What are Brand Guidelines and why you should be sticking to them

Branding guidelines are an important part of quality control and brand reputation for any business. Whether you are well established or in the early stages of starting out, branding guidelines not only builds brand awareness, but they also develop trust between businesses and consumers, helping create consistency and recognition. Having clear branding guidelines helps everyone involved stay focused and prevent confusion, here are a few reason why sticking them is important.

But first, what are Brand Guidelines?

Brand Guidelines are a set of guides or rules that outline how to use the visual elements of your brand, AKA your logo. A logo is the key visual element of your brand and having it always looks its best builds consistency and instant recognition. This is where a set of guidelines and rules becomes useful in helping to answers questions like, how much space should be around the logo? What is the minimum size it can be before it becomes unrecognisable? Brand Guidelines help to guide people using the logo on all these questions and more.

5 reasons why you should use and stick to your Brand Guidelines.

1. Brand Consistency.

Making sure that when consumers experience your brand it’s consistent no matter where or how they find you. Having an inconstant brand can be confusing for consumers, on the other hand a consistent branding message creates trust and authenticity. Read more about Building Website Trust and Authenticity here.

Brand consistency is helped by having a set of rules that outline how your logo should be represented.

2. Instant Recognition.

Having a consistent visual identity makes your brand more recognisable. Brands like Nike are so recognisable, just seeing the visual elements, the swish, makes it instantly known. This is because everywhere we see the logo, or interact with the brand it is the same consistent element.

3. Protect your Visual Image.

Branding Guidelines act as a set of rules for anyone who is using the logo to follow. Branding guidelines protect the visual image of the brand and is important for quality control, keeping your entity looking its best.

4. It’s a Useful Tool for Business Owners, Staff & Contractors.

If you don’t have the budget for a design team and you have little experience with how to create graphics and marketing material, branding guidelines can be a great tool to help communicate your entity and getting the basics consistent. It will include things like using the correct typeface and fonts it will also include your company colours and how you can treat the logo size and spacing. Branding guidelines also show how not to use the logo, an always important thing to know!

There are multiple ways branding guidelines can be useful for a business. Do you need to use the logo on a social media post or a piece of promotional material? Using the guidelines will help keep the businesses image in check.

It also means that when a new employee starts or you outsource some work they will be able to maintain a cohesive look.

5. Add Value.

A business can demonstrate professionalism, reliability and company values throughout their branding by using branding guidelines to be consistent across different channels; guidelines help create brand identity and reinforce the message about what you stand for. They also help set expectations with customers, employees, suppliers, partners, and others who interact with your company. This is a great way to stand out against the competition, generate leads and attract new customers.

Following branding guidelines is the key to building a consistent and a clear customer experience and through multiple brand interactions will build recognition and trust all the while adding value to your business.

Let us know in the comments what benefits you have found using your branding guidelines.