Brand Kits: And Why You Need One
Photo Credit: Chalermsuk Bootvises
What Is A Brand Kit?
“A brand kit is a short, easily digestible guide to your brand's visual identity. It's a quick reference to understanding the logos, colors, fonts, and messaging that represent your brand. Brand kits are usually shared as downloadable PDFs or print documents.” - Canva
So Just Why Do I Need One?
It’s no secret, the digital space is quickly expanding; and you need to make sure that your business is easily recognizable throughout all platforms, and modes of advertisement. When people are scrolling through social media, or browsing the internet for a purpose that pertains to what you and your business have to offer, when they see just your image or colors your business should automatically come to mind. If you’ve been in business for a while yet your business is unrecognizable then your business has already fallen behind. But that’s a problem that is completely fixable.
The digital space we operate and now house our business in is forever expanding, and by being consistent in all of the facets mentioned above your business can easily keep up.
Now how do you know exactly if you’ve gotten this branding thing down pact? You’re going to conduct an audit.
Take a look at your social media and your website, is everything consistent?
Does your brand have a clear and concise voice?
Do your fonts, colors, and images match?
If your answer is no to any of these questions, you need a brand kit, like yesterday!
It is essential to your business that your brand is consistent throughout all mediums. Just as a toddler who can’t read knows Applebees, Target, a Twix chocolate bar on sight, they should be able to say “OOOH that’s; insert your business name here,” as soon as they see the images or the colors.
At this point you may be thinking, ok ok, i understand; but what in the heck all goes into a Brand Kit. Well… let's find out.
Let’s break down what is in a brand kit, and why it’s essential to your branding needs.
What All Goes Into A Brand Kit?
A Brand Kit is composed of three elements;
Logos
Color Palette
Fonts
All of these elements come together to form your brands digital identity. These three units are responsible for that instant recognition that we mentioned to you above. When a person sees your logo, your unique color scheme, and even your signature font they will instantly know that it is you. These pieces are solely responsible for making sure you are at the forefront of your customers minds.
You are going to use the various variations of your logo, your color palette, and your fonts to bind your brand. You will use these elements consistently through your websites, social media, logos, and for any information you put out on the behalf of your business. So it is imperative that you are very aware of what your logo is, what your colors are, and what fonts your brand uses. With everything that you have going on you are bound to forget from time to time, so you are going to use your actual brand kit as a reminder.
Click here for an example of what a brand kit looks like.
Now that you know what a brand kit is, lets explore the full picture; Branding, periodt!
What Is Branding?
Your brand kit is the glue that holds your entire brand together. So we now need to know what all goes into branding itself.
According to the Oxford dictionary branding is;
“ 1. the action of marking with a branding iron.
"regulations concerning the branding, movement, and sale of cattle.”
2. the promotion of a particular product or company by means of advertising and distinctive design.
“the process of branding should be considered in global terms"“
As we all know branding has been around for ages. It was literally how cattle farmers or cow boys made sure people knew who their livestock belonged to.
Well it’s the same for your business. People need to know your products, your website, your social media page, business cards, etc… without having to ask someone who do these sources represent; and the way you do that is by being consistent across all mediums that pertain to your business. The only way to have ease of consistency is to have an established Brand Kit.
Branding is a huge part of your businesses success; without it your reach is limited and your credibility is nonexistent.
Your Brand Kit is what breathes life into your brand; without it your imagery, colors, and identity will be all over the place. Your success is contingent on consistency.
You may be wondering what all you are going to use this brand kit for, so we are going to share that info with you below. However, first we are going to briefly explore the elements that make up your brand.
What All Goes Into Branding?
Branding includes a myriad of components that all work together as a cohesive unit to give your business a voice. Your business speaks to people via these five key elements.
Websites
Logos
Social Media
Brand Voice
and Graphic Design
Each component is just as important as the next; so you don’t want to skimp or skip out on either. They are all of equal importance to your business.
Take a look at each section to find out why each of these things are so darn important.
Logos
A Logo is a graphic representation or symbol of a company name, trademark, abbreviation, etc., often uniquely designed for on sight recognition (dictionary.com).
Your logo is an essential part of your brand’s presence. If properly executed, a logo will tell your brand’s story. Oftentimes, it will serve as the first impression (besides your website) for potential customers. It is crucial to make sure that not only you have an effective logo, but also to make sure your logo can be used across multiple platforms and in various ways (transparency, black and white, large, small etc.)
In other words make sure that you have many different versions of the same logo. They should be in varying sizes, and it’s okay to play around with the colors as long as you stay within your color palette; which we are discussing next.
Color Palette/ Color Scheme
For web purposes, a color palette is a set of colors that represent a brand for design and display purposes. A brand’s color palette has multi purpose uses when it comes to marketing. Color schemes can tell what kind of emotions and feelings your brand wishes to invoke within their audience. It also helps keep the consistency in your marketing materials. Every time your customer sees your color scheme, they will automatically associate it with you!
Your brand's color palette can consist of as little as four colors, and as many as ten but 5 is the sweet spot. It gives you just enough for variation but it’s not so much that it’s overwhelming. Remember these colors should complement each other.
Bonus tip: You should also have brand fonts. They should be easily readable for varying degrees of your potential customers eyesight, and eye health. If your customers have a hard time reading your advertisements, and infographs then they likely won’t be your customers.
Don’t lose out on profits just because your material is hard to read.
Brand Voice
When you think of your brand’s voice, how does it sound?
Does it sound authoritative like a parent?
Is it youthful and optimistic like an innocent child?
Is it looking to break the rules?
Knowing your brand’s voice helps to give you clarity over how copy (advertisements) should be written for your brand. Your brand’s voice is used throughout your website, social media and any other marketing materials your company may need.
Choose your voice wisely! Want to find out your brand’s voice? Use TwoLeafCreative.Com
We hope that you’re noticing a pattern here; and that pattern is consistency. Keep this in mind when you've entered the largest realm of your business. Your website.
Website
This is probably one of the most— if not the most, important part of your kit and your gateway to the digital space! This is where you will pull in all of the above. This is where you will showcase your Logo, your brand colors, and your brands font styles.
Your brand’s website is the literal key to holding everything together on the digital space. Ideally, your website is the first line of defense when a customer is looking to solve a problem; and your website can make or break the sale!
When building your website it is imperative that you make sure that your SEO, a fancy term for making sure your business turns up on the front page of a Google search, is complete. You need to make sure that your photos have alternative text for the visually impaired. You need to make sure all of your links work properly, all of which, among a myriad of other not so minor things, ensure that your website not only represents your brand in the best light, but performs well with the search engines.
Social Media
The last piece of the puzzle is social media. Placing your business on social media solidifies the legitimacy of the company within the digital realm. People literally find it sketchy these days if you have no social media presence. Your social media is going to be your biggest source of credibility. So it is very important that you are consistent across all platforms. Your posts should be the same color scheme, font design, logo, and voice no matter where you are posting.
Bonus Tip: Using canva is a great way to accomplish this consistency. In canva you are able to create your brand kit, and you are able to create one post and resize and edit it for each platform posting size requirements. You will need Canva Premium and it is definitely worth the investment.
With the right social media strategy, your brand can create awareness of your products and services, and expand your company’s reach exponentially.
Social media can be a messy territory to explore, but remember that you’re not alone!
If you need help with your social media strategy, contact us today!
In conclusion, creating the right scenario for your brand’s digital presence makes all the difference! Always remember that people do business with companies that they can trust; and if they can’t trust you to be consistent in your branding then chances are they aren’t going to trust you to be consistent with them in business.
If you would like to get started on your brand kit, or revamp your current brand, schedule a consultation with The Wilder Shoppe today!
If you’d like to see an example of a Brand Kit click here
