Developing a brand book

The brand book is your official business card. Many people call it a “Bible” of a brand. Because there are introduced all the standards of the appearance of the company, its principles, and philosophy. This unique document emphasizes your personality and shows what the enterprise is capable of. The most interesting thing is that you will not meet the same brand books anywhere. The reason why is that each company focuses on something of its own: design, information content, and so on. A brand book is a flight of a designer’s imagination, in which elements of the company’s identity are collected. For example, a logo or corporate font.

A brand book is needed to create an integral image of the enterprise, that would continue to attract customers. It reveals the exclusivity of the brand and its visual strategy. While using a brand book, you can show your uniqueness and advantages to potential customers. In general, the brand book is an irreplaceable thing.

Moreover, if you don’t have a separate summary of “design rules”, each employee will bring something of his own identity. The styles would differ and “goodbye, successful brand.” After all, the slightest difference in fonts or shades of a logo could affect its entire appearance seriously. The brand book also acts as a kind of guide for novice employees. With the help of this instruction, they would be able to quickly understand the brand system and avoid many mistakes. So the brand book is the best decision for each company!

So the main missions of a brand book are:

• creating a certain image and establishing a reputation
• increasing the effectiveness of marketing activities
• description of using corporate identity elements
• awareness of employees about the main tasks of the brand
• systematization of all company information in one document

As you can see, a brand book is a set of all rules that are responsible for image of the company. It helps to create the right reputation in the market and gain respect among customers.

After reading the answer to the first question, it seems that everyone needs brand books. But in reality, there are cases in which it could be a waste of time and money.

So who needs a “Bible” of a brand?

1. Companies that open their branches in other cities and countries. In the case of franchises, a brand book is needed like oxygen to us. Because with the brand book the opening of new branches is much easier. And it would pass without any embarrassment. After all, clear instructions will be provided on the use of all elements of the brand. Owners of the company will be able to control the standards of using corporate design. And it simplifies life greatly.
2. Companies creating branded products. If the company does not have its own advertising department, then the brand book is simply vital for them. In most cases, such brands order the creation of branded products to freelancers or special agencies. In this case, using a brand book would be able to establish an understanding between the customer and the contractor. And the likelihood of error would be reduced significantly.
3. When creating advertising layouts. A brand book would also help companies that have their own advertising department. Then creating advertising layouts would be much easier and faster. And this will affect the effectiveness of the company positively.

Who doesn’t need a brand book?

1. Companies-freshman. If you appeared on the market recently and not sure about the future fate of your company, then you do not need a brand book. Because of how long you will last “afloat” is unknown. It would be better to invest your money in a quality advertising campaign so that in the brand book will come in handy in the future 🙂
2. To artisans. Companies that only have a simple logo in their arsenal should also refrain from creating a brand book. Home studios that do not target a wide audience “Brand Bible” is not needed, too.
3. Small companies. Those companies who don’t plan to grow and open branches in the future can do without brand book. If you work within one small office and are not going to expand, it is better not to do the “Brand Bible”. In your case, it would be a more fruitful and profitable decision to invest in promotion.

To begin with, let’s understand what a brand book and corporate identity are:

• A brand book is an instruction for interacting with a corporate identity.
• Corporate identity is a general visual image of a company. In other words, its reputation among employees, customers, and the whole public. Corporate identity includes branding, distinctive design, trademarks, and so on.

So these concepts cannot exist without each other, like yin and yang. But in order to use them correctly, you need to know their differences exactly.

Their main difference is the target audience. Brand books are usually using inside the company. They are used for corporate purposes. It shows not only examples of the identity elements, but also certain standards. For example, the size of the picture or the hue of the font. As a result, the logo would look the same way on all layouts of commercial printing.

The corporate identity is designed only for potential customers. Every detail in it is aimed at attracting the attention of customers. It is creating to increase the recognition of the company and to create an image in general.

The brand book contains all the rules and conditions for using the corporate style. In short, a brand book is being developed for internal use. A corporate identity is for “external” use. As you can see, their missions are different.

To understand the difference between a brand book, guideline, cut guide, and logobook it is important to delve into their original values.

• A brand book is a document of a brand where described its concept, design specifics,  etc. They are guided by employees while working with the development of the company.
• Guideline these are the rules for using the elements of corporate identity. Also, it includes the final variants of design. By the way, it is called a “passport of standards”.
• The cut guide is a description of the technology for creating corporate identifiers. For example, website design or office design.
• Logobook is an instruction for using a trademark. It contains information about how to create a logo, what colors and fonts to use, where to place it.

These concepts are similar to each other. But they still have some differences.

Brandbook includes information about the brand. And the guideline cut guide and logo book are revealing different aspects of the brand individually.  A brand book is a broad concept. It may include all information about the company: from visual standards to the description of the concept.

How about the guideline, cut guide, and logo book they are presenting narrower definitions. The information in them is disclosed less extensively. They are complementing each other. They differ among themselves in that the guideline gives general recommendations on the use of corporate identity. A logo book tells about a trademark and the rules for its design. The cut guide describes technologies for creating identity elements. Another characteristic difference is that a brandbook can accommodate a guideline, a cut guide, and a logo book. But on the contrary, it is impossible to do.

Despite the fact that the above concepts are similar, they have completely different functions. Each of them helps the company to develop in its own way. They can not be replaced by each other. You can only supplement it. Since the missions of the brandbook, cut guide, guideline, and logo book are different completely.

As we mentioned earlier, it is impossible to find the same brandbooks. The structure of each “Brand Bible” may differ in some details, but there is information that remains unchanged.

We can divide a brandbook into 3 basic categories:

1. The section about the brand. This part tells about the philosophy and values ​​of the company. Some companies make the section small. Because they don’t see any reason to rewrite their business strategy several times.
2. The section about the style. This section is one of the most important in the brand book. It indicates the requirements for the design of the logo, trademark, tagline. As well as all fonts, photographs and other graphic objects.
3. The section about the rules of interaction with customers. This part instructs how to communicate with customers correctly. How it would be better to speak and in what language to speak? What formulations to use? What to write in a blog and in emails? What posts to publish on social networks? All in all, it contains all the communication standards of the company.

But the brand book has some requirements. It must include the following information:

• Information about the target audience. Enumeration of all the features of it.
• The mission of the brand and its concept.
• Instructions for brand promotion (advertising layouts and the details of their creation).
• All about the corporate identity of the company.
• The interaction of employees within the company.

Also, owners of companies often like adding guidelines to a brandbook. This is a kind of “passport standards”. They collect all the rules of corporate identity using. By the way, a good idea is to add the guideline into the “Brand Bible”. Because it facilitates the work of designers and marketers. It also increases the efficiency of their work.

The content of the brand book may vary depending on the specifics of the company. But there are details that should be described: information about the corporate identity, rules for interacting with potential customers. And a few words about the brand, of course.

Brandbook has a broad range of functions. It would be useful not only for designers to study the characteristics of the company’s style. Who needs a book about your brand and why?

1. Management link. Brandbook managers will need to draw up a brand development plan. After all, if they adhere to all the prescribed rules, the plan will turn out to be better. And it will not contradict the concept of the company.
2. Marketers. Since marketers are promoting the brand to the masses, studying the “Brand Bible” would be very useful for them. Since when carrying out all kinds of actions for the promotion of the company, it is important to understand all the advantages of the company well.
3. Sales department. It is important to sell competently. And a brand book helps with this, especially when drawing up a commercial proposal using the company’s corporate identity.
4. Designers. Those people who are involved in the company’s visuals need a brand book like oxygen. After all, only with a high-quality design, taking into account the corporate identity, can a good reputation be formed in the eyes of potential buyers.
5. Lawyers. Lawyers are defending the rights of the company. And the brand book is necessary for protecting the authorship of the company. All in all, no one is safe from litigation.
6. Journalists. If you want to become a famous company and want to be discussed by everyone you would have to deal with reporters. And they must be acquainted with all the “vocabulary” norms of your brand. To avoid misunderstandings.
7. Business partners. Are you planning to find a good business partner? So it is important to introduce them to your concept, philosophy, and specifics. Actually, show that you are a cool progressive company. And here is a stylish brandbook that is irreplaceable.
8. HR specialists. If you want to attract real professionals to your business, you need to tell about your brand well. Demonstrate your values and advantages using a special brandbook.
9. HR managers. A brand book will help to convey to employees all the principles of your work and increase the corporate spirit.

Also, we would like to highlight one more group of “brandbook readers”. We decided not to take it into a separate point because is controversial enough. It is a group of potential customers. You can place a link to the “Brand Bible” on your site to attract more buyers. It is a good marketing idea.

As you can see, a brand book has a huge range of uses. It can be used in many areas of the company. It is very useful.