The Pokemon Company International supplies a “product approval manual” to third parties who are involved in Pokemon merchandising and marketing. The manual aims to ensure that the Pokemon brand remains consistent, and also that controversial topics such as death, family ties and Pokemon food are de-emphasised. Scans of the manual have been uploaded by CardGamesFTL, giving us a glimpse of the message that TPCi are putting out there.

Some of the things covered in the manual are the rarity of Master Balls, the fact that Pokemon do not have genders and do not speak (besides Meowth), the way the logo should be displayed and how the Pokemon world itself should be referenced – not as Earth.

One of PXR’s members with experience in marketing had this to add:

The information contained in the manual is what are called “brand guidelines.” It’s pretty standard practice for companies that license out their branding (logos, images, characters, slogans, etc. basically anything associated with advertising or labeling a company or a product is considered part of the brand) to their companies or for those that derive significant income from their brand to have this kind of rulebook. They’re often pretty boring, containing edicts from the marketing, legal, and design teams on acceptable uses of parts of the brand. They’re most useful for graphic designers, though, as the brand guidelines give you the exact hexadecimal or PANTONE colors the brand uses in addition to acceptable uses of logos and other trademarked materials.

You can view the pages of the manual below.