A brand style guide is an essential tool for your business. It usually comes in the form of a pdf, PowerPoint, or physical booklet. It contains all the graphic elements you need for your company including but not limited to logo rules for usage, typography rules, graphic element samples, color pallet color codes for digital and print media, photo or illustration guidelines, and inspiration board on how you want your company’s brand to feel to customers. This guide can be used by both internal and external marketing teams. It will ensure consistency and alignment amongst your marketing material. Here are some more important elements that are often forgotten to include in your Brand Style Guide: 

✍️A Mission Statement 

What is the goal that you want your company to achieve? What value does your products or services have for the public? This should be a statement the drives your company to continue to function. Think about what problem your company solves and how would you make lives or society easier with your product or service. This statement can be broad.

?️A Vision Statement 

How do you see your company maneuvering with the business word? What type of business do you appear as? Your vision statement should be purposeful. This is what keep stakeholders and employees interested staying with your company. Think about where your business will be long term. This statement often relies on internal goals for your company and helps drive decision making. Keep this statement specific and short. 

?A Target Audience Description

Who is your product or service for? A useful way to narrow down who you want to sell to is to use one or more Buyer Persona profiles. The most common way to use buyer personas is to break it up into Primary Buyer (person who will love your product and recommend it frequently), Secondary Buyer (person who likes your product, but is less like to recommend your product and may return on rare occasions) and Negative Buyer (someone who does want, like or need your product). The profile usually consists of:

• Sex or gender identity (optional) 
• Income (helps in pricing)
• Lifestyle
• Daily tasks
• Likes & dislikes
• Other brands they are interested in 

?Your Brand Personality 

How do you want the feel of company to come off to potential clients? Are you chilled and laid-back or are you serious and urgent? Look up adjectives that others would use to describe your company. The goal is to stand out in the market. Your brand personality will help inform your packaging, photos or illustrations, color pallet and other graphic elements to help market your product or service. 

?Your Core Values 

Break down the beliefs your company has into simple words. These words are guide for behavior you want your employees to follow and brand to extrude. For example, you are gym and your company’s goals are to make exercise fun. Some core values you might come with are:

• Friendliness
• Humility 
• Humor 
• Optimism 
• Encouraging 

Let us help you come up with a brand style guide. Call 248.528.3600.