When you’ve been assisting company owners in building their brands for as long as I have, you pick up a few things about maintaining brand consistency and the reasons why it’s so vital to do so. But in the end, what exactly is a brand? The word is frequently used, but in my experience, a large number of peopleâincluding business ownersâwould be unable to describe it. In spite of the fact that a lot of people think it’s simply a logo or a website, the reality is that it’s a lot more than that. Not only what people see when your company is presented to them, but also how they feel about it is part of a brand’s identity. At the end of the day, what defines your brand is the impression that your audience has of both you and your company, and it is this impression, whether positive or negative, that can determine the success or failure of your company. But things can soon go astray if you are continually switching things up on your audience and you are not maintaining consistency in your branding. This can have terrible effects for both you and your company. Over the years, I’ve seen innumerable examples of this from both clients and iconic businesses who have had to confront the consequences of breaking their brand consistency. These brands had to face these problems because they had broken their brand consistency. If you are interested in learning how to build a strong brand and you are curious about how the process of maintaining brand consistency works, then you should most certainly continue reading. Because in this piece, I’m going to define what I mean by “brand consistency,” provide some pointers that will assist you in preserving that consistency, and then discuss some of the most disastrous outcomes that may result from brands failing to keep that consistency. What exactly is meant by “brand consistency”? The term “brand” relates to the way in which your audience feels about your company as well as the way in which they perceive it, as I mentioned earlier. Having said that, keeping brand consistency means ensuring that all aspects of your branding, including its appearance, tone, and story, are consistent with one another and preventing any breaks in that continuity. At the same time, it also alludes to the fact that your branding should be consistent with the aspects that identify your company. Because of this, you are able to have a considerably greater amount of control over how people think of your company and how prospective consumers feel about your brand; both of these factors are extremely crucial to the success of your company. Maintaining a consistent brand image can result in several extra benefits, including the following: Establishing credibility and giving the impression that your company can be relied on Making your company more memorable to customers Developing a personal rapport with prospective clients in order to increase sales Developing your reputation as a trustworthy expert in your subject and building your credibility Providing a stable foundation to assist in the expansion of your company with devoted customers Helping you become established in a shorter amount of time, so saving you both time and money. Bringing in the kind of people who are looking just for what it is that you can provide I have no doubt that some of you would disagree with that statement, and it’s possible that you’ve had the idea, “If I don’t switch things up and get creative, then I won’t get noticed, people won’t see my content, and I’m going to lose my edge in the competitive market.” Nevertheless, this way of thinking runs utterly opposite to common sense. The method in which brands differentiate themselves from one another is one of the factors that contributes to their ability to stand out in a crowded marketplace, as well as to their capacity to be easily recalled and recognized at a glance. However, if your identity is always evolving, how can you expect to differentiate yourself from competitors and guarantee that customers will remember your logo when they see it? And how can you possibly expect people to trust you or take you seriously if the branding you use is dishonest, fake, or haphazard? A quick response: no, you cannot. If you do not keep your branding consistent, you will confuse potential clients, they will not identify you, and before you realize it, you will be almost completely forgotten. Even some of the most venerable and well-known firms have been brought to their knees as a result of uneven branding. But allow me to elaborate a little bit more on it in a moment. READ THIS: Three Ways to Create a Website Tailored to Your Audience A Guide to Defining Your Brand Identity and Ensuring It Resonates Throughout All of Your Marketing Materials The first thing you need to do if you want to keep your brand’s image consistent is to determine what your brand stands for and what it stands for in the marketplace. Therefore, if you’re not sure how to define your brand and you want to learn more about how to keep consistency in your branding, then this article is exactly what you need. It covers both topics in depth. It covers a wide range of topics, including how to define your brand identity, how to keep your branding consistent across your website and social media, as well as in the photos and videos you create, and more. Continue reading on our website for more. How Can I Preserve the Authenticity of My Brand? If you want to keep the same feel throughout all of your company’s branding and marketing materials, you need to make sure that your company maintains a consistent appearance across the board. Your branding needs to be authentic while also being in line with the way that you do business at the same time. This involves not only how you show yourself in public or on social media (such as in what you say, how you behave, or the way you look), but also how your brand is displayed visually from an outsider’s point of view. This feature is essential since the visual brand that you create for your company is what will ultimately work to differentiate you from your rivals and make you more noticeable to customers. Now that we’ve established that, let’s talk about some components of your branding and the ways in which you may maintain consistency in those different areas. Voice of the Brand The personality, values, and language of your company, together with all of the other components that comprise the manner in which it conveys its message to the outside world, come together to form the voice of the brand. Therefore, regardless of whether you are distributing a newsletter, writing the copy for your website, designing display advertisements, or doing something altogether different, you need to make sure that you maintain that consistent voice by speaking in the same genuine tone and expressing the same message throughout all of your marketing channels. Aesthetic Identifier Your visual brand is defined by the general flow, style, and feel of the elements that make up your brand, such as your logo, brand colors and typography, as well as the shapes and images that you use to sell your company. In this particular area, you run the risk of easily confusing potential clients who, with any luck, have learned to understand and respect the visual branding of your company. If, for example, your company’s logo is red and blue, and you suddenly decide to alter it to be green and purple, this is going to dilute what distinguishes you from the competition, which makes you less recognized, and you can wind up alienating your clients, so you shouldn’t do it. Instead, stick with your current logo. The formatting of This may strike you as a somewhat little matter, but believe me when I say that it is not. Take, for instance, the fact that you have recently begun publishing a fresh set of posts on your site. These articles all have a clean layout, and they include visually appealing content to provide a break from the text. Then, one day, you are in a hurry to publish something, so you decide to ignore the photographs and put everything together as quickly as you possibly can. This would not only give the impression that you are inexperienced, but it would also dilute what sets you apart from others, and it would likely make readers less interested in reading the things you write. Therefore, if you have a format that you use for your marketing materials, you should check to see that it truly reflects what it is that you do and that you use it consistently. Colors The colors that you choose to use for your brand are very important for defining the identity of your brand, making sure that it will always be memorable, and giving it a look that is all its own. This color palette must to be adhered to in each and every facet of your branding and marketing efforts. That means the color scheme you choose for your company logo needs to be cohesive with the colors you use for the design of your website, your business cards, and possibly even the clothes you wear. When it comes to maintaining the integrity of your brand, you truly can go that much in-depth, despite the fact that it may sound ridiculous. Styles of fonts When it comes to building your brand identity, typefaces, like colors, perform a lot of the heavy lifting, and it can be terrible if you choose the incorrect ones. Similar to how colors do this, fonts also contribute significantly. This feature of your brand serves as yet another reminder that not only should your branding be consistent in terms of its continuity, but also the components you select to employ for your branding should be consistent with what characterizes your business. This aspect of your brand offers an example of how this may be accomplished. If you own a business that installs furnaces, for instance, you should probably steer clear of using a typeface that makes the letters look like they were carved out of ice. An example of such a font is the following: Therefore, when it comes to typefaces, you need to ensure that they appropriately portray your brand. Additionally, you should select no more than two or three fonts to utilize for all of your branding, and you should refrain from changing them under any circumstances. Failures of Epic Proportions Caused by Inconsistent Branding After reading through this section, I am aware that some of you may try to argue with me and say that the instances given here are not actually examples of inconsistent branding but rather rebrandings that went wrong. And while that may be true from one point of view, a rebranding does in fact constitute a break in continuity and a reduction in the level of brand consistency at its very core. In any case, these branding gaffes are some of the most enlightening illustrations of the problems that can arise when companies fail to maintain consistency in their branding. Coca-Cola, of course. The NEW Coke branding in its entiretyIn 1975, as part of the ongoing competition between two of the most well-known brands of soft drink available, Pepsi and Coca-Cola, Pepsi initiated the “Pepsi Challenge.” Pepsi staged blind taste tests as part of a marketing campaign, inviting people to try both Coca-Cola and Pepsi in paper cups without labels and then asked them to choose their preferred beverage before revealing what was contained in each cup. These taste tests were held in public places such as shopping malls. The campaign found that the majority of people in the United States preferred Pepsi over Coca-Cola, at least according to Pepsi. Then, close to ten years after the first launch of the Pepsi Challenge, Coca-Cola committed one of the most egregious errors in the annals of the history of branding. The firm really altered the recipe for Coca-Cola, which resulted in a slightly different flavor, and then marketed the new product under the brand name New Coke. The response from customers in the United States was resoundingly unfavorable, and within a short period of time, Coca-Cola resurrected its traditional recipe under the name Coca-Cola Classic. It is clear that this did not spell the end for Coca-Cola, since the iconic brand is still very much alive and well in the modern era; nonetheless, it does serve as an instructive illustration of how tampering with the consistency of your brand may drive customers away and end up being a complete embarrassment for the company. BP BP is a multinational organization with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. It was formerly known as British Petroleum and is recognized as one of the major oil and gas firms in the world. In 2010, the company became a household name for all the wrong reasons, as they were responsible for one of the worst industrial disasters in modern history, the explosion at the Deepwater Horizon, and the subsequent oil spill, which resulted in several deaths and injuries, along with the spilling of approximately 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Back in 2010, the company became a household name for all of these reasons. The company was established in 1909, and since then it has gone through around six different iterations of its logo, the majority of which have been in the form of a green and yellow shield. However, in the year 2000, they switched the logo they’d been using for the previous many decades to a sun with green, yellow, and white rays. This new emblem has the appearance of a flower and exudes environmentalism. Now, despite the fact that the logo change took place before the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe, BP’s new logo was relentlessly criticized, and for good reason. Simply by virtue of the fact that it is an oil firm, the new emblem was a bad fit for the company. It is pretty dishonest to brand your company as an organization that cares about the environment when your primary source of revenue comes from the processing and distribution of fuels, lubricants, and other petrochemicals, and when you are best known for things like explosions, oil spills, and chemical leaks. The website for BP even makes the ludicrous claim that the corporation is working toward the goal of lowering carbon emissions and assisting the globe in reaching net zero, which is ironic given that crude oil is mostly composed of hydrocarbons. It is possible that it is not responsible for a loss of revenues; nonetheless, due to the fact that this branding is so mismatched with BP’s business strategy, it is embarrassing, it demonstrates a significant lack of self-awareness, and it undermines BP’s credibility. In any case, this is one of the worst examples that I’ve seen of branding that’s simply inconsistent with what a business is all about, and it provides a much-needed reminder that not only should branding have continuity, but it also needs to be genuine, and accurately reflect what your business actually does. In other words, it’s one of the worst examples that I’ve seen. Do you still have questions on how to build a great brand? Do you feel as though you could benefit from the assistance of an internet brand specialist? For over 20 years, we have been assisting business owners in the development of their respective brands. Get in touch with us so that we can explain how we can assist you in building your brand. I wish you much luck in your business. The name Susan Friesen Brand identification, brand strategy, consistent branding, brand design, and more can be found in the following articles: Send a Friend an Email with This Article Inside!Get Emails with Articles Just Like This One Delivered Straight to Your Inbox!Join now and it’s completely free!â
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