Corporate standards are killing brands. So are the brand manuals that specify those standards and the logo-obsessive behavior they prompt. Legal jargon is packed into every email and into the smallest website. Just for the fun of it, try printing the legal section of a random site. Odds are your printer will soon run out of paper.

The legal jargon in every communication rarely helps anyone survive the machinations by which the jargon promises to protect the company at the client's expense. This artificial sense of protection amounts to seeking a divorce before you're even married. It's like saying to the consumer, "I don't know you yet, but I don't trust you anyway."

From that point on, a brand's unconsummated relationship with a potential customer is already on a steady path to oblivion. Rules don't generally respond to the vagaries of the human condition. And that's disastrous for a brand, which, if treated well, is almost human.

Compare the aforementioned check-in experience with a parallel one I witnessed at a rival airline’s counter. I'm sure the younger passenger at this airline counter had an even shorter fuse than the reserved traveler from the first airline. Yet he simply smiled when he realized his bag was too large for the cabin. Unlike the first airline’s luggage frame and attendant legalese, this airline’s luggage signage snap-happily advised, "You can bring an ego of any size on board—but only a bag this size." The humorous, human touch dissipated the potential for anger.

Yet another airline has a “Hello Gorgeous!” phrase on its website to greet users; the phrase establishes the tone of voice for the brand in the air, on the ground and online.

Along the same line, some coffee shops make an art of converting every detail into an amusing brand experience. A coffee shop based in the UK, for example, made news for putting individual messages on each cup, such as "Take my top off," referring to the plastic lid. Sugar packets are embellished with: "Serving suggestion: pour in cup and shut up."

Unfortunately, this is not the norm. Too many coffee shops have become boring and impersonal brands, taking the corporate brand manual approach. They simply and superficially adhere the logo to countless millions of cups. The rapport with customers is seemingly constrained by a corporate style manual.

So how do you achieve brand personality? And how do you allow the brand to grow without killing it with conventions? For many well-known companies, branding is on autopilot. The brands have lost the individual, responsive touch after being converted by their own brand manuals; documents full of rules, created by committees, leaving nothing to opportunity.

People, not books, are the best brand manuals. A brand is dynamic, humorous and human because one person runs the brand, owns the brand and sets the vision for the brand.

Instead of spending thousands of dollars on brand manuals that prescribe action, spend the money on a living brand manual. A person—someone whose role is to live and breathe that brand. This person should be the brand's evangelist, growing with the brand, and ensuring it never gets into situations that drain its spirit. A living brand manual should be prepared to change rules, shift guidelines and adjust the vision.

Some might find this a scary scenario. What if that individual leaves? Well, people do move on. But the contrived scenario involving the airlines is scarier. For such companies, the brand has turned to stone. It's immutable, self-justifying, and impervious to its relationship with customers.

The living brand manual, a brand custodian, is someone who wields the brand baton. The role must be accompanied by an exit strategy so when he/she leaves, tactics are in place to ensure the baton is smoothly passed to the next custodian. The handover needn't be artificially smooth, but it should be achieved without the baton being dropped. The point is to keep a real human being in charge of a humanized brand. Identifying and training the right person takes time. Once the position is in place, your brand achieves its own healthy life.