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Brand Guidelines Template

AI Brand Governance Framework

Updated over 2 months ago

Purpose

To ensure every AI-generated asset in PromoRepublic, from social captions to review replies, is accurate, on-brand, and compliant. The framework gives the AI both: context and guidelines:

  • Factual understanding of the brand (who, what, for whom, why);

  • The behavioural and linguistic boundaries that preserve brand integrity.

Together they enable controlled autonomy: franchisees and AI systems can act fast, but always within HQ-defined limits. With the structured context about each franchise brand, AI can:

  • Generate accurate and relevant copy (social, reviews, listings);

  • Reflect the right audience and value proposition;

  • Avoid factual or brand-voice mismatches.

1. Brand Overview

It establishes a factual base for AI. It is one of the key components of the brand context layer, which means “What the Brand Is”. The brand overview should include:

  • Brand name

  • Industry / category

  • Country or regions of operation

  • Franchise / chain / single-brand

  • Number of locations (approximate)

  • One-sentence description of what the brand does
    e.g., “A nationwide franchise helping families plan memorable vacations through personalised travel experiences.”

2. Mission & Core Purpose

It guides value-driven communication. It helps the AI reflect “why this brand exists” when generating value-based messages or captions. Describe in 1–2 lines, for example:

“To make [activity/service] [accessible / efficient / enjoyable] for [target audience].”

3. Core Offerings

It prevents product mismatches, ensuring accuracy when the AI references your services or products. List 3-5 top-level offerings or product types with short factual descriptions.

4. Target Audiences

The AI needs to know who to speak to and for. It defines tone, focus, and benefit framing. Share your audience type, description, and communication Focus. For example:

  • Primary (e.g., consumers). Description. Focus on (e.g., benefits and emotions).

  • Secondary (e.g., franchisees, partners). Description. Focus on (e.g., performance, results).

  • Optional (e.g., parents, homeowners, small business owners). Description.(e.g., benefits and

5. Value Proposition

It guides AI in summarising the “why choose us” message. Describe how your brand helps your customers:

“[Brand] helps [audience] achieve [benefit] by [how it does it].”

6. Brand Voice & Tone Summary

It prevents generic or off-brand phrasing by keeping communication emotionally consistent. It is one of the key components of the brand guidelines layer, which means “How the Brand Behaves”.

Define tone across 3 dimensions: formality, emotion, and energy. For example:

Axis

Range

Preferred

Formality

Conversational ↔ Corporate

Balanced Professional

Emotion

Neutral ↔ Expressive

Warm and Encouraging

Energy

Calm ↔ Energetic

Confident and Positive

Also, it would be worth sharing some other details:

  • Add 4-6 tone keywords. They serve as a quick reference for AI and users. For example, friendly, professional, upbeat, trustworthy, and inclusive.

  • Specify compliance and legal rules, as it prevents policy violations. For example, no competitive claims, no unverified statistics, no medical or financial promises.

  • Add some localisation flexibility by adjusting the tone slightly per region.

7. Brand Vocabulary

Help AI use the right language and avoid red flags by directing preferred and avoided wording.

  • Preferred terms: “team,” “location,” “community,” etc.

  • Avoided terms: “cheap,” “guarantee,” “deal,” “free,” etc.

  • Signature phrases or themes: “local growth,” “confidence,” “simplicity,” “trusted partner.” By specifying signature themes, it reinforces brand identity.

8. Customer Problems & Solutions

It enables contextual relevance by driving context for prompts like “How can this brand help?” and by keeping the logic Problem → Solution/Offering → Result.  For example:

“Franchisees lack time for local marketing → AI Assistant automates on-brand content → Saves hours weekly and improves consistency.”

9. Proof / Credibility Facts

The AI references them when building trust in content or summaries. Include 2-3 data points, for example:

  • “500+ locations across the U.S.”

  • “Serving customers since 2008.”

  • “Recognized by [award/association].”


Value for Multi-Location Brands

Benefit

Description

Speed with Safety

Enables instant local content creation without risking off-brand communication.

HQ Control, Franchise Autonomy

HQ defines once; AI enforces everywhere.

Consistent Brand Experience

Unified messaging across every store, platform, and language.

Operational Efficiency

Reduces approval loops and manual edits; AI generates compliant copy instantly.

Trust in Automation

AI behaves like a trained brand manager, not a random generator.

Here is an example Prompt by using this framework:

Prompt: “Create a Facebook post announcing our new training centre in Dallas.”

Brand Context: Education franchise focused on confidence and performance.

Guidelines: Friendly, upbeat tone; no discounts; highlight community impact.

Result: “We’re opening doors in Dallas! Our new training center brings performance-based learning closer to your community. Ready to join the stage? #GrowWithConfidence” → On-brand. Factually correct. Emotionally aligned. Compliant.

To summarise, the brand guidelines framework gives the AI knowledge and discipline. It turns PromoRepublic’s AI Assistant into a brand-safe activation engine that scales creativity without losing control.

If you have any further questions, please contact us at
[email protected].

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