What to Know About Brand Identity Guides
Brand guidelines are incredibly useful documents that define the styles of a brand—whether that’s visual or voice, or both. It’s possible to work without one, but it’s an inadvisable (and likely chaotic) approach.
Here, we’ll cover what’s included in our brand guideline documents and why they’re such a valuable investment.
Why do they matter?
The biggest benefit of brand guidelines is how they encourage consistency across all kinds of branded materials. If you spot incorrect brand usage, having a guide to point to is much more efficient than writing up individual change lists. All our brand guide pages are numbered, complex guides come with a table of contents with sections. You’ll be able to easily provide the exact location of the brand style in need of reference with any of our guides. Those more complex guides are often designed in your brand styles, allowing the document itself to set the tone for brand deployment and style usage.
So, how does brand consistency affect other areas of business? There’s more to it than you might have expected.
Brand guides streamline every workflow, saving time on projects.
At minimum, having brand guidelines will streamline workflows. Non-designers are able to reference visual styles quickly so they can move on to their own work faster when producing internal materials. Designers and marketers use brand parameters as a baseline for the creative process. But don’t worry: This doesn’t mean every project looks exactly the same. Good brand identities provide enough cohesion to keep all your materials related and the flexibility to adapt to the intent of the piece and the content available.
The beauty of brand guidelines is that while usage should be to the letter, any type of guide is a living document. Whether you need an edit or extended information by topic, we’re happy to work with you to make sure your goals and guides are in alignment.
Audiences make decisions based on branding.
Speaking of audiences, Forbes recognizes that the value of brand consistency is more than just good looks—it’s also about how you’re perceived by your target audiences:
Style guides can support marketing initiatives by ensuring that all messaging is relevant and related to your brand’s goals. Referencing a brand style guide ensures that content distinguishes a brand from its competitors, and is cohesive. This cohesion is important because it helps establish a strong brand voice that resonates with the audience, which is essential for building brand awareness. Over time, that awareness and consistency build trust.
And, If you’re selling a product or service, Adobe highlights another important point about brand loyalty:
Consumers develop emotional connections with companies that share the same core values. And your brand guidelines help you translate those values to your audience in a unique way. When you gain a loyal customer, they’ll spend 67% more than new buyers.
Maintaining consistency via brand guidelines gives you a crucial metric for communicating effectively with your audiences, no matter what you’re offering or who is deploying your brand styles. This lends to professionalism and reputability, which is a vital impression to make on any audience.
Voice: The Other Half of Brand
Brand identity covers the visual half of your brand. The other half is voice—what you say, how you say it, and the images that reinforce both. The two work in tandem, and we'll cover voice in a dedicated post soon.
Job seekers and recruiters investigate your branding.
There are other audiences that pay attention to your brand, too. One of those is job seekers. Brand voice and tone should extend into write-ups on open positions and job descriptions. Why? Forbes summarizes it best:
Research shows that 75% of job seekers will investigate a company’s reputation before applying for a job, and 50% of job seekersrefuse to work for a company with a bad reputation, even with a pay increase. The transparency that technology has made possible means that today’s job seekers and employees have more insights than ever into the workplaces they’re interested in, which means that employer branding is more important than ever.
Brand connection is important, especially if you plan to employ someone to represent your brand in their work.
Potential brand partnerships rely on having a defined, effective brand.
Business and project partners also evaluate your brand. IMA Global points out the importance of brand in partnerships:
Partnerships bring brands together to help them reach new audiences, offer something new to their customers, and enhance the perception of their brand.
When brands partner with the right company, this helps to increase positive brand perception. It can also help a brand to change its audience’s perceptions. For example, a car brand could partner with a theme park to help its audience see it as more of a family-focused company. This can help a new audience of customers to consider the brand next time they’re looking to make a purchase.
Brand guidelines help you maintain the kind of consistency and professionalism that makes for great partnerships.
No Downsides
No matter how simple or complex the brand guidelines, they’re a worthwhile investment. Guides provide you with the information you need to work efficiently in-house—and with outside vendors and partners. With guides, you can feel confident you’re making the best impression on your audiences through consistent and recognizable marketing materials. In short, they remove some of the mental lift of maintaining your brand and help you stay on track to achieving your goals. There really is no downside to having one—only wins.
To see samples of our guides, check out our latest brand work:
