Brand Governance
This section explains how the brand team works and when to involve us. Use it whenever you are unsure whether a piece of content needs a brand review before it goes out.
How We Work
The Brand team operates as a Centre of Excellence, not a service bureau. Our role is to set the standard, build the tools, and enable teams to communicate effectively within the brand framework. We are not here to write every email, caption, or presentation. We are here to ensure that when anything significant goes out, it is right.
What the Brand Team Does and Does Not Do
| We do | We do not |
| Define the strategic framework | Write all content for all teams |
| Set guidelines and provide tools | Police every social media post |
| Enable teams to create on-brand content independently | Act as a bottleneck for approvals |
| Review and advise on high-stakes communications | Rewrite low-stakes content teams can handle themselves |
| Build capability across the organisation | Hoard brand knowledge within our team |
When to Involve the Brand Team
Publish without review
Routine communications within established frameworks. Social media posts following approved message frameworks, internal updates, community emails using approved templates, learner-facing communications using approved language.
Review recommended
Communications that reach broad audiences or establish precedent. New programme launches, market entry communications, website copy updates, new email templates.
Review required
Any external-facing, high-visibility communication that represents ALX at an organisational level. Press releases, CEO communications, major campaign launches, partnership announcements, crisis communications, investor and donor materials.
Escalate immediately
Any communication that cannot be traced back to the brand subject (career transformation). If you cannot connect the content to L1 of the messaging architecture, bring it to the brand team before publication.
The Audit Decision Flow
Before any significant communication goes out, run it through these five gates. A no at any point means revise before publishing.
| Gate | Question | If no |
| 1 | Is career transformation clearly the subject? | Rewrite the opening. Career transformation must be visible before any other claim is made. |
| 2 | Does this lead with what changes in the person’s career? | Remove or reorder. Features and content can follow the outcome. They cannot lead. |
| 3 | Is there proof of career transformation present? | Find the proof. If none exists for this claim, do not publish the claim. |
| 4 | Is the learner or graduate the hero? | Rewrite. If ALX is the subject of the key sentence, the learner has been displaced. |
| 5 | Can every claim be traced back to the brand subject? | Escalate to brand team. Abstract or aspirational claims with no subject are brand violations. |
