How to Create An Easy-To-Understand Branding and Style Guide.

A style guide is a necessary tool for any company to stay true to their branding. The guide outlines all of the important information that a person would need to make any sort of communication that represents the company. This includes the kind of language, key words, general style, colors, approved logos, fonts, and anything else that might be necessary to the image. Outside communication is especially important to regulate, since it is directed at customers who might be confused by a mish-mash of messages. Internal communications are also important, because they help cement the brand into the culture of the company and minds of the staff.

For the strongest results with a consistent image, it is best to involve the entire company when launching or promoting a style guideline. While it is customarily created for and used by the marketing department, anyone in the company is capable of writing an email or letter to a customer. They need an understanding of the approved language, style, and general feel that has been selected for branding.

The intended format and guidelines for website updates, emails (external and internal), postings to social media accounts, print advertisements, radio or television spots, and even billboards should all be outlined in the manual. With a thorough approach, the brand can be extended across not only all marketing initiatives, but anything created about the company from entities inside or out.

Once all branding details have been decided, choose one person to be in charge of keeping the guide current with edits and changes. Make the language basic and straightforward, with plenty of pictorial examples and rich graphics. Then, make sure all staff have a printed copy or know where to access a universal read-only copy on a shared drive or in the cloud. Then, the tool can be easily accessed at any time and used by all.

A style guide helps ensure that the branding identity of a company is not diluted. A lot of financial support and staff time and effort went into the design of a brand, so you can stay true to your plan for positioning, message, purpose and target. For all of the brand greats, they used the guidelines consistently and exclusively in every communication for years, even decades.

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Boutique vs. Full-Service Advertising: What's The Difference?

Many companies use the words “boutique” or “full-service advertising” to describe their size or style. It can be confusing to know exactly what they mean. The problem could be compounded when you are trying to find the best option for your company or project. In reality, it could be that they are one in the same, and not the mutually exclusive options they were once thought to be.

Traditionally, boutique meant small in size (ten or under staff), with a selective client base and a limited skill set, while full-service advertising  implied one of the large national or international agencies with hundreds of staff and a wide menu of solution options. However, with advances in technology, that definition has changed. Now, even agencies with only a few staff have access to a number of highly technical and advanced marketing strategies. That means that while they might be small, they are able to offer a full array of marketing and advertising services, from branding to multi-tiered campaigns, as well as the analytics to back it all up.

The smaller company can often offer a more attractive price point. The s arger firms have a lot of overhead to cover and pass that cost along to the client. Smaller firms can have highly skilled and competent staff, but don’t have the huge downtown office to pay for, along with the army of support staff. Many times, professionals choose to work at a smaller company, because they prefer to work with their clients on a more intimate basis. The myth is that if a company goes with a huge firm, they have access to the top talent there. In reality, only the huge, multi-million dollar accounts get the attention of top executives at large advertising firms. The average business won’t get that level of attention there, as they would through a smaller full-service advertising option.

In the end, the search is about finding an option where the fee schedule is affordable and the customizable service options stand out. A small, or boutique, firm can also offer quality full-service advertising that was once only thought to be offered through larger firms.

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