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Maintaining and keep brand integrity is hard, and unfortunately, this what every business entrepreneur fights for and of course, to achieve brand reputation and integrity then you must have guidelines that direct your production, marketing, selling, packaging and other business-related activities taking place within the business and outside the business.
When working with many content creators, you need to have guidelines that everyone must follow so that there is consistency in what is being done, for example, content production, logos, brands, and many other activities. Making a brand identity requires strategic thinking, good coordination, good design skills, responsive communication and knowing what your brand is; however, you need the right audience to walk you through that so that you can have the best of your brand identity.
Before going any further, let us first understand the meaning of brand identity; according to Marty Neumeier, brand identity refers to an outward expression of a brand, including its trademark, name, communications and visual appearance. An accurate brand helps you get known to the world, especially if it’s an engaging brand, because active and outstanding brands usually form long-lasting relationships with a customer. That is what you need for your success and the excellence of your business.
A brand identity guide is vital because it provides you with a platform for quality control, increased comprehension, and excellent brand recognition. Here is a highlight of things you need to include in your brand identity guideline; logos, colors, typography, photography, design system, illustration, iconography, data visualization, interactive elements, video and motion and web design.
Before you lay out a plan for a brand identity guideline, here are the vital things you need to have on your mind; it should be able to stand out among the rest of the brands on the market and get people’s attention, it should have a memorable visual representation that sticks into people’s minds, it should be able to grow over time and evolve, it should be consistent, and finally it should be able to use without having to carry on so many training.
LET US SWIM THROUGH THE PROCESS OF BUILDING A GOOD BRAND IDENTITY GUIDELINE
1. Have a clear brand strategy/ plan
A brand strategy is a plan of how you want your brand guideline to look like; it gives you a clear direction of;
· What you want to do?
· How should you do it?
· Where should it be done from?
· Whom should you do it with and
· Who is it going to benefit? A brand strategy usually comprises key things about a company and all the other details about it.
Basically, a brand strategy helps to have a clear plan of how you will execute your activities up to the last dot.
2. Copy from your current brand
You can’t just wake up in the morning and then create a brand guideline strategy; you need to have knowledge or take a lesson from what is prevailing, and if you don’t have a brand guideline at the moment, then you might need to get one from another company that has one so that you can benchmark from there. Don’t copy and paste just like the brand you have currently or the one you got from another company, but rather benchmark on that and use it to produce something special and unique. You can also hold sessions with some or all of your employees to contribute on what they think should be included in the brand and also the format in which it should appear.
3. Find a format in which you want your brand to appear.
Selecting a format for your brand depends on what you need personally or what your business requirements are. It would help if you also considered your customers' behaviors, interests, likes and preferences, and finding out what social media platforms do they use most. For example, you can have your format in the form of a PDF, a magazine or a book; you can as well have it but in the form of, let’s say, highlights, reels, stories. This way, it will help your brand guide be accessed by everyone or whoever needs it, whether online or in a manual script like a hard copy.
4. Pick out what you need to be included in your brand guide
If you well know your brand needs, you also have to know what to include in your brand. Align all the things you need to include in your brand guide; for example, you might want to include things that you think people need to know about your brand specifically; for example, you might want to include;
· The mission
· Vision of your business,
· Goals,
· Purpose,
· Values,
· Your achievements over the past years,
· Opening date of your company and when it was established,
· The history of the company,
· The journey of your growth as a company up to date and
· Anything else that you think people within and outside the company need to know; however, what you feel is confidential shouldn’t be included. Additionally, you can include the products and services you offer, location details, contact details, and why you think people should consume your products.
Bearing in mind that you have to create and publish your brand identity guideline, you have to be mindful of these key things and how your guide is published. Here are a few things that would require you to rethink before you publish your brands, such as colors, fonts, logos, hierarchy, and more others necessary for building a good brand.
5. Craft and design your brand guidelines
Now that you are done identifying your business needs and having your list of what you need to include in your guideline with you, you can start writing the guideline to explain each section. However, it would help if you didn’t make it too wordy to include some pictures to make it more attractive. Endeavor includes the dos and don’ts in your guideline, how things should be done, where and by who; this will create clarity in the internal organization and the outside world and customers.
Keep your brand identity guideline simple and brief so that it is not boring to the readers; otherwise, if it is made big, then people won’t open to read it but rather keep it on their tables, use soft and understandable English but not hard words that might require someone to use or find a dictionary that way it will be interesting and easy to read.
6. Let your guide be easily accessible to anyone
Depending on where you find your customers, make your brand guideline available in that specific place. If most of your customers are got through social media, make your guideline available online, for example, like on your website and all your social media platforms. If there are customers that you access physically, you might need hard copies of the guideline; these could be manual scripts, short handbook, magazine, or you can make one in the form of a novel or brochures but always remember to update them every year so that you keep up to date just like customers expect from you because as your brand grows you will probably add new things and those new things won’t appear in your brand identity guideline if it’s not updated every other time there is a new thing. To keep your brand identity updated, you might need to find a team in charge of that; otherwise, you might forget about it.
Furthermore, let your customers know where to find your brand identity guidelines so that if anyone needs them, they can access them immediately; these could be company employees, customers, business partners, or any other people.
In conclusion, a brand identity guideline is important not only for your business's success but also for keeping and maintaining your brand reputation.
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