What's a brand bible, and what does it consist of?

I had my first job at the age of 16. Having to pay for my school, my studies, and all my expenses, there were times I had up to three jobs simultaneously. Reflecting on my various experiences today, I'd say my performance in those different jobs was very dependent on the quality of the onboarding. It's unfair to blame someone for their misbehavior if you've never explained your company's values, mission, vision, and the codex of your corporate language.

What is a brand bible?

A brand bible is a brand manual that summarises various communication practices and clarifies how to use words and images to help communicate your brand's mission. It's a simple tool to increase the chances of successfully onboarding employees that teaches them how to communicate the message of your brand correctly.

Do you need a brand bible for your business?

Whether your business has two or two hundred employees, the second you start hiring people who don't live inside your head, you'll need a brand bible. Even if you work with freelancers, they too will need guidance to get "it" right.

A brand bible will help you and your staff keep everyone on target. It will provide the foundation for all your communication measures as your company grows. Most of all, it will minimize errors and spare you and your employees and consultants unnecessary conflict and potential embarrassment.

What does a brand bible consist of?

A brand bible should be a summary of the DNA of a brand and thus serve as the go-to document for all communication measures.

Generally speaking, a brand bible won't be developed by one single person. There are four parts that need the expertise of different people. While the brand bible should be developed together with the key team members, ideally, the process will be facilitated by an external strategist that will help you articulate and streamline your team's thoughts.

Part 1: Brand identity

With the help of various exercises, your team will get to determine how the brand feels, what it stands for, and who the ideal clients are. You’ll get to think about the core message and the brand personality. Your facilitator will then use the insights and learnings and create an overview of the brand identity that will consist of:

• Your brand’s story

• The mission

• Vision

• Brand history

• The elevator pitch.

These parts are often used publicly and as the base for marketing material. You might find the brand story in the “about” section on a website. The elevator pitch might be the bio on your company’s social media. The vision might be used as artwork in your office or shop.

Part 2: Brand values

Your brand values are the guiding principles for making choices. Some companies might define their brand values through the guidance of the consumer market. Others will make the guiding principles of their founding team the brand values of the business they’ve decided to dedicate their waking hours to.

It might be easier for your team to articulate what they don’t like to use the negative emotions to then define the brand values.

Another way to define values is what you believe is worth standing up for. What are you willing to fight for with your brand? Most likely, you’ll develop your brand values in the same workshop that produced your brand identity.

This second section of your brand bible should consist of:

• An explanation of your brand values

• Philosophy

• Brand guidelines

• Brand promise

• Team (what makes someone an ideal team member)

Part 3: Ideal customer

Who is your ideal customer? How old are they? Where do they live? What do they care about? Where do they shop? What do they read? What social media platforms do they use? What do they most likely value about your brand?

In this part, you’ll specify the sort of customers your brand is attractive to, which will be of great help to the people planning your communication strategy, as well as your B2B partnerships and sales.

Part 4: Language manual

With a language manual, you’ll specify how your brand sounds. You determine the “dos” and “don’ts” to make sure your marketing team, customer support, and everyone else who talks about your company knows what to say and how.

Your language manual should consist of:

• An explanation of your tonality

• Dos and Don’ts

• Typical phrases or words and how you feel about the different words as a brand

• The spelling of your brand’s name

• Hashtags.

You might also want to add how to react in crises or different blocks of text to use in different situations. Overall, a language manual will minimize the number of faux pas. No one wants to say the wrong thing, and, with a language manual, you’ll ensure that no one does. Your team will definitely thank you if you proactively prevent potential errors.

Part 5: Visual guidelines

If you’ve ever seen a brand that’s inconsistent in how their visuals look, it’s most likely due to the lack of visual guidelines. Graphic design is something that’s often outsourced to freelancers. If a company doesn’t have clear instructions for their visual language, it will be up to the designer to decide, which is not always the best approach.

Generally, your visual guidelines should not only consist of the rules of use but also clarify the visual language in general. Rules for what sort of images to use or not are just as essential as what kind of words are on-brand.

To prevent any inconsistencies in your visual language, it’s worth creating a corporate identity, which will be the final part of the brand bible.

It should include:

• Logo and rules for use

• Typography and color palettes

• Image style and use

• Website style and guidelines

• Guidelines for the different social media platforms.

I hope I could answer why a brand bible is a smart investment for strengthening your brand and helping your employees feel confident from day one. If you’d like to have me help you create one, please get in touch at hello@mkanokova.com.