Developing and maintaining a clear approach to managing brand design within a CPG company can be a tough but decisively productive way to make brand design more efficient. How you’re doing it now may ultimately not deliver the best results. Something that appears to work for other brands may not be the best approach for your brand model. When the grass always appears greener on the other side of the fence, you must to decide whether or not to jump over.
Just to give some context, approaches to managing brand design have changed drastically over the last ten years. Historically, Agency of Record (AOR) relationships were typical, with large external agencies responsible for the bulk of brand work. At the time, this made a lot of sense because channels of communication between consumers and brands were traditional—print, radio and TV. However, as the internet changed the way brands interact with consumers, communication touchpoints exploded. There were simply more ways to communicate as a brand—and it became important to find and work with agencies that excelled in these channels as well. In essence, driving down the prevalence of one AOR relationship and driving up the need for multiple-agency relationships, with design playing a much larger role internally through creative leadership and design management.