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Seven seconds is all you have to make a good customer first impression. Mess it up, and customers won’t give you a second thought. Nail it, and you’ll be top of mind when they’re ready to buy.
You’re probably wondering what makes or breaks this vital moment. It’s not your products or services…it’s your branding.
Every brand, whether big or small, must create a distinct identity that resonates with its audience. A brand without one fails to be memorable. You want customers to be able to point you out in a sea of competition.
Two essential tools that help achieve recognition are brand guides and brand books. While they may sound similar, they have different functions and purposes.
Let’s explore the differences between a brand guide and a brand book, discuss the benefits of using both and examine some exceptional brand books and guides.
What Exactly Is a Brand Guide?
A brand style guide ensures consistent presentation of your brand across all channels. Brand guidelines include the company's mission, logo, colors, fonts and personality. It may also include rules around video formatting or writing. Present this when building a consistent visual identity for events or co-marketing campaigns.
Typically, a designer creates the brand style guide by working closely with key stakeholders to define the brand's identity. It should be concise and align with how you want to display your company.
Brandfolder's Brandguide Tool
Brand guidelines have been around for a long time, and while they're undoubtedly useful, they can also be rigid and limiting. That's why Brandfolder's Brandguide is such a game-changer. This innovative tool takes the essence of brand guidelines and reimagines it, making it more dynamic, versatile, and user-friendly.
With Brandguide, you're not just creating always-up-to-date digital brand guides; you're embracing powerful tech that empowers you to easily produce identity materials for events, campaigns, and partner collaborations.
Here's what you can expect:
- Unrivaled brand consistency: Easily accessible and editable brand guidelines ensure that your brand's story is told the right way every time. A central hub for your brand: Whether you need guidelines for a unique use case or a centralized location for all things branding, this tool has you covered.
- Effortless asset management: Say goodbye to hunting down assets or constantly updating PDF-based brand guidelines. The Brandguide tool is powered by your assets already in Brandfolder, making it a scalable and accessible solution for everyone on your team.
- Tailored guidelines for any occasion: Need specific art direction or guidelines for an upcoming event, campaign or product? Simply set up additional Brandguides, and voilà! Your team is on the same page, and your brand stands out.
- Rapid creation and customization: In just minutes, you can create impactful, on-brand resources with only a few clicks. Personalize every aspect of your Brandguide—from color blocks and fonts to brand imagery, tone and custom code.
- User-friendly for all: Regardless of your tech-savviness, you can create impressive brand guidelines that make your company shine. The drag-and-drop feature makes editing and creating a breeze.
- Share the love: The best part? You can share your brand guides with the world, building customer loyalty and brand recognition with every interaction.
What Is a Brand Book?
A brand book is a comprehensive document that captures the essence of your company's story, vision and values. It’s how you define your brand’s identity aside from color theory and visual elements.
It serves as a blueprint for your brand's ethos, helping stakeholders understand the purpose behind your company's existence and the emotions it should evoke in its target audience. It’s the starting point to building credibility and developing trust.
The brand book typically includes sections on brand strategy, messaging, voice and tone, brand story and visual identity. It inspires and guides the creative application of your brand's elements in all communications and touchpoints, like marketing campaigns.
Why You Need Both: Brand Guide and Brand Book
Customers experience your brand in various ways, from the emotions it evokes to the visuals it presents. One customer’s opinion differs from the next, so how do you keep your brand consistent?
To manage your brand consistently across all channels and touchpoints, you need both a brand guide and a brand book.
A brand guide provides the rules, while a brand book offers the context and inspiration for applying them.
This combination allows influencers and stakeholders to explore and expand the brand while staying within its defined parameters. Coupling that with Brandfolder's powerful content management system allows you to streamline creating and updating your brand guides easily. It’s how you maintain a strong brand presence.
Why You Need Both: Brand Guide and Brand Book
Customers experience your brand in various ways, from the emotions it evokes to the visuals it presents. One customer’s opinion differs from the next, so how do you keep your brand consistent?
To manage your brand consistently across all channels and touchpoints, you need both a brand guide and a brand book.
A brand guide provides the rules, while a brand book offers the context and inspiration for applying them.
This combination allows influencers and stakeholders to explore and expand the brand while staying within its defined parameters. Coupling that with Brandfolder's powerful content management system allows you to streamline creating and updating your brand guides easily. It’s how you maintain a strong brand presence.
3 Examples of Amazing Brand Books
Wondering how other brands go about their brand books in the real world? Check out our roundup below!
Facebook's brand book emphasizes the power of human connection and reflects the company's commitment to bringing people together. It communicates the company's mission, values, and visual identity in a comprehensive and well-structured guide.
The Facebook logo symbolizes the company's belief in the power of human connection, and its bright blue color reflects the vibrancy of its global community. The brand book serves as an essential resource for anyone looking to represent Facebook in their work.
Instagram's brand book celebrates its global community of creators and provides a comprehensive guide to its visual identity, including custom typeface, updated colors, and layouts that emphasize content.
The book reflects the company's commitment to simplicity, flexibility and self-expression, encouraging users to explore and create on the platform.
Cisco
Cisco’s brand book encompasses a holistic view of their brand. This includes their vision, mission and how they strive to improve their customer experience.
They go beyond the present moment and have a clear understanding of what will happen in the future and the role their brand will play in it. Their guidelines for brand experience provides an overview of how they serve customers and the core values and attributes they aim to embody.
3 Beautiful Brand Guides Guaranteed to Inspire You
We’ve analyzed brand guides from familiar faces. To inspire yours, here are a few exceptional examples.
Zoom
Zoom excels in defining its brand voice and creating room for flexibility with each new product it debuts. With bold simplicity, it focuses on functionality and concise copy to convey its message. With Zoom, it doesn’t have to be loud to be heard.
Zoom's strong brand identity is reflected not only in its messaging and design but also in its efficient asset management and use. With Brandfolder's help, Zoom has streamlined its workflow process, resulting in 4,000-hour time savings per year. This means all 6,800+ employees worldwide can quickly access on-brand and up-to-date assets, ensuring that Zoom's brand presence remains consistent and strong across all channels. Check out their success story to learn more.
Trust us, you’re not seeing double. While we mentioned Facebook's brand book earlier, there's more to uncover. Their brand guide offers detailed instructions on how to use their assets accurately. The guide outlines different versions of their logo and how to display it properly; they’re adamant about not using other colors or positioning of their logo—we can’t blame them.
While it may come across as strict, it's what makes Facebook so easily recognizable. They also recommend submitting advertisements or printed packaging for review to ensure consistency in the brand's representation. This also serves as a hint to why you need both a brand book and brand guide!
Walmart
Who hasn’t shopped at a Walmart or heard their “Save Money. Live Better.” tagline? With their global presence and exceptional consistency, it's hard to miss them. Walmart's brand guide is truly impressive as it delves into their values and principles, and even touches upon their design philosophy.
Their iconic spark logo and minimalistic color scheme are easily recognizable. Walmart's guidelines for film, photography and voice highlight their dedication to providing excellent service and making a positive impact on people's lives, enabling them to live better.
Need help getting started? Check out these brand guide templates.
Brand Guides and Brand Books Serve Different, Though Important, Purposes
Brand guides and brand books are the creative power couple in crafting a vibrant and unified brand identity. While brand guides lay the foundation with crucial rules and visual elements, brand books ignite the creative spark, offering context and inspiration for applying those guidelines seamlessly.
Brandfolder's Brandguide takes this process to the next level by offering a scalable, digital brand ecosystem, enabling easy access to up-to-date brand assets and simplifying team enablement and centralization. With the help of Brandguide, you can elevate your branding and streamline the creation of impactful on-brand assets, saving you time and effort.