Brand-Led Learning
You know a good brand experience when you have one. Your organization has its own style, culture, and approach to the way you do things. For companies that get it right, products, services, messaging and policies are all aligned to the culture, style and values. This is your brand.
But how well does your e-learning represent your brand? Does it convey a brand experience beyond the inclusion of a logo? Great e-learning needs more than good instructional design – it needs to be brand-driven.
What does branding have to do with learning? Learning is about raising awareness, building new knowledge and skills, and changing behaviors. How effective that experience will be certainly depends on good instructional design, but it also depends on a number of other factors – manager expectations/follow through, company communications and policies, peer responses and more – Your Brand! If you are not aligned to these other factors, you can expect poor results. So what steps can you take to align with your brand?
The brand values can be reinforced throughout the design and delivery of learning interventions. This is far more than ensuring the learning complies with the visual brand identity.
Brand-led learning goes above and beyond just visuals. The brand should influence every aspect of the design including: learning model and execution, art direction, how you will emotionally engage the learner, interface design, use of images, audio and video, tone of voice, the tactile screen experience, messaging style, questioning style, if/how you support and call for action and if/how you assess.
Brand-led learning is much more than static imagery. Conveying the brand through anecdotes and stories works particularly well in induction and onboarding. The language, style and tone should all be designed to reinforce brand values.
Language and tone play a critical role in any brand experience, and since most e-learning has a strong text element, that means making sure that the tone of voice you use is as on brand as any images associated with it. Whatever the case, consistency is crucial.
Want more?
- Download the report - Brand-Led Learning Guide.
- Register early for our complimentary webinar on August 6, 2013 from 11 am – 12 pm CDT: “Brand-led Learning.”
- You can also join the discussion on LinkedIn.
Get in touch, we’d love to help.
