The Bible for Your Brand
Brand guidelines, brand frameworks or whatever your preferred title is for them! They are kinda my favourite things about branding! I love putting together a gorgeous handbook for my clients on how to use their brand properly. It is imperative that if you are getting a brand developed or a logo designed that you have some sort of reference sheet to make sure you are using it properly and that anyone who gets their hands on your brand is using it properly. This ensures consistency which leads to brand recognition and trust.
If you are using your logo improperly it’s like someone showing up with a different personality every time you connect with a customer. Do you know someone with whom you’re always walking on eggshells? That’s what an inconsistent brand feels like to customers. They’re never really sure what they’re going to get in terms of customer experience so they become wary of your business.
A brand book is meant to distill the important components of your brand simply and easily for you, your staff, and any other vendors, to understand. It is a quick reference guide so that you don’t need to retain all the branding information in your head at all times. You need to focus on what you do best!
There are a lot of moving pieces in branding. Social media, website, copywriting, graphic design, uniforms, vehicle wraps, press releases, publicity, and so much more. You can hire different people for all these jobs —that’s great! There’s no reason you should be or need to do it all on your own. However, it’s important that all of these contractors know what they’re talking about when it comes to your business. They need to know how to talk about it and how you represent yourself. Handing off a brand book to them is the easiest way to ensure consistency and efficient communication! You don’t have to explain all the minutiae to them because it should be outlined in the brand book. They can focus on the parts that they need to do their job, and ignore the sections that might not be pertinent to them.
A brand framework will also save you money in the long run too. It will save revision time and questions going back and forth because your vendors have all the specs that they need right in front of them.
What if you’re a big business and have your own design and marketing team? Surely you don’t need a brand book? Nope, sorry! You’d definitely do! If you are big enough to have a design department, a brand framework all team members on the same page and will also reduce ongoing questions, emails and meetings. Arguably, having an in-house team you may need brand guidelines more than those who work with contractors because of staff turnover. While we like to think staff will stay forever, that’s just not reasonable and to create consistency and an easy transition, having new employees study the brand guidelines can reduce the cost of hiring.
Brand guidelines will vary in content depending on the brand strategist or graphic designer that you are using. At a minimum, it should show you what your brand colours and your brand fonts are. Showing what the logo clear space is and any logo variations (colours, black and white, icon vs stacked vs horizontal) is also important information to have. Your brand colours should have Pantone at a minimum, not just hex or RGB. All other colour spaces can be converted from Pantone, but it can be difficult to go backward.
If you are using a strategist you will also have content about the ideal customer, brand values or characteristics, and a brand story. The guide should be a comprehensive package of how your business looks and feels.
In summary, your brand guidelines are what you’re spending your money on. Yes, the logo is important, but if you don’t know how to use it consistently with its colours, fonts, and correct usage then it doesn’t matter what you spent on your logo. If you can have the nicest car in the neighbourhood but you don’t take care of it, was it worth spending all that money?