Brand guidelines are a set of guidelines that should be well-defined in order for a company to be able to carry out various branding and brand building activities.

Every company/brand has a face, the public face that it presents to the world. Its image will decide how it is perceived by its customer base and potential customers, so the company has to take care that a uniform message is conveyed through all its activities. This starts right from the company logo, product design and packaging, business cards of the company, the company website and the method of interaction with the customers. The overall perception that is generated from all these is a major decider in what role the company plays in the market and how it stays on top.

There are certain things to consider when creating brand guidelines for a company, and they are as follows –

• It is important to first define to whom the brand guidelines will be available to, and how they will be expected to use them. This includes the company’s design team, brand consultants, the advertising agency that the company goes to for creating campaigns and so on. The company needs to be clear as to how the guidelines will be accessible to those using them, and what it will gain from using them.

• Secondly, there needs to be one main idea that encompasses everything the brand is about and all the values it espouses. After this idea has been created, let this idea permeate every aspect of the brand. There also needs to be a clear understanding of how communicating this core idea to all the customers will help in building up the brand.

•  The brand’s values, beliefs, and the whole ‘feel’ of the brand needs to come through in every aspect of design.

• The tone used in any communication with the customers should be such that it encourages the customer to engage with the brand, discover more about it and start building a loyal and lasting relationship with the brand. This tone should come through on the company website, social media pages, design of stores and the dealings of company salesmen with the customers.

• Once the company gets started on the finer details of brand guidelines, it should follow proper pagination, create appropriate headers, a table of contents, section dividers, and a basic structure, e.g. Headers > Introduction copy > Body copy.

• Consistency and continuity are very important because this ensures better clarity of the brand message being conveyed and makes it look more organized and professional.

• Creativity must be encouraged; however it should, at the same time, stay within the boundaries of the pre-defined guidelines.

• The brand logo, color schemes, content and graphics should together convey the same underlying idea for the brand.

• Let the management team sign off at relevant places across the content and make sure there are interactive pages on the brand website that provide all the information necessary in a more interactive way – such as clickable PDFs and so on.

• Finally the brand guidelines should have clarity and be communicated to all the teams involved in the brand building exercise.

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