Businesses are caught up in the trap of not being consistent most of the time. This is because of the brand consistency mistakes that they commit.
So, it is necessary for you to deliver all your messages in alignment with your core values to make a good brand identity along with consistency.
It not only helps you to attract a large number of customers but also makes you more approachable. Moreover, research by RenderForest shows that 60% of millennials expect brands to be consistent across all platforms.
So, just be aware and you are good to go.
With this, let’s begin the brand consistency journey.
What Is Brand Consistency?
Brand consistency means delivering brand messages aligning with your brand identity, value, and strategy.
Being consistent with your brand means your customers are being exposed to your core messages, visual branding, and other brand elements.
These elements become ingrained in your user’s mind which make them remember you. It makes your brand easily recognizable across varied marketing platforms.
Remember, it’s just not about the visual elements that your brand should focus on. There are other critical areas as well where your brand needs to stay consistent.
First of all focus on giving the best experience to your customers. Doing this will help foster the trust and confidence of your customers in your brand.
Stay true to your values and back up your words with robust actions. This will help you gain credibility as well as consistency towards your brand.
Along with all these identify your brand elements. It will help you in making your brand recognizable thus making you stand out of the market competition.
So, if you want your brand to be consistent, then you need to follow all the essential steps.
Now let us try to understand the benefits of brand consistency.
Why Does Brand Consistency Matter?
As said, brand consistency is very important in your brand recognition. Every business tries its level best to get recognized by its customers.
Getting recognition sets you apart from the crowd. So, let’s have a look at some of the benefits of brand consistency and why it matters to you.
It Builds Trust and Loyalty
Brand consistency always helps brands to build trust and loyalty among their customers.
Giving your customers an extraordinary experience will increase your engagement rate.
A good example is Coca-Cola which receives recognition worldwide. The brand consistency of Coca-Cola ensures that it will always remain the same.
Just keep in mind that brand consistency is as important as visuals to gain customer attention.
Evokes Positive Emotions
Brand consistency incorporating positive emotions helps your customers to associate with your brand.
Well-crafted imagery evokes customer emotions aligning with your brand name and message in their mind.
Also, well-crafted messages make your customers happy and happy people are more likely to buy from you. It builds trust among your target audiences.
You can also incorporate positive emotions in your brand to put a long-lasting impression on your customer’s minds.
Helps You Differentiate Your Brand
Brand consistency serves as the key factor of differentiation. When you are in a competitive scenario with a variety of similar offerings, brand consistency is something that helps your brand stand straight in the competitive market.
It also becomes easily recognizable by your customers. So, it is very important to leverage brand consistency to communicate efficiently with your customers
This is something that will set you apart from the crowd. So, just go with it.
The Impact of Brand Consistency
Brand consistency helps a brand to grow. Take note of both positive and negative aspects and analyze your brand growth. This will make your analysis easier.
You need to remember that a brand is far more than just a logo. It’s the trust mark that sets varied expectations and promises in your customer’s minds.
It helps you determine the influence your brand has on your customers thus helping you to generate greater revenue.
Moreover, when you deliver a constant and quality service to your customers, you gain their trust as well as loyalty.
When it comes to attracting new customers, it is your consistency that makes them choose you.
Brand Consistency Examples
Now that you have understood the importance, impact, and need for brand consistency, let’s take a look at some of the best brand consistency examples.
Coca-Cola
Coca-cola is the most popular beverage brand. In its 125 years of history, it has made remarkable efforts to maintain its brand consistency in the global market.
Coca-Cola’s packaging has remained consistent over the years along with its script lettering. The product might have made a few alterations but overall packaging has remained consistent.
Its ads keep changing but the theme never changes. Coca-Cola is known for spreading happiness, togetherness, and refreshment through ads across the globe. It used the tagline called ‘Have a Coke and Smile’ in many of its ad campaigns.
Its remarkable consistency is the reason for its success in the market.
Nike
Nike also continued to perform well by staying consistent with its core brand promise.
Nike is a pioneer in selling sneakers and athletic apparel for many many years down the line.
It has aligned the brand with the spirit of sports. The brand embraces all types of individuals by celebrating their effort and struggle.
The brand aims at inspiring people all around the globe.
It has clearly shown that consistency matters for a brand’s success.
Dropbox
Dropbox likes to think ‘minimal’.
The online cloud storage service provides a plethora of services for assisting people in this digital age. It kept its branding consistent through ‘simplicity’
It is evident on all the platforms like their websites, their software, their social media presence.
This brand is meant to be light. It also features cartoons and light-hearted emails to its users.
It aims at making people’s lives easy and simple. So, when you store in Dropbox, your burden is lessened.
Just amazing.
Recent Brand Consistency Lesson From Google We can Learn
Recently, Google took a step towards a more specific brand consistency. The classic red and white logo that had remained steady for Gmail over the years has changed.
Google Bidding Farewell To Gmail Envelope
The classic red and white envelope logo of Google’s iconic mailing service Gmail bids farewell to its users. It was redesigned into a multicolored M logo. Now, Gmail was more in sync with other apps provided by google that went by the same multicolored logo.
Why did Google Take This Brand Consistency Step?
Google certainly went all out to ensure that its apps were following the brand consistency that it desired. With brand consistency, you tell the audience what you stand for.
Your brand consistency will ensure that the customers identify the tone, appearance easily.
Moreover, you tell your customers that you are following the same values principles, and strategies across all channels. So, with consistency, you will ensure that the core audience is repeatedly exposed to key messages, visual messaging thus improving your brand awareness and recognition.
11 Brand Consistency Mistakes and How To Fix Them
Building a brand is very important but most important is to identify the aspects of building your brand.
So, you need to focus on the areas that have a huge impact on your customer’s buying decisions. Most importantly avoiding certain mistakes to not hurt your brand.
Here are a few brand consistency mistakes and ways to fix them.
Lack of Consistency
Lack of consistency can hamper your brand image.
Your customers may feel confused or may be unwilling to spend on you due to your inconsistent behavior.
So, try to build confidence and trust among your target audiences. It will help you gain popularity.
Focus on building the design elements of your brand like color, logo, font, and many more and stay consistent.
Collect all your marketing and branding assets through varied platforms like social media, website, emails, etc.
This way consistency can help you breed loyalty.
Low-Quality Content
Content is the king of your website. Irrelevant content can worsen your brand image.
Your customers want to read content that solves their problems.
Produce quality content with relevant information that’s consistent across all channels and aligns with the brand personality. Provide value to your customers.
Also, represent your brand’s unique point to stand apart from the crowd.
If you are posting video or audio content, consider factors like video quality, sound quality, lighting, etc. Give the best experience to your customers.
Give them the commitment to post and update them regularly.
Poor Design of Website
Your website is a hub for the online masses. Your customers usually visit websites to avail information. So, create a user-friendly and attractive website that makes them stay longer.
Remember, a simple mistake turns your customers off. So, be cautious of what you are doing.
Build credibility with the eye-catchy design of your website. Focus on visual branding, layout, navigation, content, messages, and many more.
You can also add an easy contact form, create a uniform pricing structure to avoid confusion, etc.
Just stay consistent and be the king.
Don’t Just Talk About Yourself
Another major mistake to avoid is to stop exaggerating your image in front of your target customers.
Only talking won’t attract customers rather your actions will do. Remember, consistency comes with both words and actions.
Get a clear picture of your customers’ problems and try to fix them. Do not ignore them.
When you take care of your customers’ needs, you surely gain their attention. Listen to what they are saying and respond accordingly.
Not Understanding the Audiences
Your brand will not stand out till the time you do not provide something unique and fresh to your customers.
Build your brand consistency by building your strength.
Communicate with your customers and identify their needs. Just be sincere with your brand and think how it can positively impact the lives of your customers.
This will help you in building brand consistency.
No Brand Champion
To make your brand consistent, the voice should come from the top. Top in terms of people who are leading the company.
For instance, your CEO is the head who is leading the company. If that person falls back, a company may not run properly.
Without their voice, employees may not understand the importance of branding and consistency.
So, your brand should head forward with that leading voice.
It helps you in identifying your target audiences and building branding efforts to stay consistent.
Outdated Brand Assets
Stay updated all the time. Take out time to update your company’s logo, slogan, and other assets.
An outdated image will pull back your customers. It may portray your brand as indecisive.
Each brand asset should be reviewed from time to time. Ensure that it is uniform with the core brand message.
Slow Content Creation
To be consistent with your brand image, you need to produce content in a fast-paced manner. Stay updated on your website and social media channels.
Also taking a slow approach in content creation may not work wonders.
Rather it might make your brand irrelevant in the industry.
Timely content with relevancy will portray you as a consistent brand thus helping you to gain customer attention.
Overcomplicated Branding
Do not complicate your brand to make it popular. Brands like Fed-Ex, McDonald’s are popular and memorable because of their simplicity and clean look that is easily identifiable.
Avoid using complex graphics and color themes that distract your audiences from your core message.
Therefore, keep your brand image simple and consistent. This will also increase brand retention and differentiation.
Neglecting Marketing Calendar to Plan Ahead
Consistency always comes with planning. So, your brand should build a calendar and schedule things to maintain brand consistency.
If you neglect it, you may land yourself in trouble. You can also take advantage of planning tools to schedule your work.
It will save you time and help you achieve success in the long run.
For instance, you can schedule your emails and social media posts in advance.
Not Repurposing Your Content
It’s not bad to repurpose your content. It helps you in attracting new audiences and increasing your reach.
Your tone of the content may change from time to time. So, your content needs to be in alignment with your current brand personality.
It not only assists you in staying consistent but also gives you a chance to fine-tune your brand messaging.
So do not lag behind in this aspect.
Brand Consistency: A Step Towards Purpose-Driven Marketing
All in all, maintaining consistency is essential because it boosts a company’s value and improves its credibility. Not only this, it gives customers a sense of trust.
However, maintaining a healthy balance of appearance, appeal, and brand consistency will take you to places. It might get a little tricky to find that balance but it can help your brand reach heights.
Numerous brands remain hesitant to undergo changes which is a step towards their brand consistency. Our advice here is to not be shy but be smart and vigilant.
At the end of the day, how you do it for your brand holds more weight than what you do for your brand. Google seems to be getting it all right. Are you? Or are you feeling a little overwhelmed about venturing into the world of brand consistency? Feel free and let us know what you feel.
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