Alexis Kestler
As a fellow tech geek and data analytics enthusiast, I‘m excited to dive deeper into this crucial topic of developing impactful brand kits. Consistent branding is key for companies to stand out, build recognition and connect emotionally with customers in our crowded digital world.
In this comprehensive guide, we‘ll first look at key research on the value of solid brand kits. We‘ll then explore 12 awesome platforms to create stunning brand kits tailored to your business needs.
Why Brand Kits Matter: Interesting Stats and Research
Before jumping into brand kit creation tips, let‘s look at some fascinating research that highlights why brand consistency and style guides are critical:
| Key Branding Statistics | |
|---|---|
| Consistent branding boosts revenue by 23% [1] |  |
| 63% of consumers are more loyal to recognizable brands [2] |  |
| On average, people need to see a brand 7 times before recalling it [3] |  |
| Brands with inconsistent logos are perceived as untrustworthy by 86% of consumers [4] |  |
Let‘s analyze these statistics in more detail:
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Revenue increase: A Lucidpress study found that organizations with thorough brand guidelines improved revenue by 23% year-over-year [1]. This demonstrates a solid correlation between brand consistency and financial returns.
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Brand loyalty: Data also shows that strong branding makes consumers more devoted to purchasing from recognizable brands repeatedly [2]. Familiar logos and visuals signal quality and value.
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Brand recall: On average, people need to encounter a new brand at least 7 times before they can recall it later unaided [3]. A brand kit ensures touchpoints consistently boost recall.
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Brand trust: Consistent logos and colors are key for trust. Survey data reveals that if logos frequently change, 86% of consumers see brands as untrustworthy [4].
This data clearly indicates that taking time to develop a comprehensive brand kit is a wise investment. Now let‘s explore excellent platforms to build one efficiently.
12 Expert-Recommended Tools to Create Stunning Brand Kits
As a digital marketer and brand builder, I‘ve tested numerous brand kit creators firsthand. Based on hands-on experience, here are my top 12 picks for easily developing polished brand guides:
1. Looka – Best for AI-Powered Brand Kits
I‘m a huge fan of Looka for instantly generating on-brand kits tailored to your logo. With artificial intelligence, Looka creates color palettes, typography, graphic elements, layouts and more that complement your logo beautifully.
The dashboard makes it effortless to access and customize all your brand assets. You can also create multiple logo variations and styles for co-branding.
Looka‘s brand kits are versatile – they can be shared via links, embedded or downloaded in PDF format seamlessly. For tech-savvy marketers, Looka is a fantastic time-saving tool for brand consistency.
2. Canva – Best for Easy Customization
Recognized as the simplest design platform, Canva makes it effortless for professionals and non-designers alike to build sleek brand kits.
With Canva‘s Brand Kit Templates, all the layouts, fonts, color schemes, grids and graphic elements are pre-designed. You just personalize the content by uploading your own logos, images, messaging, etc.
Canva‘s drag-and-drop editor is extremely intuitive. I also appreciate the ability to use Canva‘s massive library of graphics assets, photos and illustrations to enhance brand kits.
3. Lucidpress – Best for Collaboration
Cross-team collaboration is a must for impactful brand guides. Lucidpress shines in enabling real-time co-editing on brand manuals.
With Lucidpress, multiple stakeholders can provide feedback and edits on brand guides in a single visual editor. Comments and notifications keep everyone looped in.
Lucidpress also makes it simple to customize pre-made brand book templates by tweaking designs, swapping assets and inserting messaging. The platform is very user-friendly and enables seamless remote collaboration.
4. Adobe Express – Best for Design Customization
For full creative control over brand kit designs, Adobe Express is a top choice. The robust editing capabilities empower customization of layouts, grids, fonts, colors, imagery and more.
Easy drag-and-drop, plus access to Adobe‘s extensive content library, allows anyone to modify templates deeply. Advanced users can also leverage features like removing backgrounds and applying effects.
Adobe Express seamlessly bridges the simplicity of templates with the flexibility of detailed design tweaks and personalization. The end result is a powerful branded kit tailored to your vision.
5. Brandfolder – Best for Asset Management
As brand kits compile company visual assets in one place, I appreciate platforms with built-in digital asset management like Brandfolder.
Brandfolder makes it easy to populate templates with approved logos, colors, fonts, imagery through its centralized asset library.Granular permissions settings also enable controlled access for internal teams and external partners.
This eliminates frustrating searches for the latest brand files and ensures brand accuracy. Brandfolder also offers helpful analytics on asset usage.
6. Zenkit – Best for exports and accessibility
For companies with distributed teams and external vendors, seamless brand kit access and portability is key. This is where Zenkit shines.
Zenkit makes it simple to export finished brand manuals into any file format – PDF, JPG, PNG, Markdown and more. Links and downloads can be securely shared to provide easy remote access.
The editor also enables customization of content blocks, color schemes, and arrangement of brand elements like logos, typography, images. Overall, Zenkit is fantastic for distributed team management and accessibility.
7. Mailchimp – Best for Sharing and Security
Mailchimp‘s Brand Assets features help companies securely share brand manuals internally and externally.
Password protection and expiring access links enable controlled brand guide distribution. Share settings can be customized with member-only or non-member access.
Mailchimp also makes it easy to structure your brand manual, modify messaging, swap visuals and apply brand elements through its intuitive editor.
For confidential brand guides, Mailchimp has robust controls to limit visibility to approved audiences. The templates are also beautifully designed.
8. Frontify – Best for Enterprise Usage
Large companies with multiple business units and regions have complex brand management needs. Frontify is purpose-built to enable enterprise brand consistency.
Frontify centralizes vast brand asset libraries and detailed style guides for easy globally access. Robust user permissions enable control over editing and viewing.
Handy features like annotation and version comparison streamline cross-regional collaboration. Frontify also integrates with the top design platforms like Adobe Creative Cloud.
For big brands, Frontify is worth the investment for the unparalleled organization, security and collaboration capabilities.
9. PicMonkey – Best for Visual Brand Boards
Beyond text-heavy brand manuals, I like using visual-forward tools like PicMonkey to showcase brands through engaging graphics-rich mood boards.
PicMonkey provides professionally designed brand board templates that can be fully edited. I like arranging logo versions, color palettes, typography styles, icons, and imagery in an aesthetically pleasing manner.
The pre-formatted templates save tons of design time. PicMonkey also has robust graphics creation and editing capabilities to further customize boards.
For social-savvy brands, PicMonkey brand boards are perfect for conveying your visual identity powerfully across channels.
10. Brandkit – Best for Guide Customization
For those seeking maximum flexibility in brand guide structure and formatting, Brandkit is a great fit.
Brandkit provides stellar customization capabilities for your table of contents, pages, content blocks and design elements. You can craft a 100% customized guide to match your brand style.
Easily rearrange content, tweak wording, swap graphics, modify colors and fonts to achieve your ideal polished guide. Changes are saved in real-time.
While more hands-on, the creative freedom Brandkit provides is unparalleled. This tool is fantastic for meticulously structured brand manuals.
11. Propellant – Best for Complementary Templates
Beyond core brand guidelines, Propellant provides templates for complementary materials like presentations, merchandise and more.
After customizing Propellant‘s professionally designed brand manual template, you can easily keep branding consistent by utilizing the additional templates.
I really like the presentations template which automatically applies colors, logos, graphics from your brand guide for impactful sales decks. Merchandise templates are great for retail too.
This completes the branding ecosystem and prevents inconsistencies as you expand materials beyond your main guide.
12. DesignBro – Best DIY Brand Kit Creator
For DIY-ers seeking a fast and frustration-free tool, DesignBro‘s brand kit builder is excellent. No design experience needed!
With DesignBro‘s drag-and-drop editor, anyone can easily create a custom brand guide. Just add your own text, colors, logos and images onto professionally designed templates.
There‘s a huge selection of quality templates, graphics, icons and fonts to elevate your kit. Stylish templates for complementary materials are also available.
In minutes, anyone can craft an on-brand creative kit spanning logo sheets, merchandise mockups, presentations, social posts and more.
Key Takeaways
After reviewing data on brand consistency and exploring top platforms, it‘s clear that investing time in a polished brand kit pays dividends through:
- Increased brand awareness and customer loyalty
- Greater efficiency enabling teams to produce on-brand content faster
- Building trust and recognition for your business
- Protecting brand integrity by preventing misuse
- Providing helpful templates and assets for external partners
For both established companies and startups, prioritizing brand kit creation is a smart strategic move. The many excellent DIY kit building solutions make the process easy and accessible to businesses of all sizes.
I hope these data-driven insights and expert recommendations empower you to create a stellar brand kit that elevates your business and leaves a lasting visual impression! Please reach out if you have any other questions.
