Speaker 1: What's up brand builders, Stephen Horahan here at brandmasteracademy.com and in this video I want to show you seven stunning examples of brand guidelines with style guides. So you can see how the biggest brands in the world guide their tacticians to communicate their brands with consistent strategy. Now brands live and die in the minds of the consumers and they're put there through a consistent brand application that shapes their perceptions over time. These perceptions they don't just happen overnight they happen over time by consistently applying clearly defined brand guidelines defined as a rule book for the brand strategy. And in this video we're going to explore some of the best brand guideline examples and how the world's best brands and most recognizable brands control their own brand identity through these guidelines. But first things first let's differentiate between brand guidelines and brand style guide. Now it is important to note that although terms such as brand guidelines, brand style guide and brand expression guide they're often used interchangeably there are subtle differences here as well. So what is a brand style guide? Well a style guide is a rule book for the brand's visual identity. It determines the look and feel of that brand and how that brand is going to be expressed visually. The style guide is created by the originating designer and includes visual application rules around the brand logo, the logo design or logo usage, typography, brand colors and color palettes, illustrations, imagery, typesetting, graphics, packaging, environmental and digital design and they often come hand in hand with a library of visual assets to be used by designers and other marketers with the responsibility of expressing the brand visually. So what are brand guidelines? Well while the brand style guide focuses specifically on the visual brand identity and the rules around its consistent expression the brand guidelines or the brand book or the brand master guide sets out broader rules of brand application related to the strategy of the brand, its messaging and its verbal communication. The brand guidelines act as a bible for how the brand is communicated across all platforms, channels and touch points visually, verbally, audibly and beyond. A comprehensive brand guideline can include elements such as the brand purpose, the vision, the mission, the values, the target audience, the positioning statement, the value proposition, brand personality and attributes, verbal identity, tone of voice and language, brand messaging and communications and of course the brand style guide. In other words brand guidelines such as these provide a comprehensive guide for how the brand should be expressed no matter where or how the brand is engaging with the audience. Now this guide ensures brand consistency and it guides employees, designers, social media managers, copywriters, content managers, marketing managers, brand managers and even executives and everywhere in between as to how the brand should be expressed. So what exactly should brand guidelines include? Well the brand guidelines act as a blueprint for a brand designed to shape how the audience should perceive that brand in the marketplace. Now I've already covered the elements across the guidelines from positioning to visual and verbal communication but defining how these are expressed is a critical premise of the guidelines document. How are we different from the rest? How do we communicate that difference? What attributes define our appearance? What characteristics does our personality display? How do we speak? Are we funny or are we serious? What do we say? How do we say it? What stories do we tell? A brand strategy isn't a folder with a handful of statements, it's a plan to shape the brand's perception and in order to do that you need clearly defined communication guidelines and this document is critical in ensuring that the positioning and the communication of the brand that's defined within the strategy is expressed consistently across all touch points. So why exactly do we need brand guidelines anyway? Well successful brands are nothing if they're not consistent. They present the same version of themselves to customers every single day to build brand recognition. They're consistent, they show up time and again as that same version of themselves and that's how they build trust. The best brands do this through advertising campaigns, social media channels, physical store locations and many many other touch points throughout the brand experience and this brand experience needs to be consistent. A clear set of brand guidelines is vital to presenting that consistent message to consumers every single day within that environment, within whatever environment they're experiencing the brand. It could be online, it could be within a physical environment, it could be over the phone. Whatever that communication is, whatever that engagement is, it needs to feel like the brand is consistent. Now modern brands today communicate with their audiences across potentially hundreds of touch points and these touch points means multiple brand teams and all employees must be on the same page when representing the brand in order to communicate that consistency. Your brand guidelines act as a guiding rule book that they can follow to ensure the desired presentation of that brand. They minimize the risk of mixed messages and they drill home a picture of consistency that says this is who we are as a brand. But let's stop flapping about with theory and let's look at how the biggest brands in the world are using brand guidelines to consistently shape their perceptions in the market. Now although I'm going to run through each and every one of these brand guidelines within this video, feel free to explore them in more detail in your own time. I'll leave a link in the description below where you'll be able to access the full article with all of those links. Number one is Spotify. Now Spotify has called its comprehensive brand rulebook their design guidelines. In it Spotify outlines many of the brand guidelines basics that you would expect including how to use the logo, using colors correctly, font use for different headings and text and naming restrictions. But the instructions for developers to integrate the Spotify app into various platforms are where the real interest comes with Spotify's guidelines. It goes into much more detail as to how the brand should be represented giving directions to those developers making sure that the experience is consistent across the board through that development. But you can also see where the guidelines give insight into the broader brand strategy. These guidelines have been developed to ensure that all Spotify users receive the same delightful user experience no matter which platform they listen on. And this quote is quite interesting for a couple of reasons. Note the importance of consistency. Spotify's brand managers want to ensure users experience the same recognizable app wherever they encounter it. The second point is that Spotify places significant importance of offering a personalized user experience that is innovative and playful according to its core values. The brand guidelines for developers make it clear that this delightful user experience is absolutely paramount. The second example of brand guidelines is from Slack. Now Slack's brand identity guidelines come in the form of a simple downloadable PDF. In them you'll find expected instructions to help people use the brand assets correctly and maintain that consistency. The detailed notes that outline the brand's tone of voice provide direction for any brand representative communicating on any channel. Slack frames itself as a helpful informative yet playful colleague in the workplace and as such the brand strategists need to humanize the brand and make it feel like that playful colleague. So you can see where the human element of the brand is coming out here and where the guidelines help to express that human element of the brand. The guidelines also set out instructions for the tone of voice that help to support this brand personality and this approach is summarized with the quote, we are humans speaking to humans. The guidelines go on to emphasize do's and don'ts in the form of guiding principles. We are confident but never cocky, we're witty but never silly, conversational but always appropriate and respectful. And you can really see the importance of Slack's verbal identity which is reflected in the considerable column space given to the tone of voice within their guidelines. They really see their tone of voice and the language that they use as a key component of their strategy and connecting with their audience. Example number three is Starbucks. Now Starbucks style guide is called their brand expression guide and in terms of rules Starbucks snazzy dedicated website for its style guide within its broader brand guidelines is comprehensive to say the least. Maintaining a cohesive identity as the world's conquering coffee chain is no small challenge and an interesting element to pick out is the logo evolution. The preferred approach is the siren logo which is the pictorial mark isolated from the word mark. Now the story of the Starbucks logo goes back to 1971 with inspiration from Moby Dick and then subsequent research which uncovered a mermaid. If you're a bit of a branding geek like me you'd like to know the background of stories. I'm not going to go too much into it but it's something that you can dive deeper into if you want. Now a timeline of how the logo has changed to its current form with the iconic siren without that word mark that pictorial mark is there within the guidelines themselves to kind of give that history. And you can see what Starbucks are trying to do here and following the footsteps of Nike and Apple and McDonald's they've isolated that pictorial mark from the word mark making that the standalone logo and making it easily distinguishable as just this visual image without the need for that supporting name. Number four is MailChimp. Now like Slack MailChimp understands that the tone of voice is an essential part of its brand strategy and that's why their brand strategists have created a standalone content style guide to govern all of its content creation. Now just to be clear this is a whole separate comprehensive document to its design style guide that covers the logo the typography and the other visual elements. Now I'm picking this out because again it reflects what the strategists at MailChimp believe is integral to its strategy and to the appeal of the brand. The content style guide includes guiding principles of writing to empower respect and educate and more specific instructions on number use and writing in the act of voice are there as well. Now the tips are backed up with plenty of examples and case studies showcasing the content guidelines. Now why does MailChimp feel the need to do this? Well they understand that the brand voice holds appeal to their customer so they want to protect this as an asset and ensure that it comes across consistently. With this content style guide all writers creating various content pieces for MailChimp can easily stay on brand both in their content and in their design guidelines. They're visually minimalist and they're succinct as well and they really bring that tone of voice through within the guidelines themselves so they are a representation of the brand where you can see the style you can see the tone of voice and you can see who they are as a brand through their guidelines. Example number five is Zendesk. Now Zendesk has guidelines offering guidance on everything that you would expect from its logo design to its color palette its graphics its typography etc it also has guidelines on the content that it produces including articles and videos and how-tos etc but where the Zendesk guidelines differ is in their unique sections on presentation design copywriting film and experience and even detailing how Zendesk office spaces should look. So each section has subsections that comprehensively explain why all of these decisions have been made as well so everybody within the brand are clear on not only what they should be doing but why they should be doing what they should be doing. They share simple do's and don'ts tips and resources to make the brand guidelines easy to apply as well. Zendesk brand strategists work on the principle that clearly communicating the why of the brand in its brand guidelines creates the foundation for a strong brand story and so that everybody within the brand understands their who their what and their why. Example number six is YouTube. Now brands like YouTube partner with hundreds of organizations and businesses and given the challenge YouTube has they often publish very very specific instructions about how to use the assets so that other partners can maintain and support the brand's identity. More often than not this section is more about what not to do with the logo and its visual assets because many mistakes can be made across so many different companies. So YouTube tells its external partners don't stretch the icon shape vertically or horizontally, don't change triangles angles or sizes, don't use colors other than red almost black and white, don't rotate the icon, don't add special effects. So all of these instructions are usually par for the course for most designers but YouTube feels the need to really specify in detail what not to do with its brand assets. So most brands just need to manage the usage of their brand internally through their brand representatives but YouTube as I said they've got hundreds of partners and business and literally millions of content creators and any gray areas at scale are a recipe for disaster which is why YouTube is as specific as they are. And example number seven is Audi. Now Audi's brand guidelines are a classic example of how the document itself can serve as an advertisement for the brand. Everything about this well-designed interactive microsite is luxurious and sophisticated. Now the feel of the brand guidelines evokes this feeling that we have for their cars everything is aligned here when we see it it feels like Audi. The instructions scream attention to detail so everything within the brand is aligned. Now as with any brand guidelines they have the standardized guides that you would expect there and they're covered under basics so everything got to do with the logo and the visual identity and just the basics like the mission and the vision statement however beyond that there are several headings that are related to other branding activities. So for example there are clear directions for motion branding that inform the progressive and unique approach to moving images and Audi content. Specifically there are precise instructions on how to use the rings of the Audi logo and how they should feature. I really like the Audi brand guidelines they're an excellent example of how the guidelines themselves can be this living breathing representation of the brand. So let's have a look at some principles that we can take from these excellent examples of brand guidelines so that we can take them into the brands that we're building and the guidelines that we're defining for our own brands or for our clients. It's important to note here that we should see the brand guidelines as a written representation of the brand strategy and a guide for consistency in execution. It defines the features that set out the brand position clearly expressing what is unique about the brand. The document is like a brand bible including anything anybody might want to know about what the brand stands for and what it should look and feel like. So let's take a look at some guiding principles for brand guidelines. Number one, attention to detail. Leave no area for misrepresentation or misunderstanding. Be definitive in who the brand is, what it stands for, why it's different and how it should communicate. Your guidelines should include the what and the how for your brand's DNA and purpose, vision, mission, values, differentiation, position, personality, verbal identity and communication as well. Being as specific as possible leaves less room for uncertainty and more clarity for those implementing the brand strategy day to day. The more comprehensive these guidelines on these elements, the clearer picture you can create of the brand identity and the broader strategy. Number two, brand your brand guidelines. Use the brand guidelines document in whatever form it takes as a case study in and of itself of the brand. This goes beyond sharing examples of do's and don'ts and showcasing how the brand should look and feel in different environments. Instead incorporate all the brand guidelines related to the brand DNA, the verbal identity, the visual identity into the very document itself so it's a living breathing representation of how the brand should look and feel. And this approach creates the brand guidelines document as a shining example of brand consistency and clarity and the benchmark for the brand. Number three, make the guidelines accessible. An instruction manual only works if users can access it. Even then it's only useful if those accessing it know how to use it. Therefore brand managers should make the brand guidelines document available to those who might need it across any single channel. Stored in a shareable location that's visible for anybody who needs to access it. For example this could be in a prominent place on your intranet or it could be a dedicated website that people can access. Wherever you're going to store that make sure that it's easily accessible for those who need it when they need it. And as you create this document try to remember that not everybody is a specialist, not everybody is a designer or a copywriter or understand that they need to apply the rules in a certain way. You need to specifically outline exactly how and why they need to do it in this way so anybody reading the document can understand what they're doing and why they're doing it that way. Number four, include helpful features. Now part of making the guidelines accessible is sharing information in a way that makes sense to the reader. So utilizing some of these helpful features to illustrate the key points of the brand guidelines. So checklists, do's and don'ts, examples, tools and resources and templates. Features help to illustrate the guidelines to make it less exhaustive reading for the user and to facilitate the ease of understanding as well. Now look at the end of the day building a brand is no different to building a reputation. When you define the reputation you want to have then the elements and actions that will help to develop that reputation it becomes a game of consistency. Brand guidelines are a tool for that consistency. Design and develop them as a distilled representation of your brand and use them religiously to build a brand perception that you desire. Now if you want to dive deeper into brand strategy then this video here will help you out. But before you click it if you want to become a master of brand make sure you hit the like and subscribe to get notifications of new videos just like this. Until next time brand like a master and I'll see you in the next video.