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Brand Guidelines
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Contents
4. What we do
18. Typography
5. Our tone of voice
20. Colour
6. Our business as a whole
22. Photography
23. Additional assets
• Sub brands • USP (Unique Selling Points)
8. Our audience
24. Icons
10. Master Logo
26. Examples of use
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• Colour variations •Do nots • Exclusion zone • Minimum sizes • Sub brands
28. Digital Branding
• Typography • Additional assets • Examples of use
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This document is a guide to using the Exact Abacus brand identity across all media. The following pages will show how to use our brand as well as what it represents.
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What we do
We are an end to end e-commerce solution providing software, digital and fulfilment services for online retails. We free up our clients’ time from manual tasks so they can concentrate on sales growth knowing their day to day business activities are being handled with care.
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Our tone of voice
Personal
Our tone of voice
We have one simple tag line that embodies our brand and that is at the heart of everything we do; e-commerce made easy. This one line conveys exactly who we are. It helps prospective customers to understand our services with the idea that however complicated our work is, what we do will simplify their business and their life!
Corporate
We are friendly, passionate professionals and our tone of voice reflects this. We are approachable and avoid jargon to ensure our products are understood on a basic level for our clients, leaving us to deal with the complicated stuff. In saying that our copy writing should still reflect our knowledge, reinforce our authority in the field and reflect the knowledge the company has built since it’s inception in 1984.
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Our business as a whole
exact abacus
software Back office & e-commerce software
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digital Web design Web development Responsive design UX & UI
fulfilment Warehouse storage & distribution Contact centre services
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Our USPs (Unique Selling Points)
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software Integrates seamlessly with clients’ websites & warehousing requirements
digital Forward thinking Designed around UX Pixel Perfect
fulfilment Purpose built location Specifically selected, friendly customer services representatives
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Our target Audience audience
Our brand is entirely based on customers and prospective customers and who they need us to be. We are their trusted resource providing key knowledge and integrity, whilst our approach is to understand our clients’ goals and deliver them through our combined services. Our team is transparent and approachable, providing a safe pair of hands no matter how long our clients have been in business. In design and copy-writing we should keep our audience and these needs in mind. *Stats from social media 8
58% Men
38% Women
Age range 25-44 Based in the UK
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With our entrepreneurial spirit and understanding of start up business that we’ve helped to nurture, we appeal to new businesses that are concerned with expanding their project and future-proofing their offering. These are the businesses that have taken off but are now ready to reach new heights with the support of a trusted partner. The majority of our clients arrived with us as new businesses, now the majority are SMEs with upwards of 10 employees and 1000-50,000 SKUs.
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Master logo
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Full colour logo
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White logo on Exact Abacus blue
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Black & white logo
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White logo over image To ensure legibility, place over simple, contrasting areas of imagery
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Do nots
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Do not change colours from those specified in this document
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Do not change the font from those specified in this document
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Do not lean the logo left or right
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Do not compress or expand the logo
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Do not edit the letter-spacing
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Do not change the subheadings in the logo
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Resizing & exclusion zone
You may need to resize the logo. If you do, ensure you do not scale below 30mm or 150px with the full logo. If you need to reduce the logo size further, use the logo with no tag lines but only to a minimum of 20mm or 75px. This is to ensure legibility at all sizes. 16
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30mm (150px) minimum
20mm (75px) minimum
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Service logos All our service logos follow the same rules as the master logo
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Typography
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The font for the logo is Flux Bold which should not be used for any other branding purposes. Our secondary font is Lato. It can be used in a number of weights and styles but large bodies of copy and titles should be set in Lato light. To highlight sections of text use the font weights below, ensuring there is consistency in that body of text. On certain web browsers Lato light does not display well so use Lato regular to ensure legibility.
Lato light ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz Lato light italic ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz Lato regular ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz Lato bold ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz Lato black ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 19
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Colour
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A limited colour palette means our brand is easily recognisable across all our services. With a clean and crisp feel it reflects our professionalism as well as our lighter side with the combination of grey and blue.
Pantone PANTONE 306 C
Pantone PANTONE 430
CMYK C 80 M 0 Y 7 K 0
CMYK C 5 M 0 Y 0 K 70
RGB R 0 G 178 B 226
RGB R 102 G 188 B 113
HEX #00BBE4
HEX #666B70 21
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Photography
Our photography brings our brand to life. Our lead shots have shallow depth of field bringing the key feature of the image into focus along with our secondary images (per service) which give a more detailed picture of what we do. Bright colours and clean layouts are paramount.
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Additional assets
To unify our brand our designs have consistent styling throughout print & web. Here are some elements we use:
Exact Abacus can...
Quote marks for testimonials
Buttons for emails & websites
Highlighted block copy
Steps, tabs or selectors
Speach bubbles to highlight copy
Screen examples
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Icons
We use icons as a clear and quick way to categorise and indicate our services. Making it as easy as possible to understand the business. Here are a selection of icons we use:
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SEO
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Some examples of use exact abacus software
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Case Study: Life’s a beach Lime Supply Limited have built a multi-million pound cleaning product distribution business with the help of software and integrated services from Exact Abacus.
Exactly what you’re looking for... Exact Abacus take care of all things e-commerce. As one of the largest software houses in the UK we’ve developed 3EX.NET, a market leading e-commerce and back office solution to support even the most comprehensive online shops. With a user-experience driven
“Supporting even the most comprehensive online shops.”
digital marketing arm to design and build your website, a substantial warehouse to pick, pack and dispatch your orders, and a customer contact centre to manage enquiries and returns; Exact Abacus are the e-commerce specialists of choice for online businesses.
The Proof “Before 3EX.NET, we didn’t even know what our top selling items and suppliers were, let alone our operating margins. Now I am able to consider taking holidays and spending more time away from the office without the worry.”
Lee Gregson, Managing Director, Exact Abacus
Anthony Millet, Chief Operating Officer, ActivInstinct
3EX.NET ORDERS PROCESSED PER YEAR* 5,200,000
EMPLOYEES 83 FOUNDED 1984
CLIENTS 122
*Based on the average across our client portfolio † Typical cost saving once 3EX.NET software is implemented
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NOVEMBER 2013
The Vision “3EX.NET is our allencompassing software solution for online retailers of all sizes, regardless of budget, technical expertise or marketplace. This innovative e-commerce and back office platform transforms businesses, freeing up our clients’ time from manual, laborious tasks to concentrate on sales growth.”
“My fellow directors and I agreed that Lime should be able to operate whilst we we’re all sat on a beach.”
Matt recognised that at the core of his business should be a fully integrated IT platform, supported by a customer contact centre and order fulfilment facility. Matt continues: “the whole Lime proposition is based
“60% year-on-year sales growth up to 2013”
Holding the right level of stock was critical to bottom-line profitability. The IT solution had to track sales, react to trends and streamline supply chain processes. By displaying real-time stock availability and ‘track and trace’ alongside online budget/spend management, Lime are able to target cost-conscious customers looking to enhance their own supply chain and reduce administration costs. With the 3EX.NET platform from Exact Abacus, Lime’s OTIF
TYPICAL WEBSITE CONVERSION RATE* 4.15%
DESIGN HOURS PER MONTH 1200 LARGEST PRODUCT DATABASE 170,000+
When Matt Birtenshaw, Managing Director of Lime Supply Limited, founded the company in 2010 his aim was clear: “my fellow directors and I agreed that Lime should be able to operate whilst we we’re all sat on a beach. Perhaps that was a little ambitious, but I see the growth potential of this business to be unbounded by traditional constraints. It is very refreshing to spend almost 100% of my time thinking strategically rather than going through the minutiae of operational issues.”
on Just in Time principles and the application of clever software technology to provide an unrivalled level of customer service. Without automation of purchasing, order processing and stock allocation, we would have no business. I really wanted a turnkey provider who could enable me to focus on the high-value stuff, rather than operational issues.” Having trawled the UK for a genuinely integrated solution, Exact Abacus were identified as the only provider able to meet Lime Supply’s requirements.
NETWORK AVAILABILITY* 99.92%
SITE VISITS PER MONTH* 800,000
WAREHOUSE SIZE 14,000 SQ. FT.
(orders delivered On Time, In Full) rate exceeded 85% during the first 6 months, and this continued to increase with the forecasting module’s intelligence and more accurate purchase recommendations. With 60% year-on-year sales growth up to 2013, Lime Supply have been able to maintain a full-time staff of just four people. 3EX.NET software and integrated services has enabled the founders to concentrate on winning new contracts and continually develop the proposition. Over time, the software enabled Lime Supply to devolve more responsibilities and control to Exact’s operations management team, safe in the knowledge that the system was taking the strain and validating processes at every stage. Matt isn’t yet running Lime Supply from a beach, but knowing that his business is in safe hands allows him to take the odd holiday!
Find out what business management software could do for you. www.exactabacus.com
STOCK LOCATIONS 4000
INBOUND CALLS AT PEAK A DAY* 1500 PARCELS DISPATCHED PER YEAR* 250,000
TYPICAL SAVINGS † 40%
TALKBUINESSMAGAZINE.CO.UK
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Differences
When it comes to Digital we like to be a little different. In the work that we do and our styling. There are a few altered elements when working on the Digital sub brand.
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SUBHEADINGS ARE DISPLAYED IN UPPERCASE AND BRAND BLUE
2 This3replaces 4 an emboldened 5 6 version 7 of8the body 9 copy seen on the email example on page 26.
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ROCKSALT CAN BE USED TO ADD A PERSONAL ELEMENT 4 5 6 7 8 9 AND HANDWRITTEN STYLE See the next page for an example. ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQR STUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
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In addition to the previous elements these styles are also applied to the Design sub brand
o e link t h t n o Click work see our
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Web Development
Images, if suitable, should be positioned in circles
Rocksalt handwritten font and a dotted line for a personal touch
Tabs can be used to title elements to create a more digital feel
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Some examples of use
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For help and guidance: Mail: Exact Abacus Limited Western Avenue Matrix Park Chorley Lancashire PR7 7NB Phone: +44 (0)1772 455 052 Email: info@exactabacus.com Web: exactabacus.com