What Are Brand Guidelines? A Step-by-Step Guide for Kerala Startups
If you are a business owner in Kerala, you might already be aware of how competitive the market is. It is difficult to grab and retain customer attention in such a competitive space. It is necessary to invest your time and money in product development to stand out in the market. However, something that often gets overlooked is branding. Branding is not just about having a catchy logo or a colorful theme. It’s about consistency. Branding ensures that your business gets easily recognizable across every platform. Now you might be wondering what brand guidelines are. They are a set of rules that define how your brand should look, sound, and feel in the marketplace.
Why Kerala Startups Need Brand Guidelines
The digital marketplace has become overly crowded and competitive with a lot of businesses entering the market. To stand apart in this crowded space, branding is not just an option but a necessity. With so many businesses in the market, customers have countless options to choose from. To retain a customer in today’s market is a hefty task. Having clear brand guidelines will help develop a sense of familiarity and trust among the audience, and working with a Branding Agency in Kerala can make this process more effective.
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Contact UsWithout brand guidelines, digital platforms of businesses can look like a mess. If the website uses a color theme and the app another one, and social media a completely different one, it fails to create familiarity and trust among the audience. Customers would find it hard to recognize the brand. On the other hand, even if it is a small startup, if it follows a consistent style across all the platforms, customers will find it easy to connect with them. Brand guidelines will ensure that your style of communicating with the audience is unique and uniform across all the platforms.
Also Read: The Impact of Direct Marketing and Branding on Business Growth in Kerala
Core Elements of Brand Guidelines
Now let’s look at the core elements of Brand Guidelines. The first one is Visual Identity. Visual Identity includes your logo, color palette, fonts, and image styles. Try to maintain a connection between these things. Unmatching color palette, logo, and fonts can look unprofessional. Visual Identity is the face of your business, so choose it wisely.
Fastercapital Core Elements of a Brand Style Guide- Image Source: Fastercapital
The next aspect of Brand Guidelines is the Voice and Tone. It determines how you communicate with your customers. If you maintain a casual tone, try to be consistent with that across all the platforms. The tone can be casual, friendly, professional, or authoritative. The next element is Messaging. It defines your brand, story, and values, and this is where Brand Storytelling plays a key role in creating a deeper connection with your audience. These are some of the core elements of Brand Guidelines that build the foundation of a strong brand identity.
Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Brand Guidelines
Creating brand guidelines is no herculean task. If you follow a structured process, it is a manageable thing. Here is a step-by-step guide to creating brand guidelines. Start by defining your brand purpose. Ask yourself this question: what is the purpose of your brand beyond making profits? For example, some brands will have the purpose of being eco-friendly. This brand purpose connects with the audience as well as this stands as a base for all the branding decisions.
The next step is to identify your target audience. There are various groups of audience such as Millennials, Gen Zs, or people who are local clients or international clients. You have to understand your target audience from these diverse groups. Knowing this will help you set a tone to your brand. Whether it should be casual, professional, or educational depends upon your target audience.
Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Brand Guidelines- Image Source: Filestage
The next step is focusing on your visual elements. We have already discussed the brand’s purpose. You can design a logo that reflects your brand purpose or one that aligns with your brand story. Also choose colors that align with your Brand Identity. When choosing fonts, make sure that it is readable for all kinds of people. If your brand stands for eco-friendliness, using earthy tones can be an apt choice instead of vibrant colors.
Once visuals are set, define your voice and tone. If your target audience are Younger people keep the tone light and fun. In Kerala, many new start-ups, especially those in the food and beverage industry, communicate in a very fun and interactive manner in their brand messages. If you are in a health or fintech industry, a professional tone works better.
Another key aspect is to maintain consistency throughout the platforms. Whether you are setting up a billboard or starting a campaign on social media platforms, maintain the consistent tone, visuals, logo, etc. pertaining to the brand. You can create a connection with your audience and they will easily remember your brand.
Finally, you can combine all the brand guidelines into a document which can be accessible to the entire team of designers and everyone working in the team. If you combine these brand guidelines into a PDF file, it would be easy to share with the team.
Also Read: The Importance of Branding in Marketing: A Guide for Kerala Entrepreneurs
Tips for Maintaining Brand Guidelines
Creating brand guidelines is only the starting phase. The real challenge is in maintaining it as the brand grows. Businesses must encourage the team to follow the guidelines strictly. Whether you are designing a new app or posting content on Instagram, adhere to the guidelines strictly. Occasionally conduct audits to ensure that the brand maintains consistency across all the platforms. If you are planning to expand your business outside Kerala, try to not lose the core identity. Also, when you expand outside Kerala, try to understand the local audience there and plan your messages accordingly. You can bring changes in the local languages that you choose to communicate with the audience, but make sure that the colour palette and logo and fonts remain the same. As time passes, you can bring changes or adjustments into your brand guidelines. You can tweak your logo to match the modern styles. Or as you expand to new regions or add new services to your business, you can bring minor changes to the logo or style. Keep the guidelines flexible to allow growth while ensuring that the core identity remains as it is.
Conclusion
With this step-by-step guide, you might have got an understanding of what brand guidelines are. They are the blueprint of how startups or businesses present themselves to the world. It’s not about maintaining the aesthetic, but also about building trust and loyalty among the customers. In a crowded and competitive digital market, having brand guidelines which are clearly defined will help you to be easily recognizable, and connect with your audience. Successful Kerala businesses will invest in branding in the early stages itself. With clear and strong brand guidelines, you not only help businesses thrive in Kerala, but also on a global platform, while also understanding the Importance of Brand Positioning in long-term growth.
dExito is a Result-Driven Digital Marketing Agency in Kerala, delivering customized strategies to grow your brand online. Our skilled team focuses on data-driven campaigns. As a trusted Performance Marketing Agency, we help businesses convert traffic into leads and transform leads into loyal customers.
Salmanul Faris, Founder of dExito Branding, is a seasoned Performance Marketing Expert with over 8 years of experience in Google Ads and Meta Ads. He specializes in helping businesses across India and the GCC achieve measurable growth through data-driven marketing strategies. Amidst his dynamic role at dExito, he shares insights on the latest trends in digital marketing and performance marketing, helping brands stay ahead in the competitive digital landscape