If you haven’t already, please check out Part 1 and Part 2 of this series.
A definition of a brand center
A brand center is a content-rich, concentrated version of a typical brand website. It puts a brand lens on the user experience for specific tasks and relevant content. Brand managers who know the use case that they are serving make more engaging and valuable experiences. So, how do we determine the use case and then design for it?
Learn more: Is now the time for a Brand Center?
The world’s best sites
We looked at the world’s top 100 sites. It’s an interesting map with a few key players dominating in visits in the billions. We posit that their position is more about scaling free networks that build with than any breakthrough in design thinking.
Image credit: Visual Capitalist
We also researched the best practices for website design. Ideas were expressed in terms like consistency, simplicity, and visual hierarchy– but these principles are abstractions. They are more about enabling capabilities than approaches that create engagement.
The brand engagement difference
Brand engagement solves problems by putting the user at the core and creating memorable
moments that drive human impact. To implement brand engagement capabilities, brand managers must adopt three new behaviors:
- A mindset shift that identifies the true human problem that needs to be solved. For example, in this image: it’s not that I need ketchup, it’s how best to deliver ketchup.
- Move from capabilities to moments that matter to the user. Brand management must move from top-down rules to adapting to the ecosystems we operate in.
Learn More: Unlocking value through brand ecosystems: The new standard
- From siloed contribution to collective impact. It’s the user, the elements of the brand, and a single-minded idea that is architected in an ecosystem that leverages brand artifacts to create a new experience.
Today’s notion in a brand center
If you go to typical brand center software providers, here is what you might see on their site:
- A digital asset management platform your company can trust.
- Learn just how simple it can be to manage, review, distribute, and analyze your content.
- Our platform enables teams to collaborate in the cloud, get content to market faster, and maximize the impact of marketing assets.
Enabling technology ideas that do not express that brand center’s need to be an affinity-generating hub that can replace the website where brand is managed are not, ultimately, helpful.
Brand Engagement in a Brand Center
So how would we define a brand center?
- Human problem: Empower the next generation of brand management that humanizes brands. Expand brand managers’ tools to include a ‘Brand Concierge’ approach, along with minimal, but required, Brand Cop approaches.
Learn More: What’s your brand governance style?
- Moments that matter: Create a community of users that scale brand consistently internally and externally leveraging technology, guidelines, and processes.
- Collective impact: Our brand center enables global productivity by delivering the brand as intended, without question, every time.
We have a community that wants to help and learn from your experience. To learn more about how others are becoming digitally enabled, listen to my podcast, coming soon.
If you are ready to build brand engagement into your brand center, contact us here.