Corporations spend billions of dollars annually in marketing/branding strategies. Most have a corporate “style guide” that dictate things like appropriate and inappropriate logo usage guidelines, corporate colors, fonts, sounds, etc. Your eLearning programs are essentially web-based communication/marketing documents and should be treated as such. Your corporate branding should be reflected in the overall style and look/feel of both your training portal (LMS) and your course development templates. Additionally, your instructional design and content (the learning objectives, the metaphors and examples used, and so on) should take into account your brand, slogans, trademark phrases, etc. You definitely want your learners to have your brand in mind when attending whatever training you offer, and you want to ensure that the training material itself complements and is supported by your brand and corporate mission. Our Advice:
- Involve the Marketing Department early and often in your eLearning development strategy, especially if you have a corporate brand you wish to protect.
- Create a courseware template that you can use over and over again to ensure both brand consistency and reduced eLearning development costs.
- Custom brand your Learning Management System and ensure that the colors, fonts, logo usage, and other elements match your marketing style guide and corporate website. Be sure to select a Learning Management System that offers this level of customization capability.