A brand in a book

Writing a brand book? Here’s how I do it.

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What do we want our brand book to do?

???????Excite everyone working for our brand

???????Educate everyone on everything our brand does

???????Show how our brand comes to life in everything we do

???????Showcase our biggest achievements and proudest moments

???????Present our most iconic work to show what excellent looks like

???????Motivate everyone to always be the very best in every brand interaction

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Name for fame

Write from the start (think Honda The Book of Dreams, not Honda Brand Book) to:

???????Show we take our brand personality seriously

???????Connect the internal stuff with the external stuff – consistency is key

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Begin with a bang

Open with a big and bold statement to:

???????Set the scene and the tone for our brand

???????Excite and inspire our audience

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Show off from the off

Flow our visual and verbal identity through every page to:

???????Show our brand assets in action

???????Educate our audience on how we always look and feel

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Stay simple and stylish

Respect our brand, and our audience, with:

???????Clear information and inspiration – less is more

???????Major takeouts that have space to breathe so everything’s easy

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Write light and tight

Present an overview of how we apply our visual and verbal identity to:

???????Give everyone an idea of how the creatives get creative

???????Set up the technical details found in our in-depth guidelines

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End with an encore

Repeat the really important stuff to:

???????Reinforce everything our brand stands for

???????Invite our audience to do the best work of their lives

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Next, get a guide to writing TOV guidelines or read a bit about branding .

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