If you’re a business leader, you’ve surely been on quite the journey. Maybe you started a new company from scratch. Maybe you were hired to build or evolve an existing brand. Each path has its own twists and turns.
As with any journey, you need a map. A guide to make sure you’re heading in the right direction, that everyone with you is taking the same path, and that no one gets lost along the way.
This is where a trusty brand book comes in. You may have heard it referred to as brand guidelines or a brand style guide. Whatever you call it, it documents who your brand is, and how it presents itself.
In today’s day and age, it’s not enough to be a static map. Nope, we need GPS, we need to get around that traffic jam, and we need the most efficient routes.
Similarly, a brand book isn’t just another static document forgotten on your desktop. It’s your brand’s dynamic compass. It evolves with your business, leads your team, and accelerates decisions. A brand book ensures that everyone is, quite literally, on the same page.
Let’s dive deeper into the benefits it will bring your business, the parts of a brand book, and where to start.
The Benefits of a Brand Book
Having a brand book is like giving your team (and any external partners) the clearest, most efficient directions. It’s a detailed map with all the key routes and landmarks marked, so everyone knows exactly where they’re headed. But beyond consistency, a brand book offers significant advantages in efficiency, professionalism, and growth. Here’s how:
Efficiency and Consistency
You likely have multiple teams working on projects and initiatives within your business. Let’s say your in-house content team handles your company’s social media presence. An agency plans and executes your marketing campaigns. A consulting firm is working on what goals make sense for your specific vision.
With a brand book, a lot of assumptions and guesswork are eliminated. Everyone across teams has access to clearly-defined rules for vision, messaging, colors, fonts, and tone. This allows for more time spent on creativity and thought leadership, and less time on explanations, approvals, and revisions. It accelerates processes, enhances collaboration, and keeps projects moving forward without unnecessary delays. It also accelerates the creative brief process for individual campaigns.
The result is a more efficient production of deliverables and more cohesive brand messaging. It ensures that everything — whether it’s a marketing materials, website content, or a presentation to the board — is consistent across every touchpoint. In the end, this efficiency saves both time and money while maximizing the impact of your brand.
Professionalism and Trust
Speaking of consistency. Professionalism in branding isn’t just about looking polished, although that’s important. It’s about consistency to your audience.
A brand book provides the framework for consistency, as well as the “why” behind your business that allows people to trust you. It ensures that every piece of communication reflects the same brand tone, style, and messaging.
This consistency fosters customer trust, which is critical for long-term success. When customers see a cohesive brand across all channels, they’re more likely to perceive it as trustworthy and professional. Those are key factors in establishing and maintaining loyalty.
A majority of the world’s biggest brands have brand books. Starbucks has a brand book. Apple has a brand book. The companies everyone knows and interacts with every day all have a brand book. It signifies they’ve put a lot of thought into their brand and they take it seriously.
Brand Recognition
Ever notice how some brands are instantly recognizable just by their colors, fonts, or even the tone of a message? That’s the power of a cohesive brand book at work. In recent years, Starbucks has even removed the name from their logo since the imagery was so instantly recognizable.
By adhering to the visual and editorial guidelines in your brand book, you constantly reinforce your brand. That makes it more memorable to your audience. Brand recognition doesn’t happen by accident. It’s the result of thought, planning, and consistency.
When your brand is instantly recognizable, you build familiarity and trust. They’re essential for standing out and converting in a crowded marketplace.
Key Elements of a Brand Book
Now that we know the importance of a brand book, we’ll get into what’s inside. A brand book contains all the essential elements that create and define your brand, as well as the directions on how to message it. It’s broken up into three key sections: Ideology, Visual Identity, and Editorial Identity.
It is worth noting that the sections may be modified based on your brand or industry. Some brand books are short and simple, and some are extremely extensive.
Ideology
The ideology section defines who your brand is at its core. It answers questions like: What does your brand do? What makes it unique? How does it meet the needs of your target audience?
- Mission Statement: Communicates what the brand does, who it serves, and how it stands out
- Vision Statement: Describes the future-facing goals and ambitions of your company while reflecting your company’s values
- Brand Values: Core principles and beliefs that guide the brand’s actions, decisions, and interactions
- Products or Services: Details the range of products or services and how they meet the needs of the target audience
- Credibility: Proof points that establish the brand’s trustworthiness and authority
- Tagline: If applicable, a short, memorable phrase summarizing the essence of the brand.
- Audience/Personas: Overview of the target audiences, including demographics, needs, and pain points
- History: The background of the brand, telling the story of why and how it evolved into its current state
Visual Identity
Your brand’s visual identity is a critical part of how it’s perceived. Consumers often interact with the visuals of your brand first. This section includes guidelines on the consistent use of logos, colors, fonts, and other design elements.
- Logo and Usage: Instructions on how to use the logo iterations across different media, including sizing, orientations, and spacing
- Color Palette: Defined primary colors, secondary colors, and accent colors that represent your brand
- Typography: Specifications for use of fonts, sizes, and weights in brand communications
- Visual Elements: Additional graphics or patterns that support the brand’s story and message
- Photo/Video: Guidelines on the photography and videography used with the brand
Editorial Identity
When navigating with your phone or GPS, you get both visual and verbal instructions. Your brand’s voice is just as important as its visuals, and they need to work together consistently. The editorial identity section outlines the tone of voice, messaging, and style used across all communications and assets.
- Quick Phrases: Key phrases or slogans that encapsulate core messages, meant to be clear and easy to remember
- Written Voice: The style in which the brand communicates, reflecting the brand consistently
- Tone: The mood or attitude conveyed in the brand’s communications, as well as the attitude NOT conveyed
- Notes: Any general grammatical or specific instructions on how to write your brand name or identifiers
Where to Start
Let’s say you’ve added a stop on your journey to create or update a brand book. Here are the first steps in how to make a brand book:
Decide Your Objective
Begin by figuring out whether you need to create a brand book from scratch or update an existing one. If you don’t have a brand book at all, now’s the time to establish one.
If you do have current brand guidelines or other documents describing your brand, evaluate them. Are they outdated, inconsistent, or missing key elements? Are there changes you want to make to who your brand is, and what direction it’s going? If so, it’s time for a refresh.
Partner with the Right Resource
You also have to decide who is going to navigate this trip with you. Decide whether to handle the entire brand book process in-house or to collaborate with an agency.
An in-house approach can work well if your team is intimately familiar with your brand. But it can also be time-consuming and may lack fresh insights. Partnering with a marketing agency provides external expertise and efficiency. Agencies you’ve worked with before can bring valuable perspective and make sure your brand book is comprehensive, functional, and adaptable.
No matter the resource, the process should be extremely collaborative from start to finish. You want to walk away with a product that aligns with you and your business goals and feels true to your brand.
Start with a Brand Workshop
Whether you’re creating from scratch or updating existing guidelines, kick the project off with a brand workshop. These collaborative sessions bring together stakeholders from across your organization to align on key elements of your brand.
A brand workshop helps you discuss where your brand stands today and where you want it to go. This session should be a time to collect information, feelings, and insights. These will be used to build (or revise) the sections of a brand book.
Conclusion
Just like a GPS that guides you through every twist and turn (and around that traffic jam), a brand book leads your team and partners. It ensures that everyone stays on course, following the best route to your brand’s growth and success. It also helps you navigate any challenges that arise along the way.
Whether you’re aligning internal teams, creating efficient marketing creative, or building customer trust, your brand book is the tool that keeps you heading in the right direction. And while it is a tool to be used internally, a brand book is key in directing how your brand is perceived out in the world, and most importantly by your target customers.
So, if you’re asking yourself, “Do I need a brand book?” The answer is yes. And with the right support, creating one can be a smooth and valuable process for your brand’s future.
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