Introduction
Companies spend a considerable amount of money to develop their brand
identities. It is not a cheap commercial endeavour. In 2000, Landor, a
famous San Francisco based design agency replaced BP’s their logo with a
new design, the “Helios” – the name of the Greek sun god costing over
$200 million. In 2008, Arnell group redesigned the Pepsi logo costing
one million dollars. This huge cost is not only limited to companies.
London 2012 Olympics logo was designed by Wolff Olins, a London-based
brand consultancy firm at the cost of $625,000.
Given the importance of brand identities as intangible assets for
organisations, the ability to strategically manage them is critical.
Extant research is predominantly based on theoretical models and
concepts of branding, yet no attempt has been made to develop an
understanding of the consistent communication of brand identities. For
brands to be trusted, a consisted continuous identity is required and a
coherent brand architecture contributes to the companies’ overall
marketing strategy.
It is essential to communicate in a clear, consistent manner across
different touchpoints as this is necessary to build an efficient and
powerful brand, and to achieve this, a brand guideline is essential.
However, there is little conceptual and theoretical understanding of
this document. The primary purpose of this paper is to provide
background information on brand guidelines, for the benefit of
researchers with interest in brand communications, design and management
and for the benefit of practitioners who wants to develop a better
understanding and need for a brand guideline.