To build a strong, recognizable brand, you need everyone in your business to present a consistent brand identity to your customers and the wider market. But our State of Brand Ownership Report found that, when it comes to creating off-brand materials, the worst offenders were the teams you’d expect to be most invested in your brand: C-level executives and marketing departments.

We also found that 67% of respondents use creative guidelines that aren’t part of the company’s official brand guidelines. This suggests that two-thirds of companies have guidelines that don’t work for their business and aren’t being used properly by their employees.

Companies need to develop comprehensive brand guidelines to improve the consistency of their visual and written content. Consistency makes the company look more professional and is essential for building and maintaining brand recognition.

What are brand guidelines?

Brand guidelines are where you document and share the rules, standards, and instructions for bringing your brand identity to life. They help companies achieve consistency by documenting how your brand should look, act, and sound. They document your company’s mission statement and core values and explain how to use visual and written elements to express your brand identity and values in your content.

Many companies initially document their brand guidelines in PDFs. However, as the company grows and its brand evolves, employees find it hard to maintain and update the files and ensure everyone is working from the latest version.

When branding becomes a priority for these companies, they often switch to an online platform like Frontify to host their brand guidelines instead. This is because online brand guidelines are more flexible than PDFs and are easier to maintain. Because online brand guidelines are a centralized home for your brand, when you make a change, it’s automatically reflected for all employees, so everyone always has access to your up-to-date guidelines.

Why are brand guidelines important?

Brand guidelines help engage people with your brand by defining and documenting what your brand means. They turn “brand” from an abstract concept into something concrete each team and employee can understand and apply in their daily work. Brand guidelines are important because they:

• Boost internal brand engagement. Everyone on your team can access and use your brand guidelines, not just your creative teams. This gives all your employees a greater sense of ownership over your brand, as it gives them the ability to create on-brand messages, designs, and customer experiences without having to run everything past your brand manager.
• Improve consistency. Brand guidelines explain and demonstrate how to use the different elements of your brand identity to create content, messaging, and designs that reflect that identity. By providing your internal teams, external partners, agencies, and freelancers with the same set of guidelines, you ensure they’re all following the same guidance when creating materials for your company.
• Build brand recognition. Our State of Brand Ownership Report found that “too much deviation from the core brand colors, typography, brand voice, general brand behavior, or logo sizing (even slight deviation) and the brand identity can quickly begin to diverge across channels and look unprofessional.” Brand guidelines help ensure consistency across your brand visuals, voice, and behavior, which makes it easier for your audience to recognize it in their inbox, social feed, and other channels.

Brand guidelines help align your entire company on your brand’s values, visual style, and messaging. They are where all your employees and external partners can learn how to communicate your brand to ensure you’re presenting an authentic brand to your customers.

Principles vs guidelines - Understanding the difference

it's important to differentiate between two key concepts: brand principles and brand guidelines. While they may seem similar, understanding their unique roles can significantly enhance your brand's consistency and impact.

While principles and guidelines play different roles, they are closely interconnected.

Your brand principles should inform your brand guidelines. For instance, if one of your brand principles is sustainability, your brand guidelines might include instructions for using eco-friendly materials in product packaging or incorporating green hues into your visual branding.

In terms of authority, principles are generally agreed upon by the community but are not mandated. They serve as a guiding light, but they don't enforce specific actions. Guidelines, however, are proposed by the brand itself and are expected to be followed to maintain brand consistency.

In essence, brand principles are the 'why' behind your brand's actions, while brand guidelines are the 'how'. Both are crucial for building a strong, recognizable, and consistent brand identity. By understanding the difference between these two concepts, you can ensure that your brand stays true to its core values while maintaining a consistent appearance.

How to create brand guidelines

The creation of brand guidelines typically falls on the shoulders of a company’s marketing team because they’re already responsible for the brand’s public image. And that means they actively focus on the brand’s identity, ensuring that customers consistently recognize and connect with it. But establishing brand guidelines shouldn’t fall to one person or even one team. It should be a team effort.

Who else should be involved in the process?

• Sales managers as they also interface with customers and represent the brand
• C-level executives who can ensure guidelines align with company objectives
• The legal team as they understand how things like trademark laws could impact your guidelines
• Designers who have the skill set to create and update assets like logos

Learn more about how customers perceive your brand’s already-established identity:

Consumers already have an idea of who your brand is. So, before you create any documentation, it’s important that everyone on the team is familiar with the brand’s existing identity. That way, any guidelines you create will build on prior successes. Otherwise, you might create guidelines that don’t align with how customers already view your company, making it difficult for them to recognize the brand.

To find out how your customers perceive your brand:

• Identify your target audience. If you haven’t already, it’s a good idea to create personas for the different demographics within your audience.
• Conduct a competitor analysis to better understand your brand’s position within the market. Pay close attention to how consumers respond to posts on social media, which will help you identify ways to separate your brand from competitors.
• Audit your brand to discover your brand’s strengths and weaknesses, both external and internal.

Define and document specifications on how different stakeholders bring the brand to life:

Once you’ve assembled your team and done research, it’s time to create the style guide that internal stakeholders will reference when they bring your brand to life.

Your style guide should include:

• Branded assets like logos, which will ensure everyone uses the same iconography when they represent the brand.
• Usage guidelines for each of the assets you create, including everything from what language to use in social media posts to specifications on where to place the company logo in ad designs.
• A digital platform like Frontify to house your guidelines and act as a single source of truth. That way, everyone within your organization can easily access the assets you create and reference the written instructions.

Key elements to include in your brand guidelines

Your brand guidelines should include all the elements you use to express your brand identity. For example, they should cover design elements, voice, and company values to ensure your content aligns with your brand identity. Guidelines that show your approved brand assets – like logos, fonts, colors, and taglines – will ensure employees use your actual assets and don’t “best guess” when creating branded materials. Here are four brand elements you should include in your guidelines.

Logos

Your brand guidelines should explain how to use your company logo(s), covering:

• Color variations – full color, black, white, and when to use each version
• Logo formats – including your full logo, text logo or wordmark, single-line, and square versions. You should explain when to use the different versions of your logo, with examples of each logo format in use if possible
• Dos and don’ts – to demonstrate correct logo usage on different backgrounds (like plain versus patterned) and channels (like social media versus your website)

For example, Uber’s brand guidelines include extensive guidance on logo usage, formats, and placement. As an international brand, it also explains how to localize its logo usage and placement in languages that read right-to-left, which is an important consideration as your company scales into new markets. Localization guidelines are something you could add to your brand guidelines over time, rather than including from day one.