Pizza Today - June 2020 - 12

M I K E ' S M O N T H LY T I P

MIKE BAUSCH

* Never speak braggy in the first person
about Andolini's
Decide based on things you've seen done
with your brand that you did not care for
to determine what you include here. State
clearly what you don't want to be done ever,
and state it in a brand standards package.

My example of not being braggy is a
real one. The free art I was offered from

Brand Standards Package
Now, more than ever, you need to set the standard

W

hen we first opened Andolini's,
developing our brand took time.
We completely redid our logo
six years after opening. We had to
re-look at what our demo was and refocus
our brand. Through all the changes, I've
always ran point on all our marketing. I've
been the one making the calls and creating the content. In the last 15 years, I've
cultivated the message and voice of the
Andolini's brand.
I've received offers in the past for
marketing projects where the salesperson
would also draw up the art and message.
When I would say yes to these projects,
it would be a long, drawn-out process. It
would involve me trying to explain our
brand, getting them the right logos, and
defining the voice and message I wanted to
convey. It would become more work than
it was worth, and I would end up redoing
their work.
That was until I learned about making a Brand Standards package (BSP). I

stumbled onto this a little over a year ago.
It hit me square in the face as the most
obvious thing that I should have been
doing for a long time. I needed it asap.
A brand standards package encapsulates
everything that your brand is. This way, you
can give this package to an artist, designer,
social media liaison or marketing firm
and get it done. My BSP has my logos in
vector art, along with details of what our
color scheme is, down to the CMYK level.
That's fancy art talk for the numbers that
your colors coordinate with by a specific
number. I discovered another imperative,
which is telling any designer what your
brand IS NOT.
For Example:
* Use this logo for catering purposes
* Don't use this logo in this context
* Always use these colors for the background
* Don't use X color
* Use these fonts
* Speak factually about awards we've won

a colleague wanted to write, "You know
Andolini's is the best pizza in town, so come
and get some." This sounded like a nice
compliment coming from them, but this
ad was written in my voice. If it's perceived
that I wrote it, that would be a really lame
way to market my restaurant. In my current
BSP, it states ad copy should speak factually
without opinion. To drive this point home,
I video recorded myself on an iPhone stating all the things I want them to convey. I
placed the video file in BSP folder. I say my
points as if I'm right next to them, "Speak
and write this way, and never this way. Place
logos in a context that adds to the final
product, etc."
It's now my expectation of anyone who
wants my money via design work to abide
by this package. Most designers thank me
because it means less work trying to figure
out and guess our brand intent. The specificity of a brand standards package helps our
advertising appear seamless, regardless of
the art designer.
This exercise also helped me hone in on
what my brand is. You can do this yourself
or have a marketing firm do it for anywhere
from $1,000 to $3,000 as a fair cost. It's
money well spent if you have more than
two stores and find yourself running around
scatterbrained, trying to convey these points
to multiple people. It can be a lot, trying to
handle all the people speaking on behalf of
your brand.
Even If you have just one store, it's still
a good idea to do this exercise yourself and
create your BSP.

MIKE BAUSCH is the owner of Andolini's Pizzeria in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Instagram: @andopizza
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