Why is it important to create a consistent brand image? Inconsistency is distracting and can confuse consumers to question if they are interacting with the same brand. Achieving brand consistency will help your brand to look more professional and people are more likely to trust you.
What does it mean to achieve brand consistency?
This means to give your brand a uniform look, voice and value. Are you aware of your brand culture and core values? You need to stay true to that and communicate it across your brand and marketing communication. Your brand values, mission and vision makes up your brand identity. Know your brand identity well first before you start moving on to create a strategy that helps to reflect that ‘one voice’.
These are the elements you need to take note of when you are trying to create brand consistency:
- Logo
- Tagline
- Typography
- Colour psychology
- Copywriting
- Packaging
- Opinion leaders/ambassadors for your brand
- Visuals
‘One Voice’
The visuals of your brand should always reflect your brand messaging. Think about what your brand voice is. Is it a brand that is fun? serious? modern? Align your visual elements to bring out your brand personality. One way to align your messaging strategy is also to be aware of who your customers are. You want to create a brand that can connect with audiences. Sometimes, knowing what consumers want can help you dive deeper into creating a more in-depth brand personality and integrate it into your branding and marketing materials.
To give you some inspiration, take a look at examples of brands that have achieved brilliant brand consistency.
- Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola’s logo has remained largely consistent even as the brand evolved throughout the years. At one glance, their logo is distinctive and clearly recognisable as Coca-Cola. From the 1950s, we see that Coca-Cola starts playing with the use of colour. Red started to be part of their brand identity. Both their product coke and logo, brand colours include the colour red. The constant associations helps Coca-Cola create a unique and distinctive brand identity in the mind of consumers.
2. Apple
Think about the 4Ps of marketing – price, place, product and promotion. Apple positions itself as a premium product that brings value to consumers. The 4Ps should reflect Apple’s brand positioning to reflect consistency in the brand image. Apple’s marketing has also been sleek, emphasising on the qualities of their product. If you want to charge a premium for your product, make sure you are bringing value to the table if not it won’t sell.
One thing that you need to remember is that it is insufficient for only the management team to know what the brand values and messaging are. All members of the organization should be on the same page and bring out that ‘one voice’ when they interact with consumers. Having voice uniformity across all marketing and branding channels will seriously help in achieving consistency and avoid confusing the audience.
Why should you care about brand consistency? These are some of the benefits:
- Builds credibility
- Increases brand recognition
- A strong brand has the ability to charge a premium
- Creates a brand experience for your customer
- Helps to differentiate your brand
- Creates a brand personality that people can relate to
- Your marketing strategies will be guided by brand consistency, making your brand and marketing strategies more effective and uniform
Pitfalls to avoid
Besides knowing how to achieve brand consistency, we will share with you some of the top mistakes companies with inconsistent branding make so that you can avoid falling into the same pit.
- Sidelining brand values
Make sure you know what makes your brand unique and keep your brand values in mind when you make branding decisions. If you are engaging in re-branding, it is important to know what your customers know your brand for. Avoid making too drastic changes that no longer allows consumers to create an identification with your brand.
- Relying on trends
It is good to keep an open eye for the latest trends consumers are hopping on. However, don’t get overly excited and blindly jump on the bandwagon. Think about what your brand values and positioning are to determine if you can create a strategy that allows your brand to incorporate the trend into one that makes sense for your customers. The last thing you want is to receive backlash for being money-faced and hopping on the trend mindlessly.
It is a good time to reflect now if you have achieved branding consistency. Not to worry if you need professional help in branding or if you are at a loss on where to start. Get a free consultation with us by emailing us at ask@demellows.com. We promise you that it will be worth it.