A Tale of Christmas and Brand Compliance

 As we leave another Christmas and an old year behind and head towards the New Year, I would like to narrate my favourite Christmas tale. This tale is not about an orphan child, a miser, a poor beggar or a princess. It is a tale of something that is as intrinsic part of Christmas today as Christmas tree and gifts; I am talking about commerce and marketing!  It’s a wonderful tale of “Brand Compliance”.

 
Before you give me that strange look, let me explain what it means as the term brand compliance may not mean much to an average layman. Just to explain in short, brand compliance guidelines are a set of rules which company has to follow while representing the brand. It includes the set of fonts, colours, representation etc which were be adhered to. But to marketing team of any brand, the dreaded “brand compliance guidelines” are the code by which they must live by. Any transgressions and there is fury greater than heavens scorned. For marketers and advertising guys, there is no term worse than brand compliance. As a new media professional, I have faced the brunt of client’s criticism of “this is not brand compliant” and “that is not brand compliant”. My favourite anecdote of dealing with clients and their brand compliance mania is when they rejected an image of a kid sitting in a garden. The reason? The colours in the image of the trees were green, which was not in the list of official colours approved by the company.  This made me quip with frustration “Should we have images of trees with red or blue leaves, as they are your brand compliant colours?”
 
Back to our tale of Christmas and brand compliance guidelines. Santa Claus or Father Christmas , as he is known in UK, is believed to be a representation of St Nicholas who is believed to distribute gifts and sweets to children. But as we all know, most medieval saints had some very distinct clothes. They did not wear white and red suites with strange pointy hats. So where did this popular image come from?
 
In 1880s and early  1900s the image of Santa Claus was much varied. He was short, think , tall etc.. He also wore a wide variety of clothes. There was no common image of how Santa Claus looked like. The first person to draw an image of Santa as a jolly figure was the American Civil War cartoonist Thomas Nast and this representation continued to be used. However, an event changed all that. An upcoming beverage company was planning it’s traditional Christmas advertising campaign. The name of that company was Coca-Cola. I can almost visualize the company official sitting with advertising guys discussing the campaign. Advertising guys must have proposed that they use Santa Claus in their campaign. The company guys would have made a straight face and said “Brand guidelines of Coca Cola state that official colours red and white need to be used. All the imagery needs to be brand compliant!”. The advertising guys would have scratched their heads and then proposed, “Why don’t we use the Thomas Nast’s version of Santa Claus. In red and white outfit, I am sure that’s brand complaint”. The company guys must have nodded their approval and rest as they say is history.
 
In 1931, The Coca-Cola Company commissioned Michigan-born illustrator Haddon Sundblom to develop advertising images using Santa Claus. This represented Santa Claus as jolly old man in red and white clothes. This campaign was to continue till this day. Thanks to global reach of advertising, it has slowly over the years seeped into the popular consciousness as the only imagery of Santa Claus. From India, Africa to the farthest corners of Lapland, it is this is the image that is recognized and loved.
 
Thus, next time you see a Santa Claus, remember that he was created by an advertising agency for a multinational conglomerate with all his features being compliant with the brand representation guidelines. After knowing how powerful and far reaching the effects of brand compliance guidelines are, I sure won’t be complaining about them anymore! A very happy new year to you.
By Akshay Chavan