As omnichannel communication continues to grow more commonplace, it’s more important than ever for brands to ensure brand consistency across every marketing channel. A business’s brand should be a constant, no matter where it’s displayed: from t-shirts to computer screens.
Mastering brand consistency makes clear to consumers what your brand stands for, minimizing confusion and maximizing the impact of your marketing messages. It’s a proven strategy: one research study found that high levels of brand consistency are associated with revenue growth of 10% or more.
Consistent branding is undeniably important, but ensuring consistency is a challenging task that takes real discipline to accomplish. But by adopting the strategies and tools outlined here, you’ll be well-placed to ensure your brand stands apart from the competition.
What is Brand Consistency?
Before diving into the importance of brand consistency and how to maintain it, let’s first clarify exactly what this term means. Essentially, a brand that is consistent is one that delivers a coherent, uniform experience across every touchpoint.
That means the same logo, fonts, brand colors, tone, value propositions, positioning, and more – everywhere the brand is visible. Ensuring this consistent branding requires organizations to follow clear guidelines that define their aesthetic and messaging pillars.
Brand consistency is a key component of integrated marketing, which aims to deliver a seamless customer experience across all marketing channels. When a brand is consistent, a positive reputation can be built around it, serving it well into the future.
Why is Brand Consistency Important?
We’ve already established a link between revenue growth and consistency, but let’s take a closer look at what causes the relationship. In essence, the importance of brand consistency can be attributed to the impact of consistency on three key factors: brand recognition, trust, and loyalty.
Increase Brand Recognition
Consistent branding and messaging are key if you want customers to remember your brand. Some of the most ubiquitous brands are remembered based on their overall message, tone, and style. Ensuring these levels of branding consistency relies on clear alignment between graphic design and creative services and the digital marketing team.
Consider one of the world’s most recognizable brands: the Nike Swoosh. This iconic logo is recognized by almost everyone because it remains consistent across every single product Nike sells. Since the logo was first designed in the 1970s, it’s barely changed – that’s over fifty years of branding consistency!
Improve Trust
Two-thirds of customers will only purchase products and services from trustworthy brands. And when brands keep their messaging and values consistent over time, consumers typically deem them more reliable.
Consider Apple, a brand that built up its reputation based on trust. The brand’s messaging has remained consistent over time: premium, high-quality consumer electronics that are easy to use and elegantly designed.
Encourage Loyalty
When a brand remains true to its values, it garners customer loyalty. Consistent messaging, design, and tone all play a role in keeping customers loyal to a brand.
The classic example is Pepsi vs. Coca-Cola. While the products themselves are practically indistinguishable, most people have a preference and remain loyal to one brand over the other. One of the key reasons for that is the consistency in each company’s brand messaging.
3 Tips for Ensuring Brand Consistency
Recognition, trust, and loyalty are all core components of any successful brand. But ensuring that everyone in your organization plays their part in maintaining brand consistency is a challenge.
Today, so many employees touch a business’s brand: from designers in the creative team to sales representatives putting together pitch decks. Without the right frameworks in place, it can be difficult to ensure that your brand remains consistent.
Adopt the three strategies outlined below to ensure brand consistency across every consumer touchpoint, creating a memorable brand experience that strengthens your relationship with customers and prospects.
1. Create (and Stick To) Brand Guidelines
A brand guideline document is an indispensable asset for every brand. It outlines everything your employees need to know to ensure brand consistency, from the fonts and colors used to represent your business to the tone of voice featured in marketing materials.
But a recent study found that while 85% of organizations have brand guidelines, less than one-third of these organizations strictly follow them. Creating brand guidelines is an important task, but it’s only half the battle, and the onus is on marketing leaders and brand managers to ensure their team sticks to the guidelines.
2. Develop a Brand Voice
Whether a customer sees an ad for your company in a magazine or a promotional post on Facebook, they should be able to clearly identify your brand’s tone. Think of your brand as a living, breathing entity: if it could talk, what would it say? Would it be serious and sophisticated, or light and carefree?
The answer depends on the overall experience you’re aiming to deliver with your brand, but it’s vital that you have an answer. Make sure this tone is replicated across every platform where your brand is represented.
3. Maintain Aesthetic Consistency
Logos and color palettes should remain consistent across marketing assets. While adding a little extra color might seem like a good idea, the image won't stay recognizable for customers if you’re constantly adding new colors to your brand’s repertoire.
Over time, these small changes can really add up, so it’s important to be strict about the visual representation of your brand. There’s a time and a place to update your company’s brand, but be clear: a brand refresh is a huge project that requires experienced leadership – not something employees can do independently.
Tools to Help Maintain Consistent Branding
It might seem overwhelming to map out all of the core elements of your brand and commit to sticking with them over time. Fortunately, there are several tools that help ensure branding consistency across multiple touchpoints.
- Promotional Products: Investing in high-quality promotional products that showcase your brand's core aspects significantly boosts brand recognition. These giveaways are great for trade shows, conferences, and holiday events. Take care to find products that resonate with your brand’s message to ensure continued brand consistency.
- Content Planners: Content planning tools allow marketers to organize various short- and long-form content in a structured, proactive way that promotes consistency. Tools such as content schedulers for social media and blog posts, or a roadmap with key concepts for different timeframes are extremely helpful here.
- Social Monitoring and Social Listening: Posting across multiple social media platforms? Ensure you’re tracking how your brand is perceived on different platforms with social monitoring and listening tools. Whether you’re simply researching your brand’s online presence or taking a more active approach, social monitoring and listening tools will help you remain competitive.
- Brand Activation Agencies: Organizations often look for external support to accelerate their brand’s growth - and for good reason. Enlisting the help of a brand activation agency allows you to leverage the most effective tools for growth while ensuring a consistent approach that doesn’t compromise on your brand’s values.
Find a Trusted Partner for a Consistent Brand Experience
Brand consistency isn’t just important to avoid confusion: it’s a key ingredient in the growth journey of any brand. The world’s most iconic brands might all stand for very different principles, but they have one thing in common: a consistent brand over years, if not decades.
By leveraging the tactics and tools outlined above, you’ll be well on the way to ensuring a more consistent approach to branding and marketing that will reap rewards for years to come.
If you need a partner to guide you through the process, reach out to GoDelta. Our team of experienced marketers will help you build your brand from the ground up or elevate existing guidelines as needed.
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