So you’re looking for ways to give your brand a boost, and that’s when you encountered the term “brand book.” Now you’re wondering if a brand book is something that your business needs.

Well, you’ve come to the right place. Here, you’ll find answers to the questions you want to ask, including what a brand book is, why it is essential, plus a step-by-step guide on how you can create one for your business. 

So, What’s a Brand Book?

In a nutshell, a brand book serves as an instruction manual for establishing your brand’s identity and ensuring that this identity is consistently reflected in all aspects of your business. This is crucial if you want your image and message always to be consistent, regardless of the angle from which your company is viewed.

A brand book covers these elements:

• Brand Identity – includes your core values, mission, and your target audience.

• Visual guidelines – Include your chosen color palette, any background images or style, specific spacing, font, images, and your logo, among others. The brand guide should also indicate where and how these brand assets should be used.
• Communication guidelines – Include the language you’re using, readability, tone of voice, editorial style, and more.

Why A Brand Book is a Must-Have for Your Business?

Whether you are starting a brand new company or strengthening your B2C or your B2B strategy and rebranding, a brand book is something that you shouldn’t do without. Here are some of the reasons a brand book is considered essential to any business. 

A. It Sets the Rules for Everyone 

Having some rules set is good for your business. These rules serve as guidelines for everyone in your company, across all roles, so there would be no confusion. Unnecessary questions and clarifications that could eat up time can be avoided when you have a brand book ready at all times. 

All businesses go through changes. At some point, you are going to have to have new employees especially as your business expands. Explaining what your brand and brand image are all about can be tedious and a brand book can make the whole thing easier for you.

B. It Helps You Send a Consistent Message

Your brand image and the message that you send out to your audience is made up of different elements. You have different people in your team handling each of these elements. You have your web design team, your graphic designers, your content writers. 

It’s going to be hard for those pros to produce outputs that are aligned if there’s no brand book to keep them reminded of your guidelines. When all the departments in your company have access to a set of guidelines that everyone follows, you can be confident that you are sending out a cohesive and consistent message. 

C. It Can Help Boost Brand Recognition

Whether it’s a swoosh, three stripes, a bitten apple, or any other popular logo, it’s proof that when done right, proper branding does bring you that instant recognition that you want. Mind you, it’s not just logos. Did you know that the use of color raises your brand recognition by 80%? 

The use of the golden arch by McDonald’s and Starbucks’ green twin-tailed siren are two great examples of how color is also key to brand association. It is therefore important that you have consistent branding that is strong and recognizable and having brand guidelines in place will help your company establish the brand that you want your audience to identify and easily recall. 

How to Create a Brand Book in 5 Easy Steps

1. Decide on the format that you are going to use

What format would work best for your company and your employees? There are several factors to consider here. For one, the resources you currently have.

Also of importance is the needs of your company. You may choose to have a printed brand book. You may also opt for a soft copy that you can easily distribute to your employees or one that’s always available on your server. 

“Many companies start small to grow big. For projects like ours, developing a brand book ensures consistent brand messaging and a clear visual identity that new team members can easily understand and promote. With clear guidelines in place, people across the entire company and various departments can maintain a cohesive brand presence across all touchpoints.”

Olena Klueva, COO, MonsterONE.

2. Figure out what you want to include in your brand book

You already know the basics that your brand book should have, as mentioned at the beginning of this article. Now let’s delve more into this. While every brand has its own needs, yours should still include these:

Brand Identity/All About Your Brand

• Vision – What are your plans for the future? How do you want your future to look?

• Mission – What does your brand intend to do? How do you plan to achieve your future goals?
• Values – What principles do you stand by in your company, and how do they guide your behavior?
• Brief  Company History and Milestones that you believe everyone in the company should know about.

Visual Guidelines

• Fonts and Typography – What fonts do you want to use for your logo and taglines?
• Photography, Iconography, Illustration, Videos – Which ones should be used for your website, blogs, brochures, and promotional products? Do you have an approval process in place before any of these can be posted or printed?
• Web Design – How should your website look, including the format, spacing, and other design aspects?
• Color Palette – Which colors can be used for your brand
• Logo/s – Which logo/s should be used, are there any variations allowed, and how should they be used?

All of these should be answered in your brand guidelines.

Communication Guidelines

• The tone of voice you want to use for your content.
• Any taglines that should be used?
• Templates that you want to use, or standard service or product descriptions.
• How would you like to communicate with your audience via social media, email, or other channels?
• Are there any specific elements you would like to include? For instance, what words should never be used, and which industry terms should your team try to incorporate into your content, and more.

3. Work on Your Initial Draft

Before you begin the actual layout of your brand book, you should have at least your initial draft ready. This draft will give you a glimpse of what your brand book would look like. If you are working with a team for this project, show them your draft and ask for their honest opinion. 

Now is the best time to discuss options and make any necessary alterations. You can also utilize images and brand book examples that your team can use for reference or comparison. 

Remember that your brand book should reflect the guidelines stated on its pages. Only when all the elements of your initial draft have been approved should you proceed to the next step. 

4. Create Your Brand Book

Now that your draft is finalized, you can begin creating your brand book. Ensure that it includes all the necessary details, but in a manner that won’t overwhelm the readers.

Let design do the heavy work. Utilize images and illustrations instead of lengthy explanations. The simpler your guidelines are, the easier it will be for your employees to understand them. 

5. Update Your Brand Book When Needed

As your brand evolves and grows, your brand book should reflect that growth as well. It’s easy to forget about your brand book when you are too busy dealing with other aspects of your business.

That’s why you should make it a point to schedule regular reviews with your brand team to ensure that the guidelines in your brand book remain applicable. If there are parts that no longer work, feel free to make the necessary adjustments. 

What Are the Pros and Cons of Having a Brand Book?

As discussed above, a company can reap several benefits from having a brand book. Here are some of the advantages that you can look forward to when you have a brand book:

Pros

• Brand Awareness

When your brand image and message are consistent, people become more aware of your brand, and your products become more recognizable.

• Customer Trust

Thanks to the cohesiveness of your message and the brand recognition that comes with it, as time passes and they see your brand more often, your audience will trust you more. After all, consumers trust brands that are more consistent.

• Efficiency Increase

With a brand book to reference, your company’s creatives won’t have to spend as much time deciding on design-related tasks, as all the critical decisions have already been made and a standard is already set. So as they won’t have to spend hours comparing fonts or trying different writing styles, their efficiency will increase, too. 

Cons

• Risk of Getting Pigeonholed

There aren’t many disadvantages to having a detailed brand book for your business, except perhaps the risk of getting pigeonholed as just one thing. This is not a problem per se if you are trying to establish your image, but it could be when you want to transition into something other than what you have become known for. 

• The Creation of a Brand Book Could Take Time

A brand book will not be included with the SEO proposal from a third-party team. You, with the help of your team of creatives, would have to dedicate time to create one. This could take a chunk of your time, and it could be a tedious task. Of course, it’s going to be worth all the effort when you complete your brand book.

Conclusion

Similar to how marketing automation tools can assist with tasks like monitoring the progress of your marketing efforts, a brand book is also helpful, as it makes the task of building a brand that’s distinguishable much easier. 

The idea of condensing your brand’s identity and putting all the elements that make your brand what it is in a brand book can be overwhelming, but it can be done. Remind yourself of its benefits and how it will make design and marketing tasks easier for you and your team in the future, and you surely won’t mind exerting some effort in creating one.