In a fast-moving world where people pay less attention to details and more on the immediate outlook, it is pivotal to have a solid first impression as a company. Building a solid first impression is not as easy as it seems. It must be unique, attractive and inform the customers what the brand/product is about. This is where the brand style guide comes in.

What is a brand style guide?

A brand style guide is an instruction manual that clearly defines how a brand should communicate. In order to solve the issue of inconsistency of a product brand in the market, it is wise to follow some laid out guidelines. Brand Style Guide is what offers you these guidelines, and the function of it is to explain how a company presents itself to the world through aspects like logo, colour palette, imagery, voice, and typography. These guidelines help keep the consistency of the product and its outlook in the market. 

Apart from being used by the company itself, this guide is shared among other related parties such as media, partners, agencies, and outsourced companies. When all related parties follow the same guide, keeping the consistency of the company’s brand style becomes easier.

Elements of a Brand style guide

A good brand style guide will offer guidelines that help to maintain the theme of the company. Let’s take a look at a few of those. 

Logo and logo guide 

Logos are the first asset that customers come to contact with. So, they hold a high priority on any brand style guide. The guide should state the sizes and the colour schemes of the logo and any other versions of it that may suit different scenarios. Providing details such as RGB codes, HEX codes, and similar usable details can be very helpful for people who are involved in the marketing process, such as graphic designers. 

Core colour palette 

Colour Palette is another powerful aspect of any brand’s visual identity on the market. A brand style guide should include the primary and secondary colours of the brand with CYMK, RGB, PMS, and web codes. Locking down the colour palette as quickly as possible is vital because once the customers get used to it, it becomes difficult for them to get used to a new colour. 

Typography 

When it comes to typography, sticking to one or two fonts or a typeface/s could be wiser. The brand style guide should include weights of the font, where to use them, and the cases to use them. Even some logos have fonts, so choosing an eye-catching font is highly recommended.

Imagery 

Setting a direction in which to use the imagery is a step most companies skip when it comes to developing a branding guide. That is a bad practice, and images play a large role when getting your brand across the market. Setting an aesthetic, theme, and unique images should be stated in the brand style guide.  

Voice 

Voice, tones, and usage of them can be included in any brand style guide. When adding them, characteristics and usage of the user voice, tone differences, and examples should be included. This makes the addition of voices and tones in advertising and similar fields easier.

How a brand style guide can help you and your brand?

With the competition in the market, a persuasive brand style guide is a must-have for any company. Here are a few benefits it can deliver to your brand.

Helping to achieve brand consistency 

The value of the consistency of a product in a large-scale market is immeasurable. Brand style guide’s main task is to uphold that consistency throughout the lifespan of the product. With each new introduction to the market, it is pivotal to keep your brand consistency intact. This will help your customers, and potential customers identify your brand, product and business anywhere, anytime at a glance. 

Acting as a reference 

Keeping a consistent style on a project with multiple developers, writers or designers can be troublesome. This is where the brand style guide comes in, making it easier for everyone to use it as a reference. This practice helps the brand to stay true to its uniqueness and be more memorable to customers. 

Supporting marketing initiatives 

Marketing is a complicated topic, and everyone involved in it won’t have enough resources to do company-based marketing. A brand style guide can help counter this by providing market experts with valuable information regarding the product. This procedure aids your brand to be distinguished from other competitors positively.

Keys to good branding

Anyone can do branding. However, for good branding that can help you get more sales and win more customers, following factors are important. 

Branding that reflects the company core values 

When a company decides on branding for their business, it’s important to make sure everything aligns well with your company values and the brand identity that you want for your brand. The same can be applied to employees as well. Staying true to yourself becomes much easier when the core values reflect your company and yourself. Furthermore, this allows you to be passionate and proud about the brand.

Uniqueness 

Creating a style that is truly unique to your brand can help when it comes to marketing. This allows your brand to shine and stand out from other competitors. Uniqueness is rare in the business field, and when achieved, it can help the brand to succeed even more. 

Consistency 

As discussed earlier, consistency is one of the main factors to a successful business model. Anyone who wants their product to be successful must focus on the consistency of the product and its branding. Consistency in the branding department will help your product to be more familiar with the customers. 

 Appealing to your target market/ audience 

When branding a product, end-users must always be kept in mind. Branding the product to be more appealing to the target audience will always provide better results. So, make sure to take into account factors like ongoing trends, ease of use, and generation-based branding.

Building your Brand with Us

A Good brand style guide will help you keep your brand identity unique, consistent, and recognizable. This makes it easier for everyone to work with your brand, and also this explains why spending resources on a uniquely customized branding guide to getting it right is important. 

Creating impactful and easy-to-understand brand style guides is a speciality of ours here at Xentury. Get in touch with us to brand your business for success.