Turn Your Style Guide into a Manifesto for Brand Inspiration

Posted by: Chris Lester, Principal Apr 20, 2011 0 Comments

Very few organizations have a simple resource that captures their brand. As a result, there is often a great deal of confusion around what an organization stands for, or even what they do. If you ask stakeholders what value an organization brings, or the feelings associated with that brand, you will almost always get as many different answers as individuals asked.

The stakeholders responsible for representing your brand (staff, etc.) will be at the front lines of shaping the perceptions of the stakeholders you hope to influence (customers, etc.). If your stakeholders don’t have a clear idea about or feeling for what your brand represents, they will have a hard time supporting it.

This is where a traditional branding tool, the style guide, can have a tremendous effect. Traditionally, style guides have been thrown together at the end of branding engagements to capture, and put some parameters around, the application of basic design elements. Style guides are typically focused on instructing staff, partners, and vendors on the basics of applying the visual brand and may contain a few words on writing style, etc. Because they’re narrowly focused on the technical aspects of branding, they are rarely looked at by anyone who doesn’t need to apply a logo.

That’s an opportunity lost. What if that same guide became something more— what if considerable effort was invested with the objective of capturing the complete brand? What if it included everything from who you are, the stories that define you, the personality and culture that surround you, the places you occupy, and anything that adds to the tapestry? The result would be a powerful tool that would not only give an outsider or new recruit a real sense of who you are, but also help you stay focused on what your brand represents.

So how do you turn your style guide into a motivational brand tool?

Include anything that helps paint a picture of what your brand represents. Think of it as a well-organized scrapbook:

Humanize it. Use images of staff, clients, company events—show the places your brand occupies, from its offices to where clients interact with it. Show images of its effect, the result of projects, the satisfaction that it brings, the people who benefit from it. You could include bios and stats of representative staff members to bring the different roles to life. All of this will help paint a better picture of who you are so that those who affect and contribute to your brand can be real champions for it.

Make it interesting. Tell the stories that define you (keep them brief). Your history, the events that shaped you, humorous anecdotes. You could include at-a-glance overviews of where the company has come from and where it’s going. Show old logos and other memorabilia that evolved over the years.

Use Examples. Show your marketing in action—include case studies that communicate the decisions you made, the process you used, and the affects your work has had. Make the examples highly visual so that they stand out.

…and after all of that, don’t forget to include technical information that governs how to apply the visible characteristics of your brand—that’s still important.

If you’re able to capture all of this in a single manual, you will have a better chance of motivating even those who simply need to place your logo on a mug. It will certainly take a lot of thought and energy to pull it off, but the payoff can be tremendous.

Companies that understand their brands consistently outperform those who don’t. Taking advantage of overlooked opportunities to better communicate your brand isn’t only smart, it’s smart business.

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Chris Lester

Principal

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