Brand Guide

Brand Guide Purpose

The purpose of this brand guide is to help maintain brand consistency so that anyone associated with Digital Marketing at WMU can communicate in a consistent manner. As a digital marketing RSO, it is important that we are the very best at digital marketing. This brand guide communicates general guidelines, content guidelines and distribution standards and should be a key factor in training and assisting those coming into new RSO positions.  

Who should be using this guide?

• New students being onboarded into new RSO positions
• Committee members who need to make general, content and/or distribution references
• Any partners or collaborations that require creative design  
  

Who is Digital Marketing at WMU?  

Digital Marketing at WMU is for all students who want to be at the forefront of marketing— improving their digital marketing skills and their preparation for digital marketing careers in areas like analytics, social media, content strategy, and digital advertising. The organization brings together students and industry experts for regular educational events, workshops, mentorship, and community-building.  

Marketing Objectives, Audiences, and Channels 

Primary Marketing Objectives

 *The table presents a starting idea but can be changed based on time/resources 

Secondary Marketing Objectives

Overall objective: create industry relationships that turn into professional opportunities for students (jobs, internships, etc.) 

Properties and Resources

Online Accounts:

• • Website
  • Email
  • ExperienceWMU
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • TikTok

Offline Accounts:

• • Display case
  • Outdoor events

Marketing Tools and Files

Account Access

Always refer to the marketing director(s) for account passwords.

Brand Identity

What makes us different in how we do things compared to other student organizations? 

Digital Marketing at WMU is… 

Brand Voice

Our brand voice helps reinforce who we are, and our values no matter what channel we’re on. By using consistent language across all our channels, both on and offline, we can embody our brand’s identity while creating stronger, deeper connections with our audience.  

It’s important that we always keep our primary and secondary audiences in mind when crafting the voice of our content. So, who are we speaking to? 

We aim to evoke confidence in our digital marketing knowledge and abilities while emphasizing a humanized and modern approach. Refer to our brand identity for a better understanding of who we are and what we value. 

Grammatical Conventions

• Digital Marketing at WMU 
• Digital marketing student group 
• eCommerce 

Visual Identity

Logo and Logo Usage

Digital Marketing at WMU’s logo plays an important role as being our most recognizable brand asset. Our intentional color choice helps portray a futuristic feel while remaining simple but bold.  

Our logo is generally used on solid backgrounds and the preferred approach is using the logo by itself. 

Exclusion Zone/Clear Space: 

To ensure legibility, provide enough clear space around the logo, approximately the width of a letter stem. The proportion of the clear space should be maintained as the logo is resized. 

Things To Avoid

It’s important we maintain brand recognition by using our logo in a consistent manner. Here are some things to avoid:

Color Pallet

Color is an essential part of brand identity. By utilizing a consistent color pallet, we can help reinforce the cohesiveness of our brand and cultivate strong emotional connections with our audience. 

Logo Color

Primary Colors

Typography

While there aren’t any specific font styles we enforce, there are still some important guidelines to keep in mind when designing with text to ensure readability and accessibility.  

Recommendations: DM Sans, League Spartan, Montserrat

Use proper text weight.

Use proper text weight. While thin font styles can sometimes help create contrast within a design, avoid using too thin or too light of font styles, especially on light backgrounds, as it can appear faint and compromise user readability. 

Don’t format text with bends or curves.

Always default to using linear text layouts to optimize reader accessibility  

Use 3 or less different font styles per graphic

Carefully consider your font style choices by making sure they’re legible and that you’re only using 3 or less font styles to minimize distractions and confusion.

Use visual and semantic space

Space is an important visual design tool that assists the organization of related content to help create visual flow utilizing negative space. 

Photography Style

Our imagery strives to be more than just ordinary photos. Instead, our imagery is used as a way to capture stories and communicate them to our audience through our channels. Our imagery should actively capture the exciting ambiance, the individuals, and the largeness of our event. Think of our photography as a tool for social proof — a way to create FOMO and encourage students to attend future events!  

In order to consistently capture high-quality photos from our events, it is critical that each event always has a designated photographer who is familiar with our photography style. 

Post-Event Photography Guidelines 

Content Guidelines

Messaging Guidelines – 3 Question Analysis

When creating content, especially content that is meant to drive people to do something (e.g., attend events, apply for scholarships/opportunities, read something, etc.) utilize the 3 Question Analysis as a basic approach in guiding and improving RSO marketing content. All marketing content should be able to accurately answer the following 3 questions:

Design Guidelines – CRAP Design Principles  

CRAP stands for contrast, repetition, alignment and proximity. By leveraging these simple design practices together, you can consistently create effective, quality designs and visuals. Now before you begin designing, let’s take a quick look at what each principle means.  

Planning and Executing

Marketing Objective Checklists

Post Schedule