Our process. Part 5. Brand Guide.

Okay, to wrap up this series of breaking down our regenerative branding process, we’ll look at the final piece – the brand guide.

This is your company’s bible and ultimate style manual all in one, it holds all the pieces and ensures consistency through every touchpoint of your brand, internally and externally.

It’s what allows you to take your product from a commodity to a desirable object, by consistently building a memorable brand people identify and fall in love with.

Take Liquid Death, for instance, no one is buying the water because it tastes better. They have a definitive brand with a guide for how they look, feel, speak, and behave. They are also valued at 700 million dollars at the moment, selling water in a can with heavy metal branding on the front. No shade intended because, at least, Liquid Death comes in aluminum cans that can be recycled an infinite number of times, while Aquafina, Dasani, and the rest still rely on plastic bottles of death, like regular death, not liquid death. But if you know this brand you can immediately imagine what they look like and how they “feel.” It’s from a strong strategic foundation and execution of brand principles that are clear and defined.

A brand guide really is a magical thing. It sums up everything we talked about so far, and more. It brings people into your brand universe with a quick strategy summary that gives you an overview of all the important elements we have discussed – your core messaging, from mission, vision, and values, to brand personality, the positioning and so on.

It lays out your complete brand identity, with its pieces in full detail, including a set of rules that shows you how to use each and every one of them, and how not to, from type and color combinations to do’s and don’t of what you can do with your new logo.

It touches on the packaging, print collateral, and digital expressions of your brand. And it shows exactly what the look and feel of your photography, video, and illustration is and how to achieve it, from casting to lighting guidance.

Having such a guide in place, your brand’s expression remains consistent, right from the start, which allows people to feel that all experiences they have with a brand are consistent with who that company says they are.
That’s the only way to deepen their loyalty and love for the brand.

Much love,
Lisa & Tim