Why Your Company Needs a Brand Guide

Every business needs its own identity. Without it, clients would not know what the company is about. And, this would lead to a lack of sales ruining the whole purpose of having an enterprise. Therefore, it is essential, as a business owner, to understand why developing a brand guide could help to define the identity of the company.

 

What Is A Brand Guide?

It is possible to define a brand guide as a channel to communicate the company’s design style. Thus, this deck would help as a reference when working with designers, marketers, and developers. It is significant to count on this as a starting point. 

The first step to success is to establish standards. Companies need to know what their identity is to then communicate it to the people they are working with. Therefore, brand guides will be a pure reflection of what the brand is and of what the brand wants. 

Complete brand guides include

• Company logo
• Color Palette
• Typography
• Graphic elements
• Style photos
• Examples

The last element, examples, refers to the importance of defining correct and incorrect forms of using the elements provided by the company. This is crucial since it will provide a more clear vision to those who are working on improving the brand’s style.

Also, apart from establishing all these brand assets, it is important to discuss what other elements will bring an extra value and strengthen the identity such as 

• Mission
• Vision
• Values
• Tone

All of these are important to identify the purpose of the company and understand the goals to succeed. Once the company is committed to accomplishing its objectives, the brand guide will be useful to communicate them. 

Cohesion 

When developing a brand guide, one of the most essential features to have in it is cohesion. Think about this, companies need to communicate and develop a strong identity to attract new customers. Therefore, cohesion is extremely important because it will bring trust and show how consistent and committed the company is with its goals. 

Cohesion will be helpful to turn the brand guide into a map that shows the core of the company and what they want to communicate. This will be the voice of your brand since this map will help people from the outside of the company to understand what the goals are. 

Awareness, consistency, and cohesion are what companies should focus on in their brand guides to effectively interact with people. 

Organizations should make sure to include relevant content related to their goals and communicate an impactful message that people can relate to. To create on-brand content, it is essential to have a roadmap with everything that marketers and people from outside the company will need to connect with the brand.

Professionalism

Professionalism is always an amazing characteristic for a business to have. A professional image will boost businesses’ sales and engagement. People will empathize with the purpose of the brand leading to the spread of its mission. For achieving this, it is important to recognize that various components conform to what is known as professionalism:

• Tone
• Harmonious colors
• Consistent logos

Consistency is the key. For example, if the company’s logos differ from Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn, there is a risk that the brand gets lost and repels those valuable visits. Imagine this, you found a product that you like on TikTok and you decide to look for it on Instagram but the profile logo does not match. It is probably that you would not recognize the brand and therefore, it will end up with you not buying and with the company losing a client. 

Another aspect that is important to consider is the tone. Usually, after defining which type of company you want to run, the tone needs to be established to effectively communicate its mission. How companies are going to “talk” and interact with people is what matters. For example, in a law firm, the tone will be more formal and straightforward than a fashion brand. 

Power Move Marketing works with Ocean and Company, a jewelry company, and its tone is more casual and fun than it might be in a law or accounting firm. Therefore, it is crucial to recognize what message the company wants to spread and to do so using the right tone.  

Finally, brands’ colors are not a minor detail. A good color palette election will make a difference in determining the brand identity. Colors express emotions and experiences that should be the core of the style and feed of the brand. Choosing the right palette for brands is part of the creative stage where the appropriate color should strengthen companies’ values and customers’ interest in its products and services. 

Brand Recognition

It is true to say that brand guides bring consistency to the image of the company. Once all its elements have been established, the only step to follow is to respect these guidelines. Thus, the brand would be easily recognized by people. Think about this, consistency is extremely important to increase the likelihood of people recognizing the brand among its competitors. 

A powerful and recognizable brand will attract new customers and invite them to stay. They will try to develop a relationship to make them choose their products over and over again. Brand recognition is considered to be successful when people discern companies’ products through their slogans, logos, packaging, and colors. If brands achieve this, consumers will trust the product because the company is familiar. Brand recognition will build special connections. 

Apple has been one of the companies that knew how to impact people’s lives. Its logo, slogan, and rainbow colors have been carefully thought out to deliver a message and distinguish itself from its competitors. Apple created a brand identity and stuck to it, causing people to recognize the brand as soon as they saw that bitten apple which takes the form of its logo. And this is impactful, because in that very precise moment when people see that apple is when they already know which brand it is. This company carefully created a brand guide that specifies absolutely everything from its colors to its logo. 

Brand recognition is essentially about connecting with people at first sight. This is one of the main roads to take when it comes to impact and spreading companies’ mission. Also, having a strong brand recognition will make the addition of a new slogan easier to digest for customers. Despite any new additions, brands should be as recognizable as they were before because they have been having a strong presence in people’s minds. 

Standards

One of the main things that brand guides address is the importance of setting rules. It is not always easy to maintain a consistent and clean image, especially among big companies with a lot of employees. Therefore, brand guides are perfect for establishing standards that will deliver a professional and solid image. 

Brand guides should include examples of how-to and not to use certain elements. When it comes to logos, different examples should be included in the explanation to show people what the brand is looking for when it refers to placement and colors. Therefore, in the brand guide, brands should include different versions of the logos to use them in various situations. 

Setting rules is more than just explaining to people what to do. It consists of creating a strong message and explaining what the company is about. Once marketers or whoever accesses that guide understands what the brand is doing, rules will be easier to follow. 

Set standards are about laying out elements and explaining how to use them. Knowing about what is right and wrong will level up the brand’s content and deliver a better design and style. 

Conclusion

Brand guides are one of the most important resources to have when running a business. It may seem something not too essential for some, but it is the core of the company. It contains everything from graphics to the mission, vision, and values. Therefore, to deliver an exceptional product or service, first, it is essential to focus and determine what the brand is looking for in the market. 

Having a brand guide is more than just being aesthetic. It is about delivering a clear message and image to potential customers. It is also about attracting and making people choose this brand every day. It is basically for creating loyalty and meaningful relationships with its clients. 

Roadmaps serve to establish a sense of professionalism and cohesion. They should determine what is correct or incorrect by showing exactly how to layout content for a brand. It is about design and vision. 

In conclusion, every company around the world should have a brand guide whose features have cohesion among them. This will bring a sense of consistency which will look amazing for clients and will help to set apart the brand amongst its competitors. 

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