The development of Brand Book
Main goal of any company is receiving profit. Each leader creates his own way of goal achievement, it can be similar to actions of other leaders or radically different. Nevertheless, the natural and obvious way is to attract as many customers and partners as you can.Such actions in aggregate with a competent marketing policy can turn small business into large and strong corporation.
 
Corporate identity and image
The main effective method of increasing buyer’s number and new partner’s involvement is to create a flawless image of the company. A quality of offered products and services has a huge influence on client’s attitude to the company. The first thing that a customer sees is components of a corporate identity. The slogan, logo, color gamma – all these components create initial impression. The corporate identity developed duly is even able to sell not the best product.

The corporate identity as separate concept was formed at the beginning of the XX century. It was then that the competition in all spheres began to increase promptly, and need of recognition of the company among similar businesses became critical. The image of the Gibraltar rock symbolizing reliability of the Prudential Insurance Company is considered to be the first logo.

Why do companies need a Brand Book?
When the qualitative corporate identity of the company gives visible results, it always pleases leaders.The developing firm needs a creation of brand book in order not to lose clients, because of the erratic use of certain style components. In fact, brand book represents the description of specific rules which concern parts of a corporate identity.  For example, adhering to these rules, any employee of the company will be able to check proper execution of logo.

As it was already spoken, brand book contains the description of a corporate identity. What is it necessary for? First of all, it should be noted that creation of the positive image on the basis of qualitatively developed corporate identity requires considerable expenses of time and money. The smallest mistake in design of any retail outlet can lead to significant losses. Brand book allows avoiding similar problems. Specific rules of corporate identity usage with samples and illustrations are collected in it. Brand book is also possible to call the book of laws because everything that is written in it can't be changed. This album bears in itself information on visual representation of the company or a brand on which reputation many employees worked really hard therefore it is necessary to approach its creation very responsibly.

Brand Book structure
At first it seems that brand book consists only of the description of rules how to use components of corporate identity.  Actually, the first thing that the reader sees is the description of the company.
This section explains what the main direction of the company is, what its main goals are and what the target audience of the company is. Only after that section it is possible to start the description of the corporate identity.

Each part of a corporate identity should be accurately thought over. It is impossible to choose any color you like and decide to use it. Every hue or element of style must have the functional load. These little things are created by professional designers, and are described in a brand book. For example, in a section with the rules of the use of logotype opens up necessarily, why exactly this sign is the most suitable for a company, what it symbolizes and how it influences consciousness of target audience. A logotype is represented on a dimensional grid with pointing of exact parameters. The impermissible variants of the logotype usage are also specified.


The same goes for describing colors. Each hue, its assignment is displayed in the guide of corporate identity. Instruction of values for the color schemes CMYK and RGB is mandatory. The corporate identity of the company is used in different situations – in newspapers, outdoor and TV advertising, on the Internet. Therefore suitable colors (exact name of color or hue) for each situation are specified in a brand book. As a rule, primary color of identity shades for the black-and-white image, and also options with use of gray color are represented.

One more important component of a corporate style is a corporate font. It can be standard or specially developed for the company. Different fonts can be applied to the different purposes. All options of an outline (for business correspondence, for titles, for advertising materials and so forth) shall be displayed in brand book.

The manual on a corporate style also describes also elements of business documentation, such as business cards, forms, envelopes. Brand book contains the detailed information about sizes and what font is it necessary to use while printing information about the company in which place (with pointing of clear distances from edges), where to place a logotype on a form or envelope, how should the business cards look like and etc.

Except business documentation, depending on target audience, additional materials with company symbolics are developed. For example, it can be souvenir products, which is usually presented to partners and important clients (calendars, company flags), or promo-materials – company packets, lighters, ashtrays, cups and so forth. All of them are presented in detail in a brand book.

The safety of the company's image first of all depends on how fully each section of manual is described. If a brand book is well detailed the company will be insured from mistakes of the employees or strangers in usage of the corporate identity. Such manuals can look as a small journal or a thick book if the company is a large corporation. Anyway, brand book is a necessary tool in creation of company reputation and its promotion.