
When you’re about to start a multi-platform marketing effort, every supporting aspect to your branding must be uniformed: the design, the color, the message, etc. This is the way to make people recognize your brand. Also, it will keep people recognizing when it appears in different platforms of advertising. To ensure this, every business should have brand guidelines. Olive & Co. defined brand guidelines as “tool to help ensure consistent implementation of identity elements in order to protect your brand across all touchpoints”.
You’ve put a lot of thought and consideration on how you want your brand to be perceived. Its message value, its voice, and its personality. And you surely would want these aspects to stick to your brand. Having brand guidelines makes sure you have that consistency.
According to Iconic Digital, there are some basic elements in brand guidelines: color palettes, typography, and logo design. Ensuring these aspects are consistent among the different platforms you use for marketing will give your business and brand various advantages.
Consistency
Brand guidelines exist to ensure consistency. Different marketing materials usually require different designs. By having brand guidelines, you can easily avoid any confusion in keeping your style “similar”. Not only used internally, brand guidelines are highly important for when you work with external parties, too, like agencies. When the key elements are defined clearly, it will become easier to get creative without forgetting what the brand is all about.
Recognizable
As a result of being consistent, your brand becomes recognizable; brand awareness increases. As Forbes said, cohesion in style can help “establish a strong brand voice that resonates with the audience, which is essential for building brand awareness. Over time, that awareness and consistency build trust.”
Perceived Value
Furthermore, upon increase in awareness, having and implementing your own brand guidelines will also increase your brand’s perceived value. Your brand will appear more professional and trustworthy with its cohesive style across various platforms and channels. This will lead to potential costumer and growth for your business. Not only helping you with design, brand guidelines can actually help your business stay in track in terms of manifesting itself. If the consistency of the three key elements mentioned above are implemented, you will have a strong brand that’s easily recognized.