4 steps to creating a powerful brand book

The creation of a brand book is essential to ensure consistent and effective brand communication. The way a company presents itself to its audience plays a decisive role in its perception and success. The brand book provides all the visual guidelines (use of colors, typography, images) and verbal guidelines (tone, vocabulary, etc.), helping to create a strong, recognizable identity. It creates cohesion between the company and its positioning in its communications, enabling it to engage and retain its target audience more effectively.

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What is a brand book?

A brand book is a document that lists all the visual and narrative elements associated with a brand. It serves as a reference for understanding and implementing the brand's universe and values in communications. The brand book thus includes key elements linked to the brand's visual identity, such as the logo, colors and typography, as well as the branding and communications strategy (tonality in content, etc.). It can also address aspects of corporate culture, core values, and how the brand wishes to position itself in the marketplace. The brand book is a comprehensive guide that ensures consistent communication aligned with the brand's objectives, both internally with employees and with the target audience (customers and partners).

Why make a brand book?

The brand book defines your brand identity clearly and precisely. Having a well-defined brand identity is crucial to standing out in a market that can be saturated. The brand book thus serves as a guide for the creation of all internal and external communications and external communications, be they advertising materials, internal presentations, or content for social networks, for example.

It also provides a reference for any communication strategy, enabling visual and verbal consistency to be maintained. For example, in digital signage, the brand book will dictate broadcast guidelines, ensuring that every poster, video or message respects the brand's aesthetic principles and tone. This not only reinforces brand recognition, but also ensures that all contact points uniformly express the company's vision and values.

With the Cenareo solution, you can connect different screens together and broadcast your communication at different points of contact with your target audience. You can program your communications according to multiple factors, so you can deliver the right message to the right person at the right time.

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4 steps to a brand book

1. Introducing the brand

First, it's essential to talk about the brand's history, vision and values. The story gives context and depth to the brand, while the vision indicates where it's headed in the future. The company's values, based on its history and vision, are fundamental to structuring the discourse in communications.

The brand book should also include the company's mission statement, i.e. the brand's raison d'être and the objectives it wishes to achieve. This mission must be inspiring and motivating for both employees and consumers.

It's also important to present the brand's products and/or services, as well as its target audience. Who are the potential customers? What are their needs and expectations? Understanding your audience is fundamental to creating messages that resonate with them.

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2. Define graphic elements

The second step is to detail all the brand's graphic elements and their use. The color palette, for example, must be carefully chosen to harmonize with the brand's values and positioning. Each color must have a specific meaning and application. The choice of typography is no less important. Fonts must be legible and reflect the brand's personality. Whether primary or secondary, each use must be clearly specified. The tone and style of the images to be used must also be defined. Do you prefer atmospheric photos, illustrations or minimalist visuals? It's essential to create a library of visuals that's consistent with the brand's image, and that you can draw on to create content.

All the elements of the graphic charter can then be used to help you create content for various types of media: TV advertising, social networks, websites, digital signage, etc., and communication formats: photos, videos... 

A solution like Cenareo Video is ideal for creating professional-quality videos with ease. With the help of your brand book, you can define everything that goes to make up the background of your video. Cenareo Video supports you in terms of form, with predefined formats (meeting summaries, tutorials, customer testimonials, management communications, etc.), shooting guides, automatic editing and audience statistics. 

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 3. Establish communication guidelines

Once the graphic elements have been defined, it's essential to establish communication guidelines. These guidelines will indicate not only the tone and style to be adopted in messages (more formal, more user-friendly, etc.) but also the way in which information is to be structured and presented.

These guidelines should include concrete examples of typical messages, whether for press releases, social media posts or advertising campaigns. This ensures that every message is perfectly in line with the brand's image.

4. Set up a deployment plan

Finally, it's not enough to write a brand book; you also need to ensure that it's used correctly. To do this, introduce and train your teams in the use of the brand book. Whether it's your in-house communications teams or your external creative service providers, it's important to disseminate your brand book to ensure the desired consistency in different communications, whatever the support and format. 

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