A company’s brand is often more important than the products it sells. But what is a brand? A brand is a name, design, symbol, or combination of several elements that distinguishes a single seller’s product or service.
What is a brandbook?
The brand book is at the heart of every strong company and self-respecting brand and often reveals insider details, goals and marketing techniques. Once all of these rules are developed, you need to make sure they are respected and adhered to. If brand rules are not utilized and enforced, there is a risk of wasting all the time and effort you put into developing a brand identity and brand book.
Therefore, you need to make sure that all employees are aware of the existence of this document. For example, developers are not directly involved in branding decisions, but they may encounter some mistakes during the implementation of a new design project or during the development of a website.
You can find out how much a brandbook costs and why you need one by calling or emailing us.
Read also: Retail branding of banks: bringing debit and credit together
Brandbook: what it consists of
A company’s brandbook usually includes the mission, values, and characterization of the brand’s target audience. It can be short or long depending on how thorough the guide needs to be. A brandbook consists of:
- recommendations about the use of the identity;
- modes of communication;
- other nuances that management believes require special attention.
Tips on how to utilize visual elements:
- Logo brandbook: color, placement, variations, size and proportions, examples of logo misuse;
- Brand color: the primary colors of the brand, as well as secondary colors, when and where to use them;
- typography: what corporate fonts for headlines and texts should be used;
- photography: style of photography, image guidelines;
- other graphic elements: icons, patterns, textures.
Recommendations on how to communicate:
- What languages the brand communicates in;
- grammar and formatting features: abbreviations, acronyms, verb tenses and titles;
- Readability: type of sentence construction;
- style: technical / non-technical; formal / casual / slang;
- nature of communication and tone of voice: emotional, intimate, formal/humorous;
- The structure of an e-mail, the signature underneath it;
- social media communication: types of posts, timing of posts.
Why do you need a brandbook? How would you react if you saw a purple Apple logo or pink McDonald’s arches instead of gold? Brand style guides help maintain a consistent look and feel so that consumers and employees understand that this is a serious brand. These guides help create brand elements that are the same in both China and Peru. Brand style guides should be easy to read and understand, focusing on important parts of the brand.
The cost of brandbook development depends on the development goals, the number of concepts and elements, and the customer’s individual requirements.
In order to order a brandbook and corporate identity, and if you are interested in how to properly create a brandbook, please contact the managers of branding agency KOLORO.
Read also: Delivery service retail branding: how to make customers trust you
The best brandbooks of famous companies describe in detail the use of each element of the identity, contain vivid examples and colorful photos. We have selected five of the most interesting ones.
Skype Brandbook
Skype knows how to design a brandbook that’s modern and easy to understand for everyone. Skype’s style guide explains absolutely every nuance of how to use brand elements, from their well-known blue and white logo to fonts. The guide even details how to use speech bubbles in print and online materials!
What Skype is: according to its creators, Skype is software that allows people around the world to talk to each other for free. “Skype is built for people. We enable people to talk to each other and the world for free.”
It doesn’t matter where you are – you can call via skype, cell phone or landline.
The term “Skype” is an acronym for “Sky peer to peer”, which translates to “Across the sky with each other”. The name was originally Skyper, but the last letter was removed, making the name more cute-sounding.
The mission is described in the company’s proprietary dialog clouds:
- Giving the world the ability to make beautiful, wonderful and free calls.
- Find the people who pay for basic things like talking or doing necessities and give them a kicking.
- Share! That’s what we exist for.
- Say “hello” to strangers at least once a day (even if they look unhappy).
- Make things simpler and easier because there are enough useless buttons in the world.
Brandbook for the logo: the logo may only be used on a white or blue background. Photos or bright colors on the background of the logo, shadows or writing the logo at a slant are prohibited.
The company’s brandbook governs the use, shape and color of clouds, rainbows and illustrations.
Read also: Clean branding: developing a brand for dry cleaners
You can develop a brandbook in Kiev in KOLORO. We will offer an appetizing price, the size of which the company manager knows.
Brandbook example: Walmart
Walmart, the largest retail chain with more than 7,000 stores in 14 countries, knows how to make a brand book. The giant chain has not only supermarkets, but also small stores where you can buy everything from books to vacuum cleaners, from medicines to coffins (and in installments). “Walmart” is a combination of two words: Wal – from the last name of the founder Sam Walton (Sam Walton) and Mart – shopping center.
The company does not disclose how much it cost to develop the brandbook. But this brandbook and guideline is an example of a detailed instruction on the use of identifying elements and implementation of the company’s policy, which it has been developing for several decades.
Slogan: Save money. Live better. (Save money. Live better.)
Walmart’s brand positioning expresses the benefit it provides to its consumers. He is a friend who lends a shoulder in the form of favorable prices to customers who are unable to spend on groceries. And it is one of the company’s commitment to reduce the cost of products by making them as affordable as possible. The company is trying to improve the environmental situation in the world by opening stores using renewable energy.
Identity: the brand’s general ledger regulates the way not only the logo but also the slogan is written.
The brand’s signature color palette consists of eight colors. Consistent use of color is one of the easiest and most effective ways to eliminate marketing clutter. Why blue? Blue is an integral part of Walmart’s visual identity. It is also a color that symbolizes authority, dignity, security, stability and inspires trust. Darker blue signifies traditionality and quality. Lighter blue is a sign of innovation and technology. Blue can also symbolize freshness, and it also blends well with other colors such as green, orange, and yellow.
Logo: the brandbook gives clear guidelines on the use of the main graphic element. It cannot be any color other than yellow on a white background.
The brand’s book of books also regulates the use of half of the main “flash” as well:
- 1/3 of the height of the product;
- near the product or person, the flash is centered horizontally perpendicular and not at an angle;
- the height above the product must be at a distance of one spoke of the flash itself.
Brandbook development in Kiev is the creation of a high-quality book at an adequate price. In KOLORO always go towards the client. Contact us and we will discuss the cost and terms of cooperation.
Read also: Retail branding of retail chains: minimarket design
Animal Planet brandbook: what does it include?
Discovery Channel’s television station subsidiary Discovery Channel aims to introduce the world to the millions of animal species that inhabit our Earth, most of which are listed in the Red Book. It has built its reputation and expanded its branding by going international. Their cool logos and color palette will help you understand how young brands can successfully present themselves. The structure of Animal Planet’s brandbook is simple and straightforward. It contains the company’s mission statement, information about the logo and the brand colors.
Slogan: Our planet is inhabited by more than two million living beings. You are one of them. You’ll meet the rest of them on Animal Planet.
The company logo can be depicted in ten colors on a black or white background.
The colors were chosen from the rich palette that nature offers:
The manual describes the features of the logo writing, such as the angle, which is 7.6°.
Read also: Barber shop brand identity: competitive advantage or unnecessary waste of money?
How to create a distinctive brandbook: the case of Air New Zealand
The Airline Brandbook and Guideline are three books packed with color and detailed guidance on how to use the brand identity and execute the brand vision. This style guide covers everything from typography to uniforms, with detailed descriptions and plenty of visual aids. This guide is well thought out and well written. Air New Zealand’s vibrant and distinctive brandbook is one of the best examples.
Mission: We will strive to become number one in every market we operate in, creating a workplace where teams are committed to our clients in a totally New Zealand way.
We will create a competitive advantage across our businesses through the creativity and innovation of our people.
The airline logo is a symbol of the Maori people called koru. Koru is the spiral shape of an unfurling fern leaf. It signifies new life, renewal and hope for the future.
The brand identity was developed with the idea of being different from others. The brand colors are six. They are bright and juicy: azure, purple, dark salade, red, white and rich black.
Read also: How creating a brand identity helps increase the price of your product
The humble components of a brandbook for Skittles
Skittles brandbook is quite unusual, just like their website or advertisement. It is a very bright and colorful brandbook. Skittles sends a strong message about their intentions in terms of branding, “Just do whatever you want with our logo, as long as it’s cool, try to be creative”. A brandbook example like this is every designer’s dream.
Skittles are fruit-flavored chewy candies covered with frosting with the letter “S” written on them. In translation, the brand name means “skittles”.
Slogans: Taste the rainbow. Reach for the rainbow. Get infected by a rainbow. Share the rainbow.
The caption in the translation reads as follows: The text and pictures on these two pages are printed in special ink that only sea urchins can see. If you’re not a sea urchin, I’m sorry. You won’t get the point of the joke.
According to marketers and designers, a representative of the target audience looks something like this:
The brandbook is the main book of any self-respecting company.
It saves designers time when transferring a logo to a new format and saves nerves when selecting a color palette for corporate apparel. This is a book that should be studied by every new employee to understand the values of the company and to convey them to customers. To order and find out how much it costs to make a brandbook in Kiev, you can in the branding agency KOLORO.
