How can you make brand guidelines flexible for different markets and audiences?

1 Know your audience

Before you create or update your brand guidelines, you need to understand who you are talking to and what they expect from you. Research your target markets and segments, and identify their cultural, linguistic, and behavioral preferences. For example, some markets may prefer a more formal tone, while others may respond better to humor or emotion. Some may have different color associations or symbols, while others may have different accessibility or readability needs. Knowing your audience will help you tailor your brand guidelines to suit their expectations and avoid any potential misunderstandings or offenses.

2 Define your core elements

While you want to be flexible and adaptable, you also want to maintain your brand's essence and identity. To do that, you need to define your core elements that are consistent across all markets and audiences. These are the elements that represent your brand's purpose, personality, and promise, and that differentiate you from your competitors. They may include your brand name, logo, tagline, mission statement, value proposition, and key messages. These elements should be clearly stated and explained in your brand guidelines, and should not be changed or modified without a valid reason.

3 Provide options and examples

Once you have your core elements, you can provide options and examples for the other elements that can be adapted or customized for different markets and audiences. These may include your brand colors, fonts, images, icons, layouts, tone of voice, and more. For each element, you can offer a range of choices that are aligned with your brand identity, but also suitable for different contexts and preferences. For example, you can have a primary and secondary color palette, a serif and a sans serif font, or a formal and a casual tone of voice. You can also provide examples of how to use these elements in different scenarios, such as web pages, social media posts, emails, or brochures.

4 Create a feedback system

Brand guidelines are not static documents that are set in stone. They are dynamic tools that evolve and improve over time. To make sure that your brand guidelines are relevant and effective, you need to create a feedback system that allows you to collect and analyze data from your markets and audiences. You can use surveys, interviews, focus groups, analytics, or other methods to measure how your brand is perceived and received by your customers. You can also solicit feedback from your internal teams, such as your marketing, sales, design, or customer service staff, who interact with your customers on a daily basis. By listening to your feedback, you can identify what works and what doesn't, and make adjustments or updates to your brand guidelines accordingly.

5 Use a collaboration platform

Finally, to make your brand guidelines accessible and easy to use for your global and diverse teams, you need to use a collaboration platform that allows you to share and update your guidelines in real time. A collaboration platform is a cloud-based tool that lets you create, store, and manage your brand assets and guidelines in one place. It also lets you communicate and collaborate with your team members, partners, and stakeholders, and ensure that everyone is on the same page and follows the same standards. Some examples of collaboration platforms are Frontify , Bynder , Canva , or Brandfolder .

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?