Brand consistency is an area of marketing, this often overlooked over time, a brand, and the ethos behind it can unintentionally change, leading to confusion and a loss of loyalty from a pre-established customer base. In this piece, we're going to get serious about brand consistency and discuss how to nurture and maintain it going forward.
How do you define brand consistency?
Brand consistency covers everything from a logo to the messaging put out by a company. It can help to imagine it as the voice of your company and define who that voice is directly appealing to. Consciously or unconsciously,. your audience is aware of the colours you use, as well as the fonts you’ve chosen and the tone of your communications. All these factors and more define your brand, and if you change any one element too much, you could inadvertently turn some customers away from it.
Establishing & solidifying trust in your brand
Consistency equates to reliability and dependability. By maintaining a consistent brand persona you are reinforcing your brand with your target customer and this reinforcement leads to a relationship between customer and brand.
Have a think about your own purchasing habits, when you're in the supermarket scanning the isles, you’re looking for the familiar colours, shapes and size of the packaging you are used to purchasing. Supermarkets will even ensure that they are consistent in their placement so you know exactly where to find your favourite brand.
Best practices for consistency
Begin by (re)defining your brand's mission statement, its core values and principles, and its tone. These are the essential ingredients of your brand, and once you’ve defined them, you have a brand bible that you can refer to in the future to make sure you’re still being consistent.
The brand guidelines you’ve drawn up van be distributed to partners to ensure you are consistent across all channels. You should detail instructions for typefaces, logos, colours, language etc.
Consistency requires continual vigilance, therefore you’ll need to continually monitor your output. You can always conduct customer research to help inform your strategies and messaging.
Brand consistency FAQs
1. Why is brand consistency so crucial?
Brand consistency is vital because it helps build trust and boost recognition. It demonstrates that your brand is dependable and that you have core values that you share with your customer base.
2. How can you keep consistency across various channels?
Maintaining brand consistency across all the various channels demands that you first accurately define your brand. With brand guidelines drawn up you can distribute them and regularly monitor for consistency.
3. How can you leverage brand consistency to build customer loyalty?
Brand consistency is essential for building trust with your consumers. If you can establish a consistent brand experience, your audience is more likely to return to you in the future because you are trustworthy.
4. Can brand consistency be used to outperform competitors?
Brand consistency can help you differentiate your offer from those of your competitors. Make it as easy as possible for your audience to identify you so that they are drawn to your offering through recognition.
5. What are good practises for branding guidelines?
You should regularly review and update your brand guidelines to ensure they are aligned with your original brand objectives. Review guidelines at least once a year and make adjustments according to market trends, but only introduce changes if necessary.
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