Nobody cares about your brand guidelines

And why should they?

For most people, brand guidelines are something they are given rather than something they choose to read. A document that tells them which logo to use, where to put it, how much space to leave around it, which colours are allowed and, more often than not, a fairly comprehensive list of things they shouldn't do.

They're useful. They're necessary. And they're often very good at creating consistency. But do they create understanding?

Wally Olins once wrote:

“Brands and branding are the most significant gifts that commerce has ever made to popular culture. Branding has moved so far beyond its commercial origins that its impact is virtually immeasurable in social and cultural terms.”

On Branding

“Brands and branding are the most significant gifts that commerce has ever made to popular culture. Branding has moved so far beyond its commercial origins that its impact is virtually immeasurable in social and cultural terms.”

It's a big statement, but it points towards something we sometimes forget when we reduce branding to a set of visual rules. Brands mean something. They shape how we think about organisations, products and services. They create expectations, influence behaviour and, at their best, create belonging, loyalty and a shared sense of identity.

So if brands can carry all that meaning, why do we so often reduce the instructions for managing them to where the logo goes?

Rules are easy. Understanding is harder.

There's a fundamental difference between telling someone what they can and can't do and helping them understand why they should or shouldn't do it.

The first gives you compliance. The second gives you judgement.

And judgement is far more useful because no set of brand guidelines can anticipate every situation a brand will encounter. A new platform appears. A different audience needs to be reached. A campaign demands something unexpected. The business enters a new market. Someone needs to create something that nobody thought about when the guidelines were written.

If all we've given them is a set of rules, what happens when there isn't a rule? Usually, they either make something that technically follows the guidelines but somehow doesn't feel like the brand, or they go back to the brand manager, designer or agency and ask them what to do.

Neither is particularly useful.

But if they understand the thinking behind the brand, its purpose, personality, principles and what it is trying to achieve, they have something much more powerful than a rulebook. They have a way of making decisions.

Are you farming or gardening your brand?

We often think about managing brands a little like gardening. We prune, tidy and straighten things up. We stop things growing where we don't want them and constantly tend to the details to keep everything looking exactly as it should. And the results can be beautiful.

But gardening is labour intensive. Stop tending the garden and things quickly start growing in unexpected directions.

Too many brand systems work the same way. Every piece of communication needs to be checked, every supplier needs to be corrected and every new application needs approval. The brand manager becomes the gardener, constantly pruning things back into shape.

There is another way to think about it.

Farming starts with the ground. You prepare it, understand what you're trying to grow, establish a system and plan ahead. You create the right conditions and give things room to grow. Of course you come back. You nurture, correct, fertilise and, occasionally, change what you're doing. But you don't stand over every plant with a pair of secateurs.

One approach is primarily concerned with maintaining appearance. The other is concerned with creating the conditions for growth.

We think good brand guidelines should do the same.

Consistency isn't the same as sameness

Consistency matters. Recognition matters. Your logo shouldn't suddenly become green because somebody fancied a change. Your typeface, colour palette, imagery and visual language all play an important role in building recognition over time.

But consistency of presentation isn't the same thing as consistency of thought. In fact, taken too far, the pursuit of visual consistency can create stagnation. Everything starts looking correct, but nothing feels new. The same layouts appear again and again, the same photography, the same language and the same solutions to different problems.

The brand is beautifully maintained, but it isn't really going anywhere.

Good guidelines need to establish boundaries without defining every possible destination. They should give people enough structure to understand what belongs to the brand, but enough freedom to respond intelligently to different situations.

That's why the why matters so much.

Don't just tell someone that we use a particular kind of photography. Explain what we're trying to make people feel. Don't just define a tone of voice. Explain the relationship we're trying to create with the audience. Don't just show someone where the logo goes. Help them understand the hierarchy of the communication and what needs to be noticed first.

Don't simply tell people what not to do. Help them understand why.

From brand police to brand advocates

People are much more likely to care for something they understand. If brand guidelines feel like a set of restrictions handed down from the marketing department, people will inevitably look for ways around them. The guidelines become an obstacle between them and whatever they're trying to get done, and someone, somewhere, becomes the brand police.

But when people understand what the brand is trying to achieve, the relationship changes.

The question stops being “Am I allowed to do this?” and becomes “Is this the right thing to do?”

That's a much more interesting question. It also creates something far more valuable than compliance. It creates ownership.

A salesperson, marketer, designer, copywriter or external partner doesn't need to know everything about branding. But they should understand the principles well enough to make a good decision. Because ultimately, a brand isn't managed by a PDF. It's managed by people.

Give people a place to start

None of this means throwing away the rules. Quite the opposite. Clear visual standards, practical templates, examples and technical specifications are essential. They create the foundations that allow a brand to remain recognisable and coherent.

But they are the beginning of the job, not the end of it.

The best guidelines connect those practical rules to a bigger idea. They explain not only what the brand does, but why it does it. They give people principles rather than simply prescriptions. They create a shared direction without demanding identical outcomes.

And perhaps that's how you make people care about your brand guidelines.

You stop asking them to care about the guidelines. You give them a reason to care about the brand.

Because great brand guidelines don't just tell everyone what to do. They give everyone the same place to start.