If your business has a strong and consistent brand identity, it’s easier for your clients to recognize your brand and its products or services. If you have inconsistent visuals, your brand’s message may be confusing and difficult to remember, making client awareness and retention a daunting task. Brand consistency has the power to boost your company’s value – and it’s completely free! Keep reading to learn the importance of brand consistency for your business.

What is Branding?

Branding is a way of distinctly identifying your business through its name, tagline, design, colours, logo or any combination, and is an essential part of your marketing strategy. This is how your customers will recognise your business and perceive your brand. Many people incorrectly assume that a brand is simply a good logo design. A strong brand is more than just a logo — it’s reflected in everything from your customer service style, to your corporate colours, staff uniforms, business cards, tradeshow presence, signage and is the foundation for your marketing materials and advertising.

Here are four steps to building a successful brand:

1. Define how you want to be perceived by your clients and potential customers.
2. Organize your business’ visuals based on this promise.
3. Communicate your promise in every part of your brand.
4. Be consistent.

How do you develop Brand Consistency?

As you strive to build brand value and trust, assess how consistency works across all aspects of your identity. This includes messaging, tone, imagery and delivery. These elements are the basic building blocks of consistent branding.

Logo

Incorporating a logo into your products and marketing collateral is the easiest way to create consistent brand identity visuals. Adding your logo onto all company designs – both internal and external – will make it easier for your consumers to connect the object to the brand. For example, any apparel featuring your branding will automatically be associated with your organization.

Message

A consistent brand message should clearly define your positioning and align with your core behaviours. This can be seen in the core values of your mission and vision statements. If your actions consistently align with your message, customers begin to trust and have joy in your service. If your brand promise is inauthentic or unable to be delivered, customers may feel disappointed or deceived.

Tone

Tone is an element that companies tend to forget as they develop their brand. Conflicting tones, however, lead to mixed messages. Is the spirit of your brand an aggressive go-getter who gets things done? A friend who is willing to lend a helping hand? If your tone switches often, customers may develop differing expectations about your product or service, making it more difficult to satisfy each customer each time they interact with you.

Design

Imagery is perhaps the most obvious element in your brand consistency toolkit. Design using brand elements thoughtfully and strategically helps build visibility and increases customer recognition and association.

Delivery

Beyond these fundamental elements, the delivery of your brand through timing and across channels and mediums significantly contributes to the consistency of experience. The channels you choose, as well as the frequency of contact, create a rhythm of communication.

Why is Brand Consistency So Important?

1. Brand consistency takes your brand to the next level: You’re no longer convincing your clients to stop and buy your product and/or service. Your brand is so consistent, so synonymous with your product experience that when a consumer sees your signature brand logo, they are already thinking about making their next purchase from you. Using a tactic like newsletters and direct mail is a great way to create, and build consistency with regular intervals.
2. Consistency makes your brand feel more dependable and trustworthy: When you’re getting to know a person, you start to develop opinions, ideas and assumptions about them based on your interactions. If they are dressed in a business suit one day, Bermuda shorts and a ratty T-shirt the next and then a scuba diving suit another time, it may be hard to nail down exactly who they are and what they are all about. Now imagine this same person is someone you are considering doing business with. Wouldn’t you be concerned about their consistency in their work based on their inconsistent appearance? You may think twice before bringing them into your business because they’re unpredictable. Your consumers can feel the same about your brand if you aren’t careful. If your social media voice is whimsical and silly but your product packaging is sterile and plain, you’re sending mixed signals that will confuse consumers and leave them feeling like your brand can’t be trusted.
3. Recognition: Brand recognition is not just about getting your name out there. It’s about helping consumers get to know your brand on a personal level. It’s a long-standing concept thatpurchasing is more an emotional decision than a practical one. Part of engaging the right emotions with your consumers is making them feel like they know your brand and that your brand can be trusted.
4. Giving consumers a dependable experience across all your media and channels of communication works along the same lines as always putting out a dependable product. Consumers want to know you! Interacting with consumers through a consistent brand voice and aesthetic is a major step towards letting consumers get to know you as an organization. When they know you, they will identify with you and your purpose. And when consumers feel like they know you and can trust you, they will be more likely to purchase from you and more likely to recommend you to their peers.

Post-Press

We’ve heard so many people say if they could just get consumers to try their product they know they would like it and would want to buy from them again. Well, putting a consistent brand message in front of consumers is one strong step in the right direction to attracting new customers.

Your potential customers are more likely to purchase from a brand they recognize for their consistent image and content schedule, so make sure to maintain both. Printers like Minuteman Press Calgary Shepard assist you in ensuring that your branding is consistent across all your printed materials. This helps your business be profitable in part by being memorable. Minuteman Press Calgary Shepard can work with you to maintain a consistent brand image. We specialize in graphic design for all your printing needs. Contact us today to bring your brand to life in print! We Design. We Print. You Profit.

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