If your brand is struggling to connect with customers and it’s not clear what makes you special, there might be a need to rethink your brand strategy. If you have brand guidelines in place but they’re not followed across every touchpoint, including your website, then it can hurt the brand’s consistency. An update could help! If there are no brand guidelines in place at all, it could be time to develop a new branding strategy and set of brand guidelines.
A “brand strategy” is a brand’s future-facing plans, “brand guidelines” are the brand’s rules to keep the brand consistent, and “brand position” is the brand’s current state (how it sees itself).
There are Several Steps that can be Taken to Create Brand Guidelines for Your Business
- First, map out what your brand’s unique and compelling value is.
- Decide what attributes make your brand stand out and how they can be reflected in brand guidelines.
- Next, decide on the tone of voice that best reflects your brand’s values and personality.
- Lastly, plan how you’ll communicate this brand position internally as well as externally.
What is Your Brand's Unique and Compelling Value?
What is your brand’s unique and compelling value? This can be either a brand purpose, brand promise, or brand story. The brand purpose is an organization’s reason for being. The brand promise is a pledge of what will be delivered by the brand.
A brand story has to do with how the brand is perceived in the marketplace. It’s about more than just “what we do”. It’s about “why we do it”.
What are the attributes that help define your business and drive customer choice? Are these attributes reflected in your brand guidelines?
What Attributes Make Your Brand Stand Out? How Can they be Reflected in the Brand Guidelines?
It’s important to take into consideration what attributes make your brand stand out and how they can be reflected in brand guidelines. How do you define your brand? What keywords come to mind when you think about it?
Each brand has its own story, so it’s important that its brand guidelines reflect the brand story. You need to build a strategy with guidelines that will maintain your brand consistency both internally and externally.
Brand consistency is where everything from tone of voice, color palette, customer experience, product packaging, etc. all matches up – but it’s not just about matching! We need branding guidelines to guide brand experiences but still keep them surprising and interesting.
Create Brand Guidelines Relevant to the Brand's Offering and Core Values.
Each brand has its own unique place in the market, so brand guidelines should be built around what makes your brand stand out from competitors. You need brand guidelines that will maintain brand consistency but also help the business grow.
What is the Tone of Voice that Best Reflects Your Brand's Values and Personality?
The brand’s tone of voice is its personality. It reflects the brand’s values and communicates its brand position. The tone of voice can be conveyed in a variety of ways including:
- brand messaging (written or spoken words)
- brand design elements
- brand visuals like photography, video, illustrations, and graphics
- brand interactions
How to Communicate Your Brand Position
A brand position is a brand’s perspective on how it should be perceived in the marketplace. It needs to be communicated through brand guidelines so that brand consistency can be maintained. This brand position should also extend from what the brand’s core values are and what their offering is.
For example, if you’re running a care company, your brand position might simply state how caring you are vs another brand that aims to offer customers convenience.
It’s important for your brand positioning to be clear so that communicating it can be simple and effective. In order to communicate this, we need guidelines that are relevant to your brand and its core principles.
Things to Think About When Considering Your Companies Brand Strategy
- Your brands consistency
- Your set of brand guidelines
- Your brands personality
- Your brand position
- Telling your brands story
- Your brands values
- Your brands tone of voice
In Conclusion
Your brand is what sets you apart from the competition. It’s how people recognize your business and remember it, even if they never take a close look at your product offering or company culture. As such, developing a strong strategy for communicating your brand message to customers can be one of the best ways to stand out in an increasingly overcrowded marketplace.
Do your brand guidelines match up with your brand's purpose, message, and personality?
If you have questions or concerns, we may be able to help, contact us today for a free 30-minute consultation.
