Build a Business Brand with Brand Standards
| Diane Vautier January 28, 2010 | Tweet This Article! |
Building a company’s brand identity means many different things to many different people, but one point that everyone agrees on is that a brand, once defined, must be consistently reinforced.
A brand guideline, or brand standards guide, is the definitive resource that outlines how your brand will be repeatedly represented throughout all communications. It guarantees the quality, consistency, and clarity of your brand whether materials are created in-house or through outsourced design vendors.
A brand guideline is known by a number of different names:
• Communication guide
• Brand standards guide
• Corporate identity guidelines
• Brand standards manual
• Brand style guide
• Brand identity manual
• Style guide
The list goes on. But no matter what you choose to call it, a brand guideline is the set of design rules that tie together the look and feel of all your marketing materials. It is the reference document that contains the rules for visually presenting the position of the company in the market. Use of the guideline creates awareness of the brand and visually differentiates your company from competitors.
A brand is also an animate entity. It moves and grows with the company. The breadth and depth of a guide can vary depending on a number of factors such as the age of the company, the size of a product line, the level of marketing awareness, or the use of one or a family of brands under one umbrella (brand architecture).
Think of a brand guideline as an binder to which pages can be added, edited, or deleted. Start with the basic components and expand as your brand grows. Some of the basics to consider are the treatment of the logo, graphic elements, definition of the color palette, typography, and use of images.
A company may decide to add more pages to its brand binder. They may find it helpful to define their brand in even more detail such as defining a message strategy, including electronic and online specifications, or adding music or audio components.
No matter how specifically defined a brand is, always remember to regularly use the brand guide when creating new materials, initiating a new campaign, working with outside creative vendors or rolling out any new programs to field managers.
Managing your brand takes a great deal of vigilance and discipline but the reward is great. A strong brand is a valuable asset.
Tags: activeedge, Brand Guideline, Brand standards, branding, diane vautier, dvautier, Marketing
Brand, Brand Guideline, Brand standards, Marketing | Diane Vautier | 
9:59 am
