A brand is more than a logo or tagline, it’s your business’s personality, your identity and your voice. But for your brand to be at its strongest and most effective, it should run through every customer touchpoint - it should be the glue of your business, that seamlessly sticks everything together. Creating and identifying your brand is difficult enough, but ensuring it is consistent through everything you do, now that is a whole new challenge. The answer? Create yourself a solid set of brand guidelines.
What are brand guidelines?
In essence, your brand guidelines are a set of ‘rules’, designed to ensure your brand elements are consistently communicated, both internally and externally. They tend to be distributed across your workforce while being used as a reference point by design agencies that are supporting you with marketing collateral.
Your brand guidelines should be a toolkit that clearly guides the reader through each element of your brand and how it should be used.
Among other things, your brand guidelines should include a break down of the following:
- Your business’s mission, values, goals and personality
- Your business’s key audience types
- The correct logo, including reference to colour codes and size guidelines
- What fonts to use, including typefaces and sizes of both headers, sub-headings and body text
- Your brand’s colour palette, including which specific colours should be used where
- Tone of voice and language
Why does your brand need brand guidelines?
Consistency
Of course, the main reasoning behind the creation of brand guidelines is to ensure consistency across every potential customer touchpoint, including all digital and physical marketing materials. This means a cohesive brand across the likes of your website, social media channels, business cards, leaflets, shop decor and even your uniform.
There is no denying, having a consistent brand will result in recognition and familiarity, which in turn will lead to customer’s trusting your business.
They tell your story
Consistent branding helps to tell your business’s story, which is vital when it comes to your target audience identifying with you. The font style you’ve chosen, the imagery you’ve spent time picking and the colour palette you’ve decided upon - all of these individual assets reflect a little bit of your business’s personality. Regularity of your brand will not only help you connect and engage with your target audience but it will also strengthen the relationship between you and your customers.
A more professional feel
If your brand consistently flows throughout every customer touchpoint, your business will undoubtedly appear more professional. This will lead to you unconsciously demanding a sense of trust, authority and recognition while achieving a high standard of quality that will help set you apart from your competition.
For example, if the logo designon your website differs from that on your social media channels, you’ll confuse customers and potentially put them off using your business. Simply put, an inconsistent brand won’t do you any favours and could be costly for your business.
Create brand consistency with Klutch
Creating your brand is one thing but making sure it is reflected throughout everything you do, well that’s another. Design and digital agency, Klutch Studios is here to help your business create a strong brand that clearly reflects your ambition, passion and personality. Better still, our team of experts are committed to supporting businesses with their brand guidelines, to ensure their identity seamlessly flows throughout every customer touchpoint. Whether you’re a local business or an international organisation, we carefully craft brand and digital experiences for ambitious companies. Get in touch to find out more.