Brands are created to reflect the value of a company and to appeal to its customers. It is as important as the product or service you provide. You’ve spent a lot of time and money to have your brand created, now it’s time to make sure it always has the same appearance. Maintaining a consistent perception of your business is where brand standards play a role.
Brand standards are basically a set of guidelines/rules that provide the colors, graphics, logo specs and fonts that your brand is made up of. They are set up to protect your company’s brand identity and keep it consistent and recognizable. If you change your logo’s colors to better fit a certain marketing material, then it may not be recognizable to your customers anymore. These guidelines should always be used by graphic designers, writers, and anyone else using your brand to create marketing materials. When your logo is used in the correct way consistently, you can build a powerful and recognizable brand.
Brand standards are usually presented in a book format that covers how your brand works and how the different elements of your brand work together to form your brand identity. These guidelines will include more than just color examples and versions of your logo. It will contain rules and standards in which those elements are to be used. It will also contain samples of how not to use your brand. Other rules such as how much spacing should be left around your logo are also important guidelines included in the brand standards book.
These guidelines will help everyone using your brand understand how to use it correctly. It’s all about consistency, but it’s also about knowing what’s right and wrong when it comes to branding for marketing. Consistency builds recognition.
