Why does a company need a brand book?

When a company does not have a brand book, each employee acts on the principle “I am an artist, this is how I see it.” The SMM manager makes jokes in the Aviasales style, but without any sense of proportion, and receives negative feedback from the audience. A marketer inserts emoji into a business newsletter, a designer tries new fonts “to keep it fresh” and changes the background on the logo from blue to green because it’s more modern. And in advertising banners, the brand can only be determined by its details. 

As a result, you want to be like Coca-Cola, to be recognized in any country, in any language and with any contractor, but it turns out like at a meeting with strangers. In the new market, the reaction of the audience is: “who are you anyway?”, in the old market – “oh, excuse me, did you rebrand?” Clients confuse you with competitors, and even partners call you “Daddy’s Buns,” although you have been “Mom’s Buns” for three years. 

The brand book is the backbone of the entire brand ecosystem. Without it, everything falls apart, the tone of voice jumps from “bro, it’s imba, fly in” to “dear partners, thank you for your interest,” colors are selected according to the mood of the marketer, the logo goes away, and no one knows which of these is right. You can patch up the holes locally, but it will be held together by snot, God forbid, if it starts to scale. 

In order for the brand to be instantly readable regardless of the platform: on the website, on social networks, on packaging or during a management speech at a forum in Dubai, you need a normal brand book. As usual, we’ve sorted everything out: why and who needs it, what it includes, and how to make it effective for the company. 

Introduction to the concept of brand book

This is a comprehensive document, also called brand DNA. Relatively speaking, it lists what distinguishes Ira’s coffee shop from Starbucks, and microbusiness on the marketplace from Patagonia. It is intended for internal use and is a trade secret, but can be shared with contractors as basic company information. 

The brand book answers three main questions:

1. Who are you?

2. How do you look and sound?

3. Why did you come?

If you formulate the answers to them before each release from scratch, fill out the brief and get your model for brand assembly.

A good brand book must include:

• the history of the company’s creation, its mission and values - to understand why you appeared in the first place;

• tone of voice - how you communicate with the audience;

• corporate identity - logo, colors, fonts, icons, etc.

Next we will look at all these sections in more detail. The main takeaway: having such a document ensures that everyone who works with the brand will present it in a consistent design on any platform. With it, even your promo on the refrigerator in Astana will look like part of the system, and not a flyer scribbled on your knee in Word. 

Why do you need a brand book?

In addition to creating a unified brand image, it is needed to save you time. In fact, this is a complete instruction according to which any participant in the process, from a copywriter to a franchisee, will do the job correctly. You don’t need to explain 8 times on your fingers what a branded slide in a presentation should look like, or coordinate posts in the style of “Our team of professionals welcomes you,” if you write “come to the vibe, we have a fresh delivery.” If you collaborate with contractors, you can skip the briefing stage and simply send everyone a brand book: they will also be happy to receive detailed guides from you instead of a stream of edits. This is what it looks like corporate style book for outdoor advertising design. It spells out the design concept, rules for using the style with examples and anti-examples, and also presents brand media (badges, flags, billboards, souvenirs). 

It’s like with IKEA - the names of the cabinets are controversial, but even those who hold tools in their hands for the first time can assemble them. And no one will hang shelves outside simply because they want to. 

Who needs a brand book and when?

Any company that has its own logo, website or social network, and that communicates with subscribers, clients and conducts business correspondence, needs this document. It can be considered as an investment in the future if you are not ready to remain at the level of “small but proud individual entrepreneur” and plan to develop. The larger the business, the more reasons to use a brand book. 

Here are examples of organizations that will definitely need clear brand guidelines:

• global corporations with a large network of branches, so that in Russia, Chile and India the logo is the same size and the tone of voice is preserved;

• startups - in highly competitive niches there is no time to explain, you need to immediately declare yourself as a strong brand;

• creative agencies - in order to do projects for clients, you should first show how everything works here;

• large educational institutions so that campuses in St. Petersburg, Perm and Nizhny Novgorod use uniform documents and souvenirs in the same design;

• government agencies and non-profit organizations so that, for example, a program for the development of ecology in the region does not look like a promotional tour to Altai. 

To answer the question of when it is needed, let's think about what often happens in the life cycle of a company. The first is personnel rotation. Imagine that the chief designer or brand manager has left. With them, fonts can “go away”, as well as knowledge of why this particular Pantone/CMYK shade is used in the design (and even what shade it is). If there is a detailed manual, nothing will be lost even when the entire staff changes. 

The second, of course, is scaling the business. You enter a new market, and accordingly, a new audience and other advertising channels with their own realities appear. The brand book helps you “keep your face” and turn individual branches into an orchestra where the violin parts are combined into a symphony. 

Third - rebranding. You decide to change positioning or strategy, update the visual. Without clear regulations, the team may act according to old patterns, and the new identity will be lost in the mailings and banners of three years ago. 

Fourth, working with new contractors. Any agency begins cooperation with the question: do you have an editorial policy, guides, instructions? And then you either send a brand book, or throw a screenshot of the 2020 banner with the note: “Do something like this.” 

Main sections of the brand book

The document does not have universal design standards. Its content depends on two factors:

1. Narrow or broad application. In a narrow sense, this can be a corporate style guide; in a broad sense, it can be a complete brand image with meanings, positioning, etc.

2. Company profile and product specifics. The documents of an offline business and an organization that is promoting online will be different. In the first case, the emphasis is on merch, stands, showcases and street banners, in the second - on templates and color codes. 

But the main sections will be repeated. A good brand book, like a book, is greeted by its cover. 

Cover

It should attract attention and impress the audience: employees, partners, contractors. Here they indicate:

• company name;

• logo;

• title of the document (preferably explicitly: “Brand Book”, “Brand Guide”, etc.);

• publication date (especially if there are several versions, this will save everyone from chaos).

Contents

If you end up with more than 5 pages, make a table of contents; people don’t like to waste time searching for the information they need. For digital documents it should be clickable. 

Brand history and mission

Tell us about how you appeared, what your values are, what your mission is, provide facts, photos, chronology of events, media publications. Important: the wording must be specific, not “our mission is to make people’s lives better.” Use a corporate tone of voice, don’t be afraid to be creative, it’s memorable. For example, the Saddleback Leather company talks about the durability of leather accessories with the slogan “They’ll Fight Over It When You’re Dead.” 

Logo

The sacred cow of any organization, the most recognizable symbol. Show how it should be used and how it should never be used. You can show the history of development: which options were considered or used, which one is currently in effect and why. 

Color palette 

Your recognition depends on it. Indicate codes: RGB, CMYK, HEX, Pantone, if available. Add accent and neutral colors, show combinations. With this section, the designer doesn't have to guess: #333333 or #2D2D2D.

Typography

Fonts are your voice online and in print. A message written in Comic Sans feels very different than a sleek Garamond or a strict Arial. Please indicate:

• fonts and font families;

• line spacing, indents;

• where to use capitals, where to use lowercase;

• what can be adapted and what cannot be changed under any circumstances.

Tone of voice

How does the brand speak, in “you” or “you”? What audience is it targeting: boomers, millennials, zoomers? What role does he play: friend, expert, mentor, opinion leader. Describe the style of communication, acceptable phrases, prohibited words. Give real examples: newsletter, social media post, banner, story. 

Icons and visuals

If you use iconography, describe it. What icons do you have, linear or filled, what is the thickness of the lines, is shadow allowed. Where to get them and how to scale them.  

Application examples

Show samples of banners, stands, souvenirs, options for adaptation to regions. Give errors: what does not fit into your concept, although it looks creative. 

We we do everything from scratch, we create brand books with a clear positioning of the organization in the market and help increase the value of the business. Additionally, we provide naming and logo development services. 

How to create an effective brand book

1. Determine why you need it and who will use it. If only for an internal team, a basic guide is enough. If for a franchise or for contractors, you need a detailed manual. 

2. Connect the team. You will need marketers, designers, editors, and PR people to come up with ideas and come to a common denominator. 

3. Collect the foundation: mission, values, tone of voice, positioning. From here you can start when choosing fonts and a logo, if you don’t already have one. 

4. Go to a visual and show it with examples, so external teams will have fewer misunderstandings. 

5. Add templates - everything that employees actually use. This could be presentations, publications on social networks, product packaging, merch. 

6. Select a format. The guide can be published on the website, distributed in PDF or printed version, whichever is more convenient. The main thing is that they actually use it. 

7. Test it on living people. Let the finished document be viewed not by a designer, but, for example, by a copywriter, partner, or manager. If they have no questions, everything is clear, then the brand book is effective. 

Examples of successful brand books

One of the most famous in the world: NASA Graphics Standards Manual (1975). It was here that the legendary “worm” appeared - the NASA logo in the form of a sans-serif inscription with cut-out crossbars. It shows examples of logo placement on rockets, forms, documents, vehicles and even souvenirs. The document is still studied in design schools, and a copy of it was published in 2015 as a separate book.

Another iconic option was presented by Starbucks. The company has created a full-fledged website where you can find examples of creatives, logo, color palette, principles of communication with the client and philosophy. 

But for most, a brand book is primarily a working tool so as not to redo the same thing and not waste time on calls and consultations. Look in our portfoliowhat such manuals look like. 

Common mistakes when creating a brand book

1. Made for show. We downloaded the project, inserted a logo, and called it a brand book. As a result, you have 10 pages of beautiful words and no benefit. If the designer, after familiarization, asks: “What font should I use?” - needs to be redone. 

2. Only the visual has been worked out. You indicated the colors, fonts, logo, but nothing about why the organization appeared, how it speaks to the audience, how it positions itself. The designer will like it, but everyone who works with people will not. 

3. No specifics. For example, it is indicated: “we speak to the audience in a friendly manner,” and that’s all. For one person, friendly means “Hello, kittens!” For another, it means “Good evening, dear readers.” 

4. No examples. This is not even discussed; it is necessary to show two options: how to do it and how not to do it. 

5. Too difficult. 40 pages of theory, archetypes, pyramids of meaning, in the end the team is afraid to open the document, and the contractors do it from memory. 

How to use a brand book correctly

The main secret is that in principle they should use it. Sometimes it turns out like this: they did it, saved it, sent it once by mail and forgot. The working document is embedded in processes; it is stored in a shared folder, in a corporate system, on an internal portal or in the cloud, to which everyone who creates content and is responsible for communications has access. It is opened when writing a post, preparing a presentation, or briefing a client. With it, designers argue less, marketers get in tune, and contractors do a good job the first time.