Why is brand consistency so important?  A brand, as defined on BusinessDictionary.com, is a unique design, sign, symbol, words or a combination of these, employed in creating an image that identifies a product or differentiates it from competitors.  In short, your brand is your company’s identity.  It helps your customer build an impression of what your company stands for.  Keeping your brand consistent allows you to build a rapport with your customers so they trust your company and find it synonymous with a positive experience.

When we work with clients on branding packages, we keep the messaging and visuals consistent with the marketing standards we’ve created for them.  We want to keep that cohesion through their business cards to the website to their marketing materials.

Brand Recognition

Photo from GlobalBrandsMagazine.com

Once you build that relationship with your customer you don’t want to lose that due to inconsistent messaging.  If you keep everything from marketing to product packaging consistent that brand recognition will start forming in the minds of your customers.  It takes 12 times for your customer to see your color and recognize it in association with your brand. That recognition is invaluable and can eventually lead to brand loyalty.

Brand loyalty is when you have consumers that become devoted to your brand and will continue to purchase your product over competitors.  From my personal experience, if a product I use on a normal basis is sold out at a store, I usually won’t even look at the competitor products, but instead check other stores.  These are products I recognize from when my mom purchased them during my childhood and I have a connection to them now.

Helps Differentiate You from Competitors

While establishing your brand recognition, you were also showing your customers how you are different from the competition.  People who shop at Wal-Mart value their “Everyday Low Prices” and they make sure to keep that verbiage consistent in their branding.  Target customers seem to be willing to pay more especially when Target collaborates with high end designers.  Both companies use brand consistency to build a relationship with their ideal customer.

They also want their customers to think of them first when they need a product or service.  So, by keeping their brand consistent, they are top of mind to those costumers.

Case Study: Aligned at Work

We recently completed a Website Design & Branding package for one of our clients, Aligned at Work.  We always start these projects by understanding who our clients target market is and what their business goals are.  This particular client targets business professionals, so we wanted the branding to consistently speak to that audience.

In order to achieve that we made sure everything from the logo, to the website reflected a clean and professional image.  When we created presentation folders, letterheads and business cards, the branding was consistent.  That allowed for all of these key pieces to present the same brand image to potential and current clients.  This helps them stand out from the competition and also becomes familiar to customers.  From the moment they receive a business card, visit the website and go to their first workshop they have a consistent message from start to finish.

Understanding the importance of brand consistency will allow you to develop a strategy that helps develop brand loyalty in your customers.  Need help creating your brand identity?  Contact us today for a free consultation, we would love to help and learn more about your business.

We also have a great blog on “What Your Branding Colors Communicate to Your Clients” if you need more information to help create your brands marketing standards.