Dear Tig,

What all should one include in a brand book? What are the main frameworks one should cover?

Thanks, Officer Brand

Dear Officer Brand,

For those who haven't been subjected to “brand books,” the term warrants an explanation.

These guides--often put together by the company's primary ad agency--set out a very precise set of limitations as to how different brand elements can be used.

Generally, they set out not only the limited set of logos, taglines and other elements, but also list very specific guidelines as to sizes, color, context and circumstances under which each should be employed.

Things a brand book should contain include:

  • A statement of the brand essence of the company, and how that should be treated at the product or service level.
  • All variations of the logos, including how they need to appear in different contexts (black and white, online, etc.).
  • Color guidelines, with specific Pantone numbers.
  • Taglines, as well as their hierarchy, usage and guidelines.
  • Policy on the usage of product and service names and descriptions.
  • Level of discretion (and to whom one should appeal) for taking liberties with brand elements for clever creative concepts in, for instance, advertising.
  • Current status of trademarks, servicemarks, copyrights, etc., and the required demarcations (as well as future expected changes in these statuses).
  • The process by which a sub-brand must evolve in the context of the rest of the company's brand elements.

The better versions of brand books also delineate a proposed evolution of how a brand may develop over time.

A great example is how McDonald's evolved brand in the 80s and 90s, starting out with a new concept such as “McDonald's Chicken McNuggets” and--over a decade--increasing the prominence of “McNuggets” so that it eventually evolved into its own discrete brand. This was not by happenstance. This was “by the book.” Today, it continues to drive insane the Burger King drive-through tellers who have to listen to people drive up and order “McNuggets.”

An important consideration is also what types of discretion should be used. Companies should consider creating a formal process by which changes can be made to the brand book--sort of like a brand legislature. To pretend that all instances will be covered in a brand book is naïve.

There are always new cases, though, that will provide gray areas.

I remember back in the mid-90s working with Sun Microsystems on creating a Java version of their Solaris logo. The logo was a very complicated set of shapes, and the Java version was supposed to rotate around.

The problem was, those shapes were defined only in two dimensions. In order to make a 3-D version of it, we had to extrapolate what those shapes appeared to be on the backside. The brand book was silent.

Our tinkering got us arrested by the brand cops. Only after much haggling with intellectual property lawyers were we released out of brand jail, winding up creating a rotating cube on which the 2-D version of the logo could be seen on each side.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tig Tillinghast tiggy@mac.com writes from the banks of the Elk River near Chesapeake City, Maryland. He consults with major brands and ad agency holding companies, helping marketing groups find the right resources for their needs. He is the author of The Tactical Guide to Online Marketing as well as several terrible fiction manuscripts.