Why do organizations use a standard font and layout for written correspondence?

Answer 1

Enterprise-wide color-schemes and typefaces are a common fixture in most corporate identity and branding programs. Most national and global brands adopt strict policies for corporate communications, specifically to include advertising and marketing materials that are a fixture of brand advertising.

Brand advertising is common for products and services available anywhere, or for those with a distribution network of franchisees. The marketers of "National brand" products, such as Coca-Cola, Hershey's Chocolate, Cheerios, Dove soap, etc, truly don't care where a customer goes to buy the product: everyone sells their brand. Similarly, automotive franchises such as Kia, Ford, and Mercedes-Benz don't care very much where their products are purchased: they can only be purchased from their designated franchise holders & authorized dealers. As such, all advertising of such products supports the sale... whenever and wherever it occurs.

However, because the brand may market independently from an individual store (for example, Ford Motors advertises directly, and individual franchise stores also advertise without much coordination; Also, accessory producers may make mention of their products, or in outdoor banners designed for a sponsored charity golf tournament. Similarly, McDonald's might make mention of Coca-Cola in their advertising, or the local Winn-Dixie or Circle-K might use a brand's images in their sales flyers, or to develop window stickers and posters. There is a great deal of potential for this to be done in a haphazard and counterproductive way.

But, there's much incentive to do it in an organized fashion; any parent knows that children begin recognizing the distinctive colors, typographies, and layouts of brands, long before they are able to read even one letter. This unique visual identitydefines a brand, and leverages psychological and neurological principles to help consumers recognize their favorite brands faster, and allow the brand symbols to trigger their memories directly, and even subconsciously. Standard colors, layouts and typography enable a brand to maintain a consistent look and feel, across every marketing channel, even when the marketing messages and materials are developed independently by thousands of individual ad agencies, stores, partners, and organizations. This way, the distinctive look and feel of a brand and its message is instantly recognizable to consumers on an automatic and instinctive level, and all marketing efforts reinforce each other.

So, to tap into this hidden treasure trove of psychological capital, brands develop style guides and advertising/media guides to ensure that this is precisely what happens. Usually, these guides will consist of lengthy discussion of what ideals and character a brand desires to convey, usage rules for logos and brand images, recommended (or required) font families (sometimes proprietary), and color swatches that define precise color combinations for different media: screen, digital printing, and spot single-color inks. The result is often magical. A simple sales letter without a style treatment is average in impact. Closely adhering to corporate styles enables that same sales letter to leverage decades of pre-existing jingles, television ads, magazine ads, movies, television and more and be immediately recognized and trusted by invoking the power, not of a new marketing message, but of an existing visual identitythat has already been firmly established within the consumer's mind.