Pearson brand architecture: Naming and design guidance for Endorsed branded offerings and components
July 2018 2 Endorsed branded offerings Before you begin
Welcome to the naming and design guidance for Endorsed branded offerings. Our approach is affected by some important brand architecture considerations, so it’s essential that you first read the“Understanding our brand architecture” document, which you can download from the brand hub.
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Pearson brand architecture:
Pearson brand architecture: Naming and design Understanding our guidance for Endorsed brand architecture branded offerings and components
March 2018 March 2018
Please read the above document before proceeding any further. 3 Endorsed branded offerings Introducing our naming and design guidance
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Now that you understand why brand architecture is so important to Pearson, and how we implement it, it’s time to begin creating your Endorsed branded offering.
This document provides an overview of the naming and visual principles that underpin our Endorsed branded offerings—a diverse group of products and services appealing to millions of learners across the world.
Once you have read this document, please ensure that you reach out to the relevant brand team colleagues, who will help you take the next steps in the process and can provide all the relevant guidance and materials you will need. 4 Contents
Introduction to naming at Pearson 5 The importance of naming to our brand architecture and the processes we use
Naming principles and usage 11 How to ensure that we create and use names in the most effective way
Design guidance 15 The visual principles we apply to our Endorsed branded offerings and how we ensure alignment but with clear distinction
Design detail 22 The finer design features we need to remember
Components 24 The naming and visual guidance we follow
Get in touch 30 Where to go next and who can help 5
Introduction to naming at Pearson 6 Introduction Our brand architecture and naming strategy
First, let’s understand a few important points about naming in an organization as large as Pearson.
• We have thousands of offerings, so logical naming is essential to help people find what they’re looking for.
• Trademark protection and brand development are extremely costly. So in order to reduce legal and marketing costs, avoid legal conflicts, and strengthen the Pearson brand, our goal is to maintain only as many distinct brands as necessary.
• Names don’t live in a vacuum. They are often surrounded by the names of adjacent Pearson offerings, so they need to work hard to help people understand what they’re about.
• We prioritize generic and descriptive names that promote clarity and help the Pearson brand.
Generally, we use straightforward names and avoid names that would require significant marketing support to seed and establish in the marketplace. 7 Before you start Working with our subject matter experts
Our naming approach was developed as part of the brand architecture work, the result of rigorous development by the brand team and global stakeholders across Pearson.
If you are renaming an existing offering or exploring names for new offerings, you should ensure that Pearson’s subject matter experts Brand team (SMEs) are part of the process. From the outset, the following teams must be part of all your decision-making:
Brand team [email protected] Legal team Legal team trademarks@pearson.com
Marketing team Please check with your marketing team. Marketing team 8 Naming process overview Phases and key interaction points
Strategy First, ensure that you know into which category your offering fits within our Pearson brand architecture, as this will dictate the type of name it receives. Visit the brand hub for more information about our brand architecture. 1 Strategy Visit the brand hub Creative Following the guidance in this document and the Naming Brief, develop your potential name candidates. For large or complex naming projects, Creative the best practice approach is to commission a specialist naming agency for the task. The brand helpdesk can provide details of recommended naming agencies.