Creating a strong, memorable brand is about far more than picking a logo or a set of colours. Your branding reflects who you are as a company, how you speak to your customers and what they think about you.
It’s a big project, one that can be difficult to start from scratch. This is where a set of carefully considered brand guidelines can be a huge help. Brand guidelines are a kind of style guide, which sets out tone, personality, colours, fonts, logos, imagery, audience and much, much more.
All businesses should have a set of brand guidelines, and they should be reviewed regularly. Here are just five of the many reasons why it’s so important to get your brand guidelines down on paper:
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They help you define who you are
The act of writing down your brand guidelines can help you explore and define who you are as a brand, or who you’d like to be. Making decisions on the simple things like colour palettes all the way through to defining a personality for the tone of your communications will make your brand image clearer in-house. Until you know who you are, you’ll find it hard to communicate to others.
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They ensure consistency
Customers crave consistency. It builds (or damages) the credibility of a company and affects how much they trust your brand, as well as remember it. Your brand guidelines will make sure that every leaflet, website, email campaign and social post is on message, all working together to project a clear and consistent brand image.
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They make it easier to work with partners
If you ever need to outsource any design work or brief a communications team on a campaign, your branding guidelines will make it much easier. They are the instruction manual for everything from how to talk about your brand to what colours and fonts should be used. A comprehensive set of guidelines will help partners and collaborators to understand your business, all in one easy-to-refer-to document.
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They can save a lot of time and effort
If you need to get on with a project on a tight timescale, you’ll find it really useful to have your brand guidelines to refer to. You don’t need to query what size font or what colour you should be using, or agonise over the decision yourself – the brand guidelines tell you it all.
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They’re essential for new starters
Having a clear set of rules for your brand is crucial, especially if you have new people coming into the business. Brand guidelines helps to prevent confusion. When a new person starts, they can immediately become familiar with the brand – its imagery, tone of voice, audience – through the brand guidelines. Everyone knows exactly what to do, as it’s all there in the guidelines.
Need more help establishing your brand, or perhaps it’s time for a re-brand? The experts here at Ambos Digital are on-hand to assist with everything from brand guidelines to logo design. Give us a call on 0800 774 7025 or email [email protected] to discuss your project.
