The quality of your brand guidelines will determine what you can do with them. Not all guidelines are created equally. What’s the first thing that comes to mind when we say “brand guidelines”? A PDF attached to an email and hidden in a folder? Or a not so easy to remember file name that has a -V7 at the end?
Let’s be real: No one needs brand guidelines. Businesses and organizations need the following:
The ability to communicate clearly and consistently with their audiences
Building relationships with customers and supporters beyond transactional
The ability to communicate product or mission value in an engaging way that drives scale conversions
The best brand guidelines are a tool that helps you reach your communications goals. Do you have the right tools to accomplish the goals that you desire?
How can you make the most out of the guidelines that you have, or get the guidance you really need?
“When our team talks about branding, we like to keep our definition simple: Your brand is the way you communicate clearly and persuasively who you are, what you do, and why you do it.”
When evaluating preexisting brand guidelines or making decisions about a brand guideline set that we are creating, we use the “Who”, “What”, How and “Why” categories. This allows us to create four tiers of brand guidelines.
These tiers are a quick way to assess the brand guidelines and, consequently, what types of marketing or branding activities they can support. Let’s look closer at the four tiers. Keep in mind that the complexity and scope of the guidelines increase as you go up each tier.
Tier 1: “What should we do?”
Guidelines falling under the Tier 1 category must answer all your basic “What should we do here?” questions.
“What color should this button be? “
“What font should you use?” “
“What is our position on the Oxford Comma?” “
The “What” guidelines include the basic information: Logo Specs and Color Palettes, Font Specs and, sometimes, a Copy Style Guide. This guide outlines best practices in punctuation, capitalization and other grammar-ish things.
The “What” guidelines will help you create professional, straightforward, and informative communication. These guidelines prevent you from wearing your branding pants backward when you go out. They can also help you avoid using rogue colors or types of treatment and may even deter others from committing heinous logo violations.
Suppose you don’t have to sell anyone anything, and you don’t want to direct users down a particular conversion funnel. In that case, the “What” guidelines have everything you need to deliver essential information straightforwardly.
You need Tier 1 guidelines to communicate clearly with your audience.
Tier 2: “Who are we?”
Guidelines under the Tier 2 category must answer all your “Who we are?” questions.
“Who does our identity/persona resemble? “
“Who is our brand voice similar to?” “
“Who (and what) do we stand? “
The Tier 2 guidelines include everything in the Tier 1 guidelines with the addition: Brand Attributes and Voice & Tone Guidance. Messaging examples. Mission + Vision Statements.
The “Who” guidelines will help you to create your unique brand personality. These guidelines are used to create content that is consistent with a particular voice and tone. They also help you avoid unapproved communication experiments that don’t “feel right for us”. You can start to build a deeper narrative around the mission and vision by using “Who” guidelines.
You can also communicate styled communication with Tier 2 “Who”, guidelines that are more nuanced and sophisticated than “we’re consistent, professional”. With Tier two “Who” guidelines in hand, you can create styled communication that is more nuanced than simply saying, “We’re consistent and professional”. The “Who” guidelines will help you tell a brand story your audience can relate to and believe.
You need Tier 2 guidelines to help you answer your “Who is our company?” questions.
Tier 3: “Why should you care?”
Guidelines falling under the Tier 3category must contain all you need to answer your audience’s “Why shouldn’t I care?” questions.
“Why should I support your business or product?” “
“Why are your competitors different?” “
“Why should you value what you do?” “
The Tier 3 guidelines include everything in Tier 1 and Tier 2 guidelines with the additions of Value Propositions, Key Differentiators, and Positioning Statements.
The “Why” guidelines will help you create a brand story capable of converting your audience and driving actions.
Audience-facing language (e.g., not your mission and vision statements) should clearly communicate the problems and benefits of your product or service and what your audience can expect in return for their patronage. You should also describe your market positioning and what sets you apart from your competition.
You can now explore complex communication issues with Tier 3 “Why?” guidelines. These guidelines will help you to plan your content strategy, site’s information architecture, marketing strategy, user conversion funnels, and pitch decks. They can also be used as a guideline for your advertising materials.
Tier 3 guidelines are required to communicate product and mission value in a way that drives sales at scale.
Tier 4: “How can I do this?”
The Tier 4 category guidelines should include advanced tools specifically designed for internal communications teams. These guidelines should contain everything necessary to answer your “How can I do this?” questions.
“How can I use a certain set of brand attributes?” “
“How can I write in the company’s brand voice if it is different than my own? “
“How can I integrate our value propositions into my messaging without sounding too market-y or gross?” “
The Tier 4 guidelines include everything in Tier 1 and Tier 2 guidelines. However, there is additional information: Examples of brand communication and step-by-step instructions explaining how these examples were created.
These guidelines can be used as guidance to help your team use your branding accurately. These guidelines can be used to help an outside vendor understand your brand’s execution, which will save you time and money when hiring an agency or freelancer for additional communication touchpoints.
You have all the tools you need to transform your brand strategy into practical execution with the Tier 4 guidelines.
Empower Your Brand with Clear Guidelines
There’s nothing quite like securing time and budget for an overhaul of your website, product, or marketing campaign, and then realizing in your first kickoff meeting that the brand guidelines you thought were your design and messaging “true north”, contain nothing but a font selection, a color set, and 15 pages of diagrams illustrating how not to use your logo.
Or discovering that the colors and fonts you use for traditional print applications don’t conform to accessibility standards. This is not only a problem for your users but also a problem for your business.
Even worse is putting your time and resources into a corporate rebrand and then having a clever and innovative brand strategy that nobody on your team knows how to implement.
It will save you time, money, and professional pain if you can confirm that the guidelines that you have contain all the elements that you need to do what you want – whether that be creating a microsite, rewriting your customer service voice, or designing a user conversion funnel that is highly effective.
Finding competent brand strategists who can help you fix the situation shouldn’t take too long… eh hem… We are right here 😉 If you need help in this area, WorldPlay Digital is here to help. We have a team of experts who can help you realign your brand identity. Contact us today to see how we can help support your marketing initiatives.
