The Importance Of Brand Guidelines For Your Business
Just have a think about some of the most powerful brands in the world. Coca-cola, Apple, Google and Nike may be a few that popped into your head.
That visual you had a glimpse of is all thanks to their incredible branding elements.
These recognisable brands follow a strict style guide, where a variety of set rules are used throughout their marketing materials. This communicates who they are, and speaks to their target audience appropriately.
Now, you may be wondering what a set of brand guidelines exactly entails. This will usually consist of five key components: logos, fonts, a colour palette, images and a specific tone or language to follow.
Below, we are going to explore three great brands that are leading the way in their industry through memorable brand guidelines.
Three Great Brands Consistently Following Guidelines:
#1 Apple
Apple’s brand identity consistently presents slick, modern and neutral visuals that perfectly mirror their high valued devices.
Through a simple half eaten Apple, and the neutral blacks, greys and white, the business communicates luxury, innovation, and trust.
Although their brand guidelines may seem simple, the way in which Apple markets their products with stunning visuals and emotive language drives their success.
#2 Nike
Nike’s brand identity is powerful, striking and motivating.
The name ‘Nike’ itself was taken from the Greek goddess of victory, accompanied by the winning tick to reinforce the power of action and getting active.
Through their strong bold fonts they communicate that ‘get up and go’ feeling, with the use of motivating slogans such as ‘just do it’ and ‘make the difference’. Nike are very clever in how they market their products, with a firm focus on the use of short snappy lines that get their audience taking action.
#3. Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola has a timeless brand identity.
Dating back to 1886, Coca-Cola took its name from a visual idea, seeing that the alliteration of the ‘C’s’ would look aesthetically pleasing within the form of a logo.
With the use of a bright red contrasting background, the name pops out for readers and is clear in all marketing materials.
The colour red in branding portrays power, excitement, action and energy. All of which mirror who Coca-Cola is with their energetic drinks sold across the world.
A recent European campaign by Coca-Cola called “Open to Better” hit the shelves where they in fact stripped back from their brand guidelines. The company removed its iconic logo from their packaging, and replaced it with inspiring messages & positive quotes to share.
Top Tips For Creating Brand Guidelines
Before creating brand guidelines, there are a few vital questions you need to ask yourself and your team:
- Who is your perfect audience?
- What do you stand for?
- What emotions are evoked when using or buying your product/service?
- What are you trying to solve?
Once you can answer those questions, the flow for the brand guidelines will come much easier. Don’t make things too complex, you want to become recognisable & memorable to the world.
Having brand guidelines in place for the team to follow has also proved to boost sales in a business. This is through great consistent content marketing, clear communication of what you are offering, and converting your target audience through colours, imagery and a specific tone of voice.
A Few Brand Guidelines Audeo Have Created
Veritas Noble
Veritas Noble is a brand built on trust and integrity. Their day to day actions include helping businesses secure grants, asset based financing and other commercial lending solutions. The brand guidelines we created for them are elegant, professional, and give a feeling of wealth to their audience.
Bailey’s Skip Hire
One of many brand guidelines we have created at Audeo includes Bailey’s Skip Hire, a skip and recycling company for domestic and commercial needs. With a passion for sustainability and a friendly family-run business, we were looking for bold colours that present an approachable local team.
Choose Audeo For Your Brand Guidelines
If you are an SME struggling with consistency through your brand or website design, get in touch with Audeo to see how we can help. We are a marketing and creative agency dedicated to growing and scaling businesses, and know exactly what goes into creating the perfect perception of your company.
