If you’re hoping to build trust with your target market and foster customer loyalty, then you need to focus on brand consistency. Although incredibly valuable, maintaining brand consistency is often incredibly difficult.
In this article, we will shed light on this topic and offer tips on how you can create a consistent brand.
What Is Brand Consistency?
According to statistics from Annex Cloud, most small businesses report that around 65% of their orders come from repeat customers. This means that keeping people coming back for more is crucial to the success of any company.
Brand consistency is designed to help you build a loyal customer base by ensuring that people are able to associate your content or ads with your business.
It essentially establishes a consistent brand identity across all your marketing channels and touchpoints by creating predictable encounters with your company.
A consistent brand image delivers the same elements, such as colors, fonts, visual elements, layouts, and logos. It also exemplifies brand values and ensures that the same tone of voice is used.
Why Is Building Brand Consistency Important?
While it may seem unnecessary, maintaining brand consistency is essential for businesses hoping to establish their presence. It communicates the brand’s personality and ensures that it is more recognizable among competitors. Here are some of the reasons to ensure brand consistency:
- It establishes brand recognition. Your branding efforts do a lot more than just make your website or brick-and-mortar location look good. It also ensures that customers are able to associate your content with your company.
- It makes your company more trustworthy. Inconsistent branding or brand messaging can make a business look unprofessional. When people find the same brand elements across various platforms, they are more likely to trust your company.
- It forms an emotional connection. By confirming your brand values throughout all touchpoints, you can effectively appeal to the emotions of potential customers, forming a connection at an emotional level.
- It gives your business personality. Consistent messaging also makes your company more appealing because it gives it character, making customers more likely to buy from you.
How to Ensure Consistent Branding Across All Platforms
Now that you understand what it is and why it’s important, how can you use brand consistency to boost your online presence? Here are a few tips to help you:
Create Branding Guidelines
A brand guideline is a document that keeps a record of all your brand-related projects. It can help you keep a record of your:
- Color palette
- Typography
- Logo variations
- Patterns
- Values
- Language
- Tone
- Style
…and more!
Even though you might know these elements already, creating this guideline ensures that all employees adhere to your branding requirements when liaising with customers, posting on social media, or promoting your business through ads.
Audit Your Content
Once you have a set of branding “rules” in place, you will need to go through your content to see if it matches what you have described in your guidelines. Be sure to cover all touchpoints, including social media platforms, email campaigns, blog posts, webpage content, and more. Make a note of problem areas and ensure that they are fixed accordingly.
Create Templates
Newsletter images, letterheads, and blog banners can all be created ahead of time to ensure that there is consistency across all fronts. This will ensure that your team can create their own assets without having to go to the design team for help.
Make Sure That Everyone Understands the Brand
You should also share brand materials with your employees and educate them about the dos and don’ts when communicating with others on the company’s behalf. Make sure that every employee has access to your logos, fonts, and design templates to make it easier for them to ensure consistency.
Brand Consistency Examples
Here are two examples of how brand consistency has been a game-changer for popular companies:
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola is undoubtedly one of the most popular brands around the world. And who doesn’t know the iconic red can with white writing? These simple yet consistent elements across all brand assets have contributed to the success and recognition of this company.
Because its products match its marketing materials, ads, and more, you’ll always be able to tell which one is a can of Coca-Cola.
Starbucks
Wherever you go in the world, your chances of finding a coffee shop are high. How, then, has Starbucks managed to make a name for itself in major countries around the world? Well, with consistent branding, of course!
The iconic green logo, as well as its store design and menu, ensures that Starbucks creates familiar brand interactions.
Brand Tone Consistency vs. Market Trends
Trends are always evolving, and the temptation to jump on every bandwagon can be incredibly tempting. However, it’s important to ensure that your core values and brand promise remain the same.
While you certainly don’t have to stick to the same posts you’ve always made on social media platforms, make sure that you are only incorporating trends that align with your brand voice and values. Following a market trend simply because it is trendy can make your company look inconsistent and unprofessional.
Brand Consistency Challenges
There are a number of challenges that can affect a business’s ability to maintain brand consistency. Here’s how you can overcome them:
Adapting Content to Meet the Needs of Different Audiences
The reality is that social media posts and other elements may have to be altered to meet the needs of your intended audience.
If you’re posting on a platform like LinkedIn, for example, you would adopt a more professional tone than you would if you were posting on Facebook. While certain elements will change, make sure that your core brand identity remains the same.
Making Changes
Suppose you need to make changes to your brand. In that case, it’s important to communicate them clearly to your audience. It’s also a good idea to keep certain elements the same to avoid confusion.
Need Help with Your Brand Strategy? Contact PGN Agency Today!
We get it. Ensuring brand consistency is no easy task! If you are a small business owner who is trying to make their mark in the business world, the good news is that you don’t have to do it alone. PGN Agency offers branding services to help you ensure consistency across all platforms.
Contact us at 248.414.6860 for more information!
