Why brand guidelines are crucial for your business

The average Brit sees dozens of daily ads across social media, print, and digital media. With so much competition, it’s more important than ever for your business to have a strong brand.

A well-defined brand sets your business apart from the competition and builds trust and loyalty among your customers.

A set of comprehensive brand guidelines is at the heart of any successful brand. These guidelines ensure consistency across all platforms, reinforcing your brand’s identity and message.

This article aims to guide you through creating and sticking to practical brand guidelines, equipping your business with the tools to maintain a cohesive and impactful presence.

What are brand guidelines?

Brand guidelines (often called a brand style guide) are a comprehensive set of rules and standards that dictate how your brand should be displayed across all platforms and media.

These guidelines ensure consistency in visual and verbal communication, helping to establish a recognisable and trustworthy brand identity.

Comprehensive brand guidelines should cover several key elements, including:

• Logo usage: specifications on how to use the logo, including size, spacing and placement rules.
• Colour palettes: a set of core and secondary colours that represent the brand.
• Typography: guidelines for font choices, styles and sizes for different uses.
• Imagery style: direction on the types of images and photography styles.
• Tone of voice: instructions on the brand’s voice and style of communication, including language and messaging guidelines.
• Iconography: standards for icon usage, including style, size and placement.
• Brand mission and values: a statement of the brand’s core mission and values to guide content and messaging.

These components create a cohesive brand identity that audiences can immediately trust, recognise and resonate with.

Which businesses have great brand guidelines?

Comprehensive brand guidelines help your brand be more memorable. Some examples of great brand guidelines include:

• TikTok has excellent brand guidelines that are comprehensive, include downloadable assets and are conscious of the fact that many businesses use their platform for marketing purposes. They are also easily accessible to anyone – view their brand guidelines here.
• IBM also has comprehensive, easily accessible brand guidelines – find them here. They provide information on their regular updates, as well as links to useful design tools, component libraries and data visualisation guidelines for clearer communication.
• Apple’s brand guidelines are meticulous, focusing on simplicity and elegance. They provide detailed instructions on logo usage, typography, colour schemes, and product imagery to ensure consistency across all platforms.
• Google’s brand guidelines are extensive and cover everything from logo usage to colour palettes and typography. They emphasise clarity, usability, and consistency, reflecting Google’s mission to organise the world’s information.
• Spotify’s brand guidelines highlight flexibility within a structured framework. They focus on vibrant colours, distinctive typography, and playful illustrations to reflect the brand’s dynamic and user-centred nature.
• Airbnb’s brand guidelines focus on creating a sense of belonging and community. They cover logo usage, colour schemes, typography, and photography, emphasising warmth and approachability.
• Coca-Cola’s brand guidelines are iconic and have been refined over decades. They provide detailed instructions on logo usage, colour schemes, and packaging, ensuring a cohesive brand experience worldwide.
• Uber’s brand guidelines focus on a sleek and modern aesthetic, with a strong emphasis on typography and colour. They provide detailed instructions to ensure consistency and clarity in all brand communications.

7 reasons why your business needs brand guidelines

Brand guidelines are invaluable tools for maintaining a cohesive and impactful brand presence, especially in a competitive industry.

Here are seven reasons why you shouldn’t overlook this part of your business:

1. Efficient onboarding

Brand guidelines can simplify onboarding for new employees, contractors or agencies.

With clear instructions and standards they need to meet, new business additions can quickly align their actions and output with your brand’s identity, saving time and reducing training costs.

This efficiency ensures that everyone involved in your business can accurately represent the brand from the start.

2. Enhanced professionalism

Consistency in branding exudes professionalism.

Whether in marketing materials or customer interactions, a uniform brand image signals reliability and attention to detail to customers and competitors, boosting credibility.

3. You’ll stand out in the crowd

In a crowded industry, distinctiveness is key.

Strong brand guidelines help you stand out by maintaining a unique and consistent identity. This distinctiveness makes your brand more memorable to your audience, capturing their attention and leaving a lasting impression.

4. Improved market effectiveness

Consistent branding enhances the effectiveness of marketing efforts by ensuring your message resonates effectively across different channels and platforms.

This uniformity can lead to stronger customer engagement and better conversion rates, ultimately driving business growth and success.

5. Customers love consistency

Consistency builds trust and fosters customer loyalty.

Customers are more likely to engage with and remain loyal to a brand that presents a dependable and consistent image, whether they encounter it online, in-store or through advertising.

This reliability cultivates a sense of familiarity and comfort, encouraging repeat business.

6. Built-in adaptability and flexibility

Well-crafted guidelines provide a robust framework that can be adapted as your business grows or enters new markets.

They ensure your brand remains cohesive and recognisable, even as it evolves. This adaptability allows your brand to respond to changing market conditions and consumer preferences without losing its core identity.

7. Streamlined decision making

With predefined rules and standards, brand-related decisions become more straightforward and efficient.

This clarity means internal conflicts can be avoided, and everyone is on the same page. Brand guidelines reduce any ambiguity, and streamlined decision-making processes contribute to a more harmonious and productive work environment.

How to create brand guidelines for your business

Comprehensive brand guidelines are crucial for building a strong and consistent brand identity.

Step 1: Define your brand’s core elements

Start by defining your brand’s foundational elements. This can involve gathering key stakeholders to distil your brand’s essence collaboratively.

Begin by defining your brand’s mission. For example, if you’re a sustainable clothing brand, your mission might be “to offer stylish, sustainable fashion that cares for the planet.”

You could then craft a vision statement that describes your brand’s future goals, such as “To lead the global market in sustainable fashion.”

Finally, outline your brand’s core values, which will guide your business decisions.

When doing this, consider questions like “What do we want our brand to be known for?” and “How do we want our customers to feel about our brand?” to ensure these core elements align with your business goals.

Step 2: Develop your visual identity

Visual identity is a crucial component of your brand guidelines. It’s what will make your business instantly recognisable.

You could collaborate with a designer to create a logo that accurately represents your brand’s personality and values. An ideal logo should be versatile and work across various media. For example, a tech company might use a sleek, minimalist logo to convey innovation.

You will also need to define a colour palette and select a typography that aligns with your brand’s tone and message. You could consider using colours that evoke specific emotions or typefaces with specific associations.

Step 3: Establish your tone of voice and messaging

Your brand’s tone of voice should reflect its personality and resonate with your target audience.

At this point, you’ll need to decide whether your communication style is formal, casual, friendly or authoritative. For instance, a financial services company might opt for a formal and professional tone, while a family-run hospitality brand might choose a more relaxed and conversational style.

Establishing your key messaging in a framework will help highlight your brand’s unique selling points and core beliefs. This consistency in voice and messaging will help build a strong connection with your target audience and ensure that your communications are closely aligned with your brand identity.

Step 4: Create usage guidelines for brand assets

We’ve just discussed brand assets – logos, colour palette and typography.

For consistent use across all platforms and media, you must clearly outline some rules for their use, including specifications on logo placement, minimum size and clear space requirements. Consider including visual examples of correct and incorrect usage to prevent brand dilution.

These guidelines will make sure that your brand assets are used consistently and effectively, regardless of the medium.

Step 5: Integrate guidelines for digital and print media

Your brand needs to look great everywhere – online and in print.

Define how your brand should appear on websites, social media and digital advertisements. Ensure that print materials, such as newspaper ads, business cards and brochures, adhere to the same standards.

Addressing both digital and print media can help you maintain a cohesive brand presence across all platforms. For example, keeping font sizes and colour schemes the same across online and offline materials can reinforce brand recognition.

Step 6: Include guidelines for internal and external communications

You will also want to extend your brand guidelines to include how you communicate both inside and outside the company.

From emails to press releases, you should ensure that everyone in your business talks the talk and walks the walk. Guiding and communicating your brand internally ensures that all team members are aligned, while external communication guidelines maintain a consistent brand image for customers and stakeholders.

A common example of this could include creating templates for email signatures and press releases that reflect your brand’s visual and verbal identity.

Bonus step: Review and update your guidelines regularly

Brand guidelines are not static – they should evolve as your business and the market landscape change.

Scheduling regular reviews of your brand guidelines can help you better gauge their relevance and effectiveness. You may need to update them to reflect changes in brand strategy, market positioning or consumer preferences.

This flexibility means that your brand will remain relevant and competitive. As trends and technologies evolve, you could consider how they might impact your brand’s visual identity.

How do I stick to my brand guidelines?

Creating brand guidelines for your business is a significant first step, but the real challenge is adhering to them.

Here are four tips to help your business consistently stick to its brand guidelines:

• Educate your team: Conduct regular training sessions to make sure that all team members understand the importance and details of the brand guidelines. This can help embed the brand’s values and standards into daily operations, fostering a culture of consistency.
• Make guidelines accessible: Host your brand guidelines on a shared platform or intranet where they can be easily accessed by employees, contractors and partners. Easy access means that everyone can refer to them whenever they need.
• Appoint brand ambassadors: Designate specific individuals within your business as brand ambassadors to oversee adherence to the guidelines. These ambassadors can provide assistance and clarification, ensuring that brand standards are consistently applied across your whole business.
• Regularly review and update: Schedule periodic reviews of your brand guidelines to keep them aligned with your brand’s evolving direction and market conditions. Semi-regularly updating guidelines means they stay relevant to your changing customer base and are effective.

Not sure if your digital marketing strategy effectively aligns with your brand guidelines? Book a free consultation with us today and let’s get you some answers.