A brand book, corporate style, guideline – in the modern concepts accompanying brand creation, it's easy to get confused. Who needs a brand book, how does it differ from corporate style, and who develops it – we'll clarify everything!
Corporate Style
Creating a brand is not just about coming up with a creative name, slogan, and logo – a brand is a combination of emotions, associations, characteristics, and perceptions of a product or service in the consumer's mind.
You can't imagine a brand without its corporate style – the visual representation of the company, whose task is to create a sellable and memorable image.
When developing a corporate style, designers and marketers work on creating a "semantic image," trying to include as much information about the company in the logo, font, and color scheme. Of course, corporate style is highly client-oriented: the age, preferences, hobbies, and even geographical location of customers are considered.
Corporate style, as the visual shell of the company, is part of the brand book concept, which, in turn, is somewhat broader.
Brand Book
All components of the brand must be documented and collected in one place. This place is the brand book, essentially the Bible of the company. Relying on this document, the company builds development strategies, decides how to position itself in the market, and how to communicate with clients.
What information is included in a brand book?
- 1 Description of the target audience, the "avatar" of the client, and buyer characteristics.
- 2 Brand concept, including key goals and corporate values.
- 3 Corporate style of the brand.
- 4 Brand promotion strategy (general description of advertising campaigns).
- 5 Guideline or logobook, which will be discussed below.
A brand book is an official brand management guide, and it is usually not distributed to partners, clients, or business colleagues but is kept confidential as an internal corporate document and is especially protected from competitors.
Guideline
A guideline or logobook is a technical document used by advertisers, designers, and print specialists working with your brand. It is essentially the passport of the brand, in which all the features of the corporate style are described.
A guideline should include detailed technical information about the logo, slogan, corporate colors, and fonts, describing their placement on various advertising materials.
Does Your Business Need a Brand Book?
The days when a company could get by with a poorly designed logo and a hastily made-up slogan are long gone. A respectable business takes a serious approach to its goals and strategies, develops its philosophy, and is very responsible when creating its corporate style.
A brand book is not only the face of your company but also its inner content. If you haven't created a brand book for your company yet – it's time to do so!
