Digital Brand Description Document

Definition

A digital brand description document is the digital branding work product produced during the digital brand production task that documents the proposed new digital brand identity of the customer organization's business enterprise.

Objectives

The typical objectives of a digital brand description document are to:

• Document the proposed new digital brand identity.
• Provide rationales for each component of the new digital brand identity.
• Document guidelines for its usage on user interfaces and documentation.
• Act as a major input to the user interface design effort.

Benefits

The typical benefits of a digital brand description document are:

• It makes it easier to achieve concensus among the various stakeholders regarding the essence of the new digital brand.
• It ensures a consistent appropriate usage of the digital brand across all applications (e.g., user interfaces and documentation).

Contents

The typical contents of a digital brand description document include:

• New Digital Brand Identity:
  • Logo This includes the content, standard font(s), standard colors (including graytones), default and minimum size, screen and page placement, default and minimum resolution, location and size of the associated graphic files including MIME types (e.g., gif, jpeg), and the rationale for the brand's logo.
  • Trademark This includes the standard font(s), standard colors (including graytones), default and minimum size, screen or page placement, default and minimum resolution, location and size of the associated graphic files including MIME types (e.g., gif, jpeg), and the rationale of the brand's trademark, salesmark, and tag line.
  • Brand Typography This includes the standard fonts (including face and default and minimal size), colors, screen and page placement, and rationale for the brand's typography.
  • Brand Sounds This includes any standard branding sounds (e.g., jingles, recordings of spokesperson speaking tag lines), the location and size of the associated files with MIME types, and their rationale.
  • Brand Messages (a.k.a., Brand Associations) This includes brand messages describing:
    • The Business Enterprise (e.g., a competent and successful business)
    • What the business enterprises does (e.g., it runs the premier online office supply e-marketplace.)
    • The User's Value Proposition (e.g., it empowers its users to easily and safely buy and sell the office supplies over the Web.)
    • The Core Beliefs and Values of the business enterprise (e.g., user success, quality products, reliable service, credibility, trust, and dependability)
  • Brand Personality (a.k.a., Brand Aura) This includes the:
    • Brand Tone and Voice (e.g., serious, businesslike, technical, fun)
    • Brand Look and Feel (e.g., clean, complete)
    • Brand Metaphors
• Brand Comparison This includes the new digital brands:
  • Strengths
  • Potential Weaknesses
  • Differentiators
• Appendices:
  • Major Issues
  • TBDs
  • Assumptions

Stakeholders

The typical stakeholders of a digital brand description document are:

• Producers:
  • Digital Branding Team
• Evaluators:
  • Strategy Inspection Team
• Approvers:
  • Technical Leader
  • Project Manager
  • Customer Representative
• Maintainers:
  • Digital Branding Team
  • User Experience Teams
• Users:
  • User Experience Teams, which uses it to develop the digital brand prototype and when designing application human interfaces.

Phases

• Business Strategy: Completed
• Business Optimization: Maintained
• Initiation: Maintained (or Completed if not completed earlier)
• Construction: Maintained
• Delivery: Maintained
• Usage: Maintained
• Retirement: Archived

Preconditions

A digital brand description document typically can be started if the following preconditions hold:

• The business strategy phase has started.
• The digital branding team has been staffed and trained in the digital brand formulation task.
• The customer and competitor brand analyses are relatively complete and stable.

Inputs

The typical inputs to a digital brand description document include:

• Work Products:
  • Customer Analysis
  • Market Analysis
  • User Analysis
  • Business Vision Statement
  • Customer Brand Analysis
  • Competitor Brand Analysis
  • Digital Brand Board
  • Digital Brand Prototypes
• Stakeholders:
  • Branding domain experts
  • Customer organization marketing personnel
  • Digital Brand strategist
  • GUI Designer

Guidelines

• Only produce this work product if a new digital brand identity is to be produced.
• This is a living document that is developed incrementally and iteratively in parallel with other documents (e.g., Digital Brand Board).

Conventions

A digital brand description document is typically constrained by the following conventions:

• Inspection Checklist

Examples

• Example Digital Brand Description Document