The Gap Audit: Reviewing a Submitted Brand Book Against the Five-Layer Framework

Marketing Academy · Field Work●Brand Strategy

All projects·From: Building a Brand Book

MiniAudit· 25 minutes

Adyen

Objective: Given an agency-submitted brand book excerpt, apply the lesson's five-layer framework to identify which layers are missing or underdeveloped before it goes into company-wide distribution.

You're the junior brand coordinator at Adyen. A design agency just delivered a 'brand guidelines' PDF ahead of a global partner rollout, and your manager wants a gap check before it's approved.

Check the submitted document against all five layers. Flag what's missing, not just what's wrong.

Before you start

What you'll need

Free path (everything below is enough to finish)

Google Docs

FreeMark up the submitted brand book with gap comments

Free, familiar commenting workflow for cross-team review

The process

2 steps

Step 01 of 02

Layer 2: Verbal Identity

The lesson's Layer 2 requires tone of voice, a vocabulary list, before-and-after rewrites, and grammar preferences, not just visual rules.

The submitted document has 14 pages on logo and color, and one paragraph that says 'write in a professional, friendly tone.' Does this satisfy Layer 2?

Google Docs— Open the submitted PDF (copied into a Google Doc for markup) and search for a dedicated voice and tone section.

Procedure

Search the document for 'tone', 'voice', 'vocabulary', or 'writing' as section headers
Check whether any vocabulary list (words to use/avoid) exists
Check whether any before-and-after sentence rewrite examples exist
Note the finding as a comment directly on the page where verbal identity should live

Sample output

SECTION SEARCH RESULTS
Logo & color: pages 2-14 (13 pages)
Tone of voice: page 15, one paragraph
Vocabulary list: not found
Before/after rewrites: not found

FINDING: Layer 2 is present in name only. No usable rule for a copywriter.

Healthy

A flagged gap report that names exactly what's missing (vocabulary list, rewrite pairs) so the agency knows what to add.

Unhealthy

Approving the document because 'it has a tone paragraph' without checking whether that paragraph is actionable.

What this means

A tone description without a vocabulary list and before/after examples is not a usable rule, it's an adjective.

So what do I do about it?

Symptom	Action	Effort
Only 1 of 14 pages covers verbal identity	Send the gap list back to the agency and request a vocabulary list plus 3 before/after rewrite pairs	30 min

YouYou can do this yourself, no engineering access required.

Step 02 of 02

Layer 5: Distribution

The lesson's Layer 5 requires a living, findable hosting plan: a wiki link, onboarding checklist inclusion, agency contract language, and a 12-month review cadence.

The agency delivered a single static PDF attached to one email. Does a distribution plan exist?

Google Docs— Check the document's final section (or lack of one) for any hosting, linking, or review-cadence instructions.

Procedure

Search for a 'distribution', 'hosting', or 'how to use this document' section
Check whether the document specifies where it will live (a URL, a wiki, a design tool)
Check whether it names a review or update cadence
Log the answer as present/absent for each of the three checks

Sample output

DISTRIBUTION CHECK
Hosting location named: NO
Onboarding/contract language: NO
Review cadence stated: NO

FINDING: Layer 5 does not exist in this document at all.

Healthy

The gap report calls out Layer 5 as fully missing, not just incomplete, since a PDF with no hosting plan will be forwarded once and then forgotten.

Unhealthy

Treating distribution as 'IT's problem' and approving the content layers without requiring a distribution plan before sign-off.

What this means

A brand book without a named home and review cadence is a file, not a system, per the lesson's core failure mode.

So what do I do about it?

Symptom	Action	Effort
No hosting location or review cadence in the delivered document	Require the agency (or your own team) to add a distribution page naming the host URL and a 12-month review date before approval	30 min

YouYou can do this yourself, no engineering access required.

Final deliverable

A one-page gap report listing which of the five layers are present, partial, or missing, with a specific fix requested for each gap.

See a reference example

Sample output

Slack, Brand Book Gap Report (excerpt)

Layer 1 Foundation: PRESENT (mission + positioning, 1 page)
Layer 2 Verbal Identity: PARTIAL (tone named, no vocabulary list)
Layer 3 Visual Identity: PRESENT (logo, 4-color palette, Circular typeface documented)
Layer 4 Usage Rules: MISSING (no do/don't examples)
Layer 5 Distribution: MISSING (no hosting URL, no review date)

ACTION: Return to design team with 2 required additions before company-wide rollout.

Success criteria

You're done when you can:

Correctly identifies Layer 2 as partial, not fully present, with a specific missing element named
Correctly identifies Layer 5 as fully missing
Gap report names a concrete fix, not just 'add more detail'