In the context of an internal SharePoint solution I think that branding, in any more detail than basic colour and logo could be considered as a waste of investment.
I question whether an organisation can justify the investment required for awesome branding based upon the following questions:
- Does it help the organisation move towards its vision?
- What is the ROI of the branding work?
- Does the branding deliver clear and measurable business value?
- Does branding support and encourage user adoption?
Discuss….
Interesting points Scott, appreciate your input.
Re: “…plays a vital role in portraying and enforcing a cohesive brand throughout an organization…”
AND
“A basic, custom-branded master page to conform to an organization’s branding guidelines”
Absolutely, that is a sensible and balanced approach that makes sense and absolutely can creative a cohesive brand, but I’d argue that that alone isn’t going to have much sustainable influence over user adoption in the medium to long term?
Regarding your second lot of points:
“…they want to provide a thoughtfully-designed, engaging Intranet to their users. You only have one chance to make a first impression, right?! The look and feel of the Intranet will ultimately determine the interest level of the users…”
I agree that first impressions are important, but I think alignment to the vision and measurable business outcomes have more weight in the “user adoption challenge” than extensive branding.
Let’s face it Excel looks crap, but from a business value perspective it still wins.
It’s a tricky area… I’d much prefer orgs diverted project fund from extensive and/or complicated branding activities to facilitating a vision and/or holistic Governance…But that’s just what I think.
