Why every company needs a style guide
Frank Sinatra said it best: if you’ve got style, you stand out a mile. Sharp suits and a tilted fedora did it for Frank. But in the business world, it’s not usually how you wear your hat that helps your image. Your company needs a style guide.
Every organisation that values its brand should invest in one. A style guide gives editorial and design guidance on everything from spelling the company’s products to the typeface used in marketing collateral. It ensures consistency, sets your company’s tone and consolidates your brand.
House style helps you stand out
To writers and editors, an editorial house style is an essential tool to do justice to their clients’ brands. Yet, in the last six months, I’ve worked on material for several major organisations that didn’t have a style guide. They couldn’t provide me with the most basic guidance, from whether people’s job titles are lowercase to the company’s tone of voice.
So, here’s my case for investing in a house-style guide.
Five reasons why a style guide is vital
- Copywriters and designers can find all the references they need to produce quality material in one place
- If everyone uses the guide, you communicate company messages effectively, consistently and clearly
- Guidelines enable creative people to present the organisation in the best possible light
- Accuracy makes the reader more likely to trust the publication
- All these benefits add up to an engaging read.
Some of the best style guides
I’ve come across many house styles purloined from design or internal communications agencies. Companies tweak a guide so it matches them more closely. Others supplement the company style guide with an online house-style like the Guardian and Observer Style Guide. But nothing guarantees quality more than a tailor-made house-style guide.
One of the best I’ve seen belongs to Rolls-Royce Group. It explains everything from basic grammar (how to use apostrophes, etc) to the spelling of commonly used technical terms and products, tone of voice and tips on producing engaging copy.
Rolls-Royce is no slouch when it comes to quality. Its style guide underpins everything it stands for. Point taken, I think.
