how is it? No, this is not a one-time activity. All sustainable good things sustain because they are open to change. True that. Okay, so if a brand or the assets in the brand require a generation change— now you can't changing every day or every month is also not a good idea. True. But in any given scenario, a given branding activity on a manual will have a shelf life or should have a shelf life of around 7 years. Okay. Right, after 7 years, it's good to look at what you have done, take feedback from the stakeholders in and outside the company, and look at that little generation change that you require. So never ever look at it as a stubborn exercise. You should be welcome to change, but the average median where you need to include this change will be approximately 7 years in my understanding. Okay, so is it applicable for everything in the brand manual, or are you talking about only the brand identity? And can probably some collaterals would require a change in 2 to 3 years, like suppose the uniforms are changing, or suppose there are some, you know, flexible collaterals like some exhibition collaterals which require a change, or you know, there are introductions of some design elements into the brand manual. So I suppose you're talking about the brand identity. I'm speaking in specific about at like absolute 5 feet, 1 feet level is about the logo only. Logo, okay. Or the punchline only, right? But the subsets under it, like your exhibition manifests, yes, your uniforms, yes, that need not wait for 7 years, right? Because every customer-facing asset you have is grind to the red ocean. Correct. Right, so you have to be agile there. True, true. So like, who are the people who need to get involved, or rather should ideally be involved in designing this brand manual? I understand could be an agency who's driving the whole activity of creating a brand manual, but On the part of the company, like, who are the people who should get involved in this activity? Yes, this, uh, most of the act— most of the decisions, uh, we make in life is a combination of wisdom and knowledge. Correct. Right. So you will consult people who have wisdom and you will execute it with people who have knowledge. All right. Therefore There are two types of stakeholders involved in creating a brand. People who've been through the roughs, that is the internal stakeholders. Correct. Their wisdom has to be brought to the table, and the agency's knowledge has to be combined to create a more effective brand. Brand. Nice. Thank you. Sounded like a very baba ji kind of— yeah, the pravachan was nice. Sounded like a Sermon, I guess. And discussing about how you need to roll this out, this particular document, the brand manual, if you need to share it with vendors outside of your organization, for example, if there's a printer who's involved, or if there's a fabricator who's involved, or if there are people who, you know, paint the workshops, the shop floors, you know, such kind of vendors, if they require specifics of the color details and, you know, such details. So do you like share it directly with them? Is there some compliance to be done when the document is going outside your company? How does one look at that? In my experience and in today's ever-changing world, I think printers or people who actually produce the manifest for you will be very happy to receive a brand manual from you. Right. Right, because it gives them also a sense of direction. Right, right. So because it's gonna make everyone's life easy and it's gonna give everyone a direction, you should share your brand manual with your external agencies. Far before that, you need to have a training program where existing employees are sensitized about the brand and new employees are inducted with the belief in the brand. Absolutely correct. So I guess it's, it's, it's a nice, uh, like set of questions we catered to in a nice conversation on this little document that's so important and its value is not realized yet much, uh, with especially the B2B businesses, I suppose. So what, how would you conclude this? What do people need to know, or rather, what would you like to say to these, you know, B2B businesses that we cater to? Whether it's B2B or whether it's B2C, but I mean, in specific, B2B, you know, I think a lot of business owners there, because they are largely technicians, correct, the engineers, and, you know, Correct. They have been innocent about how to brand their business, and that's a lacking area in India as far as I understand. You know, a lot of founders, they have, they have their daily firefighting right from day one, right? Branding or marketing is not really, really on top of their priority list. What is important for them is sales, right? But in today's scenario where there is a red ocean everywhere, one such entry barrier most B2B businesses can create, or I may call it a blue ocean strategy, is to also give branding a standing in their priority list. Right. That will help everyone in the give and take mechanism. And also, I mean, if you involve your employees in this exercise, we could have a recognition. Yes, yes. For them to, you know, appreciate them for that they follow everything so diligently. Yes, see, for employees or for all form of stakeholders, there is a phrase called pride of association. Correct. Right, all employees, like if you say an employee from a reputed brand Let's take the case of Bajaj, for example. You will find that employees in Bajaj, irrespective of whether you ask them to wear a t-shirt or not, they will wear it. They will wear it even on a Sunday if they are going for a cinema. Yeah, right. That is because they feel proud to be associated with Bajaj. It brings them a lot of dignity and respect. Correct, correct. Yes. Uh, so all stakeholders in an organization want dignity and respect, and some channels which can help them float this are these brand assets. Here I would also like to add one more factor, is like if you're giving employees or stakeholders a t-shirt, let's not look at printing a cheap material t-shirt, right? Because nobody wants to actually wear it. Right. So if you want them to carry this pride of association, always select a reasonably good or the best material and go for the best printing so that they are proud to wear it. Yeah, it's a subconscious way of accepting and carrying it ahead. Yes, yes, they would actually love to wear it. True. Provided it upholds more dignity and respect to their existence. True that. I suppose this was not the closing statement. We can start the podcast all over again. Yes, with all these never-ending topics. Yes, nevertheless, let's meet in another podcast. Absolutely, Tanvi. Uh, based on how wonderful the world of branding is and how much value it can get to any business, rather. Yes, where I'll also mention about coffee again, most likely with a new brand of coffee. Okay, see you guys. See you soon. Thank you, Tanvi, for your time. Thank you so much, Bjoy. Hope you find the podcast valuable to your business. Do visit B-E-J-O-Y-P-E-T-E-R, bejoypeeter.com, to stay connected.