Don’t gloss over brand manuals

Well said, Katie Wood from The Value Engineers, in your letter “True value of brand manuals” (MW October 28). Your point about the true potential of manuals to define the essence of the brand is well made.

However, I can’t let sweeping statements such as “stunning shrines” and “superficial” pass. I’m certain that those behind the Manchester United Football Club work, much less than everyone who worked with me on the Lexus project – including the advertising, print, DM, training, PR and client side – would be very happy being described in such shallow terms though.

If you were lucky enough to work on such brands, you’d find that communications programmes (and not “manuals”) such as the Lexus example, cut deep into the heart of a brand at a moment in time – more than many other examples I’ve seen. More importantly, however, they provide the partners active within the realisation process with developmental cues for the future.

Lexus handbooks take the brand message to all corners of the marketing activity, from values to business to facilities. Lack of detail? Well, judge for yourself over the coming months, as this brand gets behind the single-minded purpose conveyed in it’s “superficial” manuals.

Not that we wouldn’t welcome a healthy debate over the whole subject of their value, mind …

Richard Hill

Design director

Marketplace Design

Abingdon

Oxfordshire