Brand Consistency | AlphaGraphics Lehigh Valley

Why Is Brand Consistency Important?

While it might seem creative and fun to use a whole range of color schemes or fonts across your brand assets, the truth is that it sends a confusing and disorganized message. Your audience wants to see a clear idea of what you’re all about–if they can’t figure that out, how can they trust you to provide what they’re looking for? Beyond building trust, getting clear on your brand image makes it easier to express what makes the brand stand out from similar brands in the industry, boosts brand recognition, and streamlines internal workflows by getting everyone on the same page.

How Can a Brand Style Guide Create Consistency?

A brand style guide is your brand’s cookbook: it provides all the ingredients and information you need to produce consistent results. Each brand style guide is as unique as the brand that creates it, but in general, they include high-level information, like your brand mission and target audience, and more specific details, such as which fonts to use and whether or not to use the Oxford comma. Perhaps most importantly, a brand style guide should get all staff, freelancers, and companies or individuals who use your brand assets on the same page. Having clear guidelines prevents discrepancies that may seem small and can result in an unprofessional and messy look. Here are some examples of top-notch style guides that have helped create a consistent and powerful image for some of today’s leading brands:

• Target Brand Style Guide
• Apple Brand Style Guide
• Hulu Brand Style Guide
• REI Brand Style Guide

Elements of an Effective Brand Style Guide

When developing a brand style guide, a few essential components must be remembered. At the bare minimum, you’ll want to include an introduction, a table of contents, and writing and visual guidelines. There’s no hard and fast rule for length, but keep it to the point and avoid fluff. Not sure where to start? We’ve included a breakdown of significant sections here to help you build your brand style guide.

Introduction

The introduction should be a narrative of what your brand is all about–whether that looks like a letter from the CEO, the brand’s mission statement, or a story about how the brand started. If a stranger asked you about your brand, what would you tell them? What story would you spin to get the point across and tell them what you stand for? This section ensures that everyone on your team is working toward creating a cohesive brand image.

Check out Starbucks’ introduction to their brand style guide, where they explain exactly how their brand is evolving and the image they aim to portray.

Target Audience Information

Just like buying gifts for a stranger, getting your brand assets right is nearly impossible if you have no idea who they’re for. Your brand style guide is a great place to define your target audience(s) by including either buyer personas or demographic information.

Table of Contents

Since various teams will use these guidelines, including a table of contents helps guarantee that information is easy to find. It should incorporate major and minor headings to provide a quick and easy reference.

Writing Guidelines

Because each writer and editor has unique style and practices, establishing guidelines for grammar, word usage, formatting, and other writing elements is important whether your team consists of one writer or 50. In addition to ensuring that your brand comes off as professional and consistent, you’re also saving writing and editing teams time by eliminating ambiguity.

Boise State University’s writing style guide is an excellent example of a detailed yet concise document. Be sure to include the following elements when creating your own:

• Grammar: Does your brand use contractions? Is starting a sentence with a conjunction or using a passive voice acceptable? Grammar isn’t always cut-and-dry, especially regarding more creative writing styles, so outline your specific standards here.
• Punctuation: Punctuation can completely change the meaning and tone of a sentence. A semicolon might be perfectly acceptable in a formal paper, but a dash is often more appropriate for a blog. Does your brand use the Oxford comma? This is where you’ll want to address those points.
• Tone: Choosing the right tone can make or break connections with your target audience. If your products are aimed at teens, you wouldn’t use a formal tone, just like you wouldn’t use a casual tone if your brand were providing services to business executives.
• Words: Your brand has specific buzzwords it uses, chooses not to use slang, or prefers a spelling of one word over another (e.g., grey vs. gray). It’s common to continue building this section as you discover differences between different writers and editors.
• Formatting/Style: If your brand uses APA, MLA, or another specific formatting, be sure to include that here, as well as a link or further information on best practices. You can also have information like how to format quotes, whether to use bullet points, which ones to use, and general guidelines for paragraph length.

Visual Guidelines

Visual guidelines are just like writing guidelines but for your designs. This section should include standards like logo usage, colors, and fonts. Discord’s visual guidelines provide a great example of a clear and compelling layout. When creating your own, be sure to include:

• Logos: Some brands have several versions of their logo, each used for a different type of asset. For example, there could be a primary logo that includes the company’s name on the website and a simplified version for app thumbnails, presentations, or social media posts.
• Colors: Be sure to include CMYK, RGB, and Pantone numbers here and tips on how to use each one.
• Typography: Establish which fonts and sizes will be used on which assets to create a unified look across all brand materials.
• Presentations: Does your brand have a specific format or template for all presentations? If so, that and any other presentation design guidelines should be included here.

AlphaGraphics can help you create a consistent presentation of your brand across all print collateral. Contact us today to find out more.