Corporate Design Report 01/23

The global Nielsen study conducted in 2020 in collaboration with empower^® shows that Microsoft Office has a market share of 85% in Germany and 80% in the U.S. Employees spend an average of 24 hours per person per week using the most common Office applications (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook). Each team member sends around 126 Microsoft Office documents (including around 115 emails) per week – around 64% of which are sent to external recipients.

The striking thing about this is that of the 24 hours per week working in MS Office, around 31%, i.e., just above 7 hours, are spent on formatting documents alone – even though this is clearly not the employees’ core competence. So, it’s not surprising that on average, 50% of all the documents don’t comply with the corporate design. Those inconsistent documents weaken the brand and cause confusion among target groups. 

The brand isn’t consistently positioned and doesn’t remain in the customer’s memory.

This is fatal in a time when we’re inundated with advertising via countless channels. Every office document is a powerful medium that anchors the brand in the minds of the target group, and also expands brand awareness. After all, many internally-created office documents are used externally. If they’re corporate design-compliant, every email signature, PowerPoint slide, and Word document strengthens the brand. However, this is true for only 50% of all office documents.

The two biggest obstacles to design compliance are lack of time and lack of tools needed to comply with brand guidelines. The mere fact that 31% of working time with Microsoft Office applications isn’t spent on actual content, but rather on formatting documents alone, paints a clear picture.

Productivity is clearly at the forefront of Office applications – not only in Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, and so on, but also in terms of the goals of the users. Most Office users aren’t designers. They focus understandably on creation of documents and not on compliance with corporate design. In case of doubt, they always decide in favor of productivity, not the brand.

Implementation of corporate design is therefore often subject to the arbitrariness of employees. This is reflected in almost all Office documents. Documents, presentations, and email signatures differ in appearance, sometimes considerably, and it appears as if the company doesn’t have just one brand but many.

Empower your team to live the brand in every Office document instead of ignoring it. To make this happen, you need to simplify the work needed to comply with the Brand Guidelines. In addition to some practical tips and tricks, special software solutions can take care of simplifying all that for you – first and foremost empower^® Brand Control.

With empower^® Brand Control for Microsoft Office, you empower your employees to become strong brand ambassadors multiple times every day. The software bridges the gap between the productivity of Office applications and the implementation of your brand guidelines, and helps you take and retain control over your brand.

5 steps to a strong brand in Microsoft Office documents:

Ensure that your up-to-date templates automatically appear when Office applications are opened. This ensures that users start on the right foot – without a long search. Keeping your default templates current can be done by your IT department, among others. They can store your templates in the Office applications. Or you can use empower^® Brand Control and always work in the most up-to-date template, whether in Word, PowerPoint, Excel, or Outlook. In addition, empower^® makes it easy to switch between different templates in Word – with the assurance that all legal information in the footer is up to date. Also, different masters in PowerPoint as well as changes to the masters are easily achieved. Without having to involve your IT department every time.

If you’ve already created brand guidelines, you know about the considerable workload involved. You also know that even the best brand guidelines are only as good as the people who apply them. This is precisely the problem in many companies. Half of employees don’t even know the company’s brand guidelines exist. The other half disregard them out of convenience, habit, or other reasons. To prevent this, you can store your corporate colors and fonts in PowerPoint with the help of your IT department. empower^® Brand Control goes one step further: your brand guidelines are translated directly into Microsoft 365 and can be stored so only these are selectable. This ensures that your policies are respected in every Office document and email. Your team and IT department no longer have to worry about fonts, colors, etc. and have more time for essentials.

The internet is a gigantic treasure trove - not only in terms of information, but for visual content. Of course everyone knows this. When preparing a blog post, a PowerPoint presentation, or even in the context of the latest corporate design orientation, a perfectly fitting and meaningful image is missing. A short Google search leads in the twinkling of an eye to the desired result. And – under certain circumstances – to a  lot of trouble. An image found quickly in a search engine can generate expensive legal violations. Using an image without permission unfortunately all too often leads to an extensive legal detour on the information superhighway: copyright. If you want to avoid time-consuming injunctions and/or cost-intensive claims for damages, you need to understand the basics of image rights.

Copyright infringements are commonplace. For example, a missing image, diagram, or suitable text passage is quickly Googled and used in a marketing campaign. This small shortcut can have far-reaching consequences.

Prosecuted copyright infringements are not only time-consuming, but also costly. A well- known example is the American artist Shepard Fairey. Fairey used a photograph of Barack Obama as the basis for the famous “Hope” poster for the 2008 US presidential campaign. But the original photo was the property of the Associated Press, which sued for substantial compensation over the use of the photo. An out-of-court settlement followed in 2011.

It’s essential to remember that copyright laws vary depending on jurisdiction. Copyright regulations are especially different between the EU and the USA. We’ll use Germany as an example here. But as always when dealing with legal issues, you need to consult a lawyer before taking action.

In Germany, copyright is enshrined in the German Act on Copyright and Related Rights (UrhG). It protects the right of intellectual creators to their works, e.g., music, images, photographs, texts, graphics, or videos. In simple terms, the Copyright Act stipulates that third parties may not use other people’s works without the permission of the authors. In addition, it gives the authors the right to decide whether, when, and in what form their work may be published and/or reproduced.

Important: If the author agrees to the use, reproduction, and/or publication, the copyright is not transferred, but only a right of use is granted.

The right of use allows the author to transfer the right to use the work to licensees within the framework of a license agreement. It’s necessary to differentiate between non-exclusive and exclusive right of use.

• A non-exclusive right of use entitles the licensee to use the work in a manner permitted, without precluding use by others.
• An exclusive right of use entitles the licensee to use the work in a manner permitted, to the exclusion of anyone else, and to grant rights of use. It may be agreed that the author retains the exploitation rights.

The personality rights comprise a whole bundle of rights, including Article 1 of the of the German Basic Law: “Human dignity shall be inviolable.” Regarding copyright, the right to one’s own image is particularly relevant. This establishes each person’s right to decide whether and in what context their image may be published.

Property rights grant owners the right to dispose of an asset (property and intellectual property) as they see fit and to exclude third parties from any interference with it – but only if neither the law nor the rights of other parties oppose this right. In other words: If you have written a book, then you are completely free to decide whether you want to sell it, lend it, or mothball it.

Interview with David Geßner (LL.M.) – specialist lawyer for copyright and media law and for industrial property

As a result of the “Gesetz über das elektronische Handelsregister und Genossenschaftsregister sowie das Unternehmensregister” (EHUG) (english: law on electronic commercial registers and registers of cooperatives as well as the register of companies), which came into force in 2007, merchants and companies registered in the commercial register in Germany must include a notice with mandatory information in business letters in “whatever form”. Business letters in this sense are all outwardly directed written communications with business-related content, regardless of their specific form. Therefore, all mandatory information must also be included in business mails. It’s not sufficient to link to one’s own homepage or attach an electronic business card in the email. The necessary information must be directly visible in the email.

So it’s advisable to include the mandatory information in the email signature. Business-relatedness is defined broadly. Messages with largely personal content, such as birthday wishes to business partners, are also considered business emails. Internal correspondence between different departments, branches, etc. of a company, messages to an unspecified group of people and messages that are usually made on a form, such as delivery bills, shipping notifications, etc., are not business letters and therefore don’t have to contain any mandatory information in the email signature. However, it may also be mandatory to include the required information in such communications if they establish the first written contact between business partners.

The mandatory information depends on the legal form of the company. The email signature and all other business letters must contain all the information that also belongs in the mandatory notice. In the case of a registered trader, these are the full company name, the legal form, the place of the commercial establishment, the registration court, and the number under which the company is entered in the commercial register (§ 37a HGB).

Business emails of an offene Handelsgesellschaft (OHG) (English: general partnership) and a Kommanditgesellschaft (KG) (English: limited partnership) must contain the full company name, the legal form of the company, its registered office, the register court of the registered office and the number under which the company is registered in the Commercial Register (Sections 125a, 177a HGB).

Mandatory information for a Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung (GmbH) (English: limited liability company) or Unternehmergesellschaft (UG) (English: entrepreneurial company) includes the complete company name, the legal form of the company, its registered office, the registration court of the company’s registered office, the number under which the company is entered in the commercial register, as well as all managing directors with their last names and at least one full first name (§ 35a GmbHG).

If the company has formed a supervisory board, the chairperson must also be named with their surname and at least one full first name.

There’s no obligation to state the company capital. However, if this is stated voluntarily, the share capital and the total amount of all outstanding contributions must be stated. The email signature of a Aktiengesellschaft (AG) (English: stock corporation) must contain the complete company name, the legal form of the company, its registered  office, the court of the registered office, the number under which the company is entered in the commercial register, as well as all members of the management board, the chairperson of the management board the chairperson of the supervisory board, each with surnames and at least one full first name (§ 80 AktG). As with a GmbH, the share capital may be stated voluntarily. In this case it must show the share capital and the total amount of all outstanding.

In the case of a Genossenschaft (Gen) (cooperative), mandatory information in the email signature includes the full company name, the legal form, the registered office of the cooperative, the registration court of the registered office, the number under which the cooperative is entered in the register of cooperatives, and all members of the board of directors, the chairperson of the board of directors, and the chairperson of the supervisory board, in each case with surnames and at least one full first name (§ 25a GenG).

It should be noted that the registered office of the company must always be a street address. A post office box is not sufficient.

Zu beachten ist, dass der Sitz der Gesellschaft immer eine ladungsfähige Anschrift sein muss. Die Angabe eines Postfaches genügt nicht.

For small businesses, such as sole proprietorships and Gesellschaften bürgerlichen Rechts (GbR) (partnerships under civil law), there are no mandatory details for the email signature. However, it’s recommended to include at least the full name of the owner or partners and a street address.

The registry court may impose a penalty for faulty or missing information in the e-mail signature that fails to comply with the statutory requirements. This may even be the smallest error in the email signature. In this respect, there are no gradations of “wrong”. However, the penalty payment will be higher if important information is missing or there are many errors in the in the email signature, and lower if only minor information such as the first name of the managing director of a limited liability company is missing, for example.

There’s also the possibility of being admonished by competitors because of an infringement of competition. The likelihood of a complaint is all the greater the more mandatory information in the email signature contains errors or is missing completely.

The amount of the penalty payment shall be at the discretion of the registry court. An individual penalty may not exceed €5,000. However, multiple assessments are possible. When determining the amount of a penalty payment, the registry court always decides on a case-by-case basis. As a rule, however, a first-time infringement will result in a lower penalty than repeated misconduct.

In addition, the size of the company is taken into account. Registered merchants generally are subject to a lower penalty payment than a GmbH or an AG. In most cases, the penalty is between €1,000 and €5,000.

Before the registration court can impose a penalty payment, it must first threaten to do so. This gives the company the option of having the fine set and enforcement of the penalty by correcting the email signature within the set deadline.

A missing or incorrect email signature may constitute a violation of competition law in individual cases. In this case, there’s a threat of a warning from competing companies. As a rule, however, such infringements aren’t likely to harm the interests of competitors, consumers, or other market participants. This is the case if mandatory information is missing from a business email but the recipient nevertheless can determine the identity of the sender. A warning is then not justified.

A significant breach of competition arises if a company intentionally omits required mandatory information in an email signature in order to avoid claims under civil law. In individual cases, misleading statements may also be made, which may give rise to claims for damages. The amount of these claims depends on the individual case.

There are some law firms that specialize in competition law warning letters. However, under the Act against Unfair Competition (UWG), only competitors, trade associations, consumer associations, and chambers of commerce and industry are entitled to assert competition law infringement claims. Law firms therefore only act on behalf of their clients.

Parties must first inform the customer of the missing or incorrect obligatory information in the email signature of the company against which a warning has been issued. At the same time, they’re requested to refrain from this breach of competition law in the future and to submit a cease-and-desist declaration with a penalty clause within a specified period of time. In addition, the warning party costs are usually claimed by those issuing the warning.

The risk of a warning by competitors will generally be highest in the case of larger companies that appear in public, since that’s where it’s easiest for competitors to identify a violation of competition. In that case, the corresponding contractual penalties and warning costs are higher.

However, for an infringement of mandatory information in an email signature to lead to a justified warning, there must also be other significant elements of unfairness. This will regularly not be the case, so a warning must always be examined by specialists.

Managing internal and external communication is key to a strong brand impact. In every communication, corporate design is an expression of corporate identity and performance. It plays an essential role in strategic brand communication.

Many factors interact in securing and managing corporate design. It’s essential that the foundation of the brand strategy is in place, that there’s a company-wide understanding of the brand image, and that its importance is backed by management.

We present 12 success factors for your corporate design – and the problems that can get in the way.

You need a clearly defined brand strategy that incorporates the brand’s core, brand positioning, and brand architecture. If any or all of those aren’t clearly defined, you can’t develop a coherent brand identity, let alone consistent implementation of brand identity.

Corporate design needs to be flexible and adapt to different use cases. Employees and agencies often feel restricted by an overly rigid set of corporate design rules, especially when it comes to developing content-heavy media. The rule must be: content dictates form, not vice versa. Otherwise, a customer/ target group-oriented approach isn’t possible or is too limited.

Corporate design guidelines must be easy to understand and implement. In many cases, specifications regarding the corporate design are too detailed and complicated. Guidelines should be clearly structured and focused on the essentials, so that employees retain an overview and don’t feel overwhelmed.

A clear structure for managing and keeping track of how corporate design is implemented and used is essential. The multitude of media and areas of application of corporate design in any company – and in its subsidiaries, national companies, etc. – make it difficult to maintain an overview. Rapid adjustments to the corporate design and the creation of a corresponding roll-out plan as part of a relaunch are often impossible to implement. Good structuring is essential for controlling and securing the corporate design. Relevant files such as presentations, images, fonts, texts, etc. must be organized systematically. Lack of structure and oversight entails licensing risks and also greatly increases inefficiency.

Often corporate design is seen as a project and not as a continuous process. Especially in the case of a relaunch of the corporate design, insufficient budget is allocated for implementation. Employee training, concepts for internal communication of the corporate design, the creation of brand portals and/or investments in the integration of intelligent and supporting MarTech tools, etc., often fall victim to budget constraints. Yet they all contribute to success.

Employees need sufficient time and resources for the successful control and safeguarding of the corporate design. But these tasks are frequently performed as sideline activities by employees in the areas of corporate communication or marketing, which makes the effort involved many times greater.

Fundamental questions must be clarified internally: “What’s the purpose of corporate design and what benefits does it provide?” Yet there’s often a lack of understanding of the necessity of corporate design at various levels of the company.

Communication and commitment to the brand needs to permeate the company’s structures and people. Internal blockades or silo mentalities often stand in the way of successful corporate design. A view of the brand strategy as a whole is missing and each department pursues its own implementation strategy. This in turn weakens the overall impact of the brand presence. If, in addition, internal communication functions poorly and there’s no clear commitment on the part of management, that ties the hands of those responsible for corporate design.

Anyone with access to the company’s social media accounts must be aware of and onboard with the company’s corporate design. Professional social media managers should be employed who understand behavioral and design principles. Social media channels usually already provide a fixed grid of what may be posted and placed where and how. This in turn limits the scope for design.

Corporate design managers bring a wide range of competencies and qualifications to master the diverse tasks and challenges in this area. These include knowledge of design, brand strategy, change management, customer experience management, process management, social media, and operational project management. Continuous training is necessary to ensure and manage control of a brand-typical and coherent corporate design.