Brand Guidelines
and the application of iconic assets
Brand Assets are the elements which are core to the brand, its identity and its values. The aim of brand styleguides is to help, not to hinder; enable, not police. Whilst is necessary to maintain a few hard rules, in the main guidelines enable guardians of a brand the flexibility to create great design and communications materials that are true to the identity, spirit and character of a brand.
The developement of Iconic Assets for a brand is a means of achieving memorability and greater emotinal engement with consumers. This in turn requires distinctiveness and consistency in application (over time and across touch-points).
Primary Assets are at the heart of a brand. These include the EBU and word mark, specific colors, shapes and patterns (or other distinctive graphic language), and typography.
Secondary Assets are used to define tiers, pillars and variants, and help achieve consistency and memeorability in communication initiatives (these might be derived from pack design or remain specific to comms).
Tertiary Assets help achieve consistency in tactical messages, as well as in claims and functional communications.
This case study refers to the re-application of design principles to the Dawn and Cascade brand in the US, which have been initially developped for the Fairy brand in Europe.