Digital Brand Production

Definition

Digital brand production is the digital branding task during which the development organization produces the customer organization’s new digital brand.

Objectives

The typical objectives of the digital brand production task are to develop the customer organization’s new:

• Digital brand board.
• Digital brand prototype.
• Digital brand description document.

Preconditions

Digital brand production can typically begin when the following preconditions hold:

• The business strategy phase has started.
• The digital branding team has been staffed and trained in the digital brand production task.
• The customer brand analysis is relatively complete.
• The competitor brand analysis task has been started.

Completion Criteria

Digital brand production is typically complete when the following postconditions hold:

• The digital brand board has been completed, inspected, and approved.
• The digital brand prototype has been completed, inspected, and approved.

Steps

Digital brand production typically involves the Digital Branding Team performing the following steps in an iterative, incremental, and parallel manner:

• Prepare by reading and understanding the:
  • Customer brand analysis.
  • Competitor brand analysis.
• Produce a digital brand board informally documenting the new digital brand identity:
  • Obtain or create the relevant print materials (e.g., graphic images, text).
  • Create a large collage of these materials.
  • Mount the resulting digital brand board onto a wall in the branding strategy, user experience (UX), or project team room.
  • Evaluate the digital brand board informally within the team.
  • Have the digital brand board evaluated externally by the appropriate stakeholders (e.g., customer representative, customer marketing personnel, branding domain experts).
  • Iterate the digital brand board as appropriate.
• Produce an associated digital brand prototype:
  • Obtain or create digital files of the graphic images (e.g., logo, trademark).
  • Obtain or create digital fonts of the necessary typography.
  • Create a nonfunctional GUI prototype (e.g., HTML, Java, paper) incorporating these branding materials.
  • Evaluate the digital brand prototype informally within the team.
  • Have the digital brand prototype evaluated externally by the appropriate stakeholders (e.g., customer representative, customer marketing personnel, branding domain experts).
  • Iterate the digital brand prototype as appropriate.
• Produce the new digital brand identity:
  • Determine the brand messages.
  • Determine the brand personality.
  • Produce the new brand:
    • Logo.
    • Trademark, salesmark, and/or tag line.
    • Typography.
    • Sounds.
  • Evaluate the digital brand identity informally within the team.
  • Have the digital brand identity evaluated externally by the appropriate stakeholders (e.g., customer representative, customer marketing personnel, branding domain experts).
  • Iterate the digital brand identity as appropriate.
• Determine how best to internally and externally communicate the new digital brand.

Techniques

Digital brand production can typically be performed using the following techniques:

• Prototyping

Work Products

Digital brand production typically results in the production of the contents of the following work products:

• Digital Brand Board
• Digital Brand Prototypes
• Digital Brand Description Document

Guidelines

• The brand board can be created manually by gluing print materials onto a heavy paper backing, or digitally by scanning the materials and printing on a large color printer.