Products with the same purpose are often similar (design-wise). That doesn’t mean customers perceive them equally.
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It takes more than effective marketing or design to make a product stand out: brand consistency and branding matter. Continue to read to learn more.
Branding: Why it Matters
Branding is about creating a positive perception of a company and its products in the consumer’s mind.
Strong branding can help a business gain significant growth quicker. It’s no secret that well-established brands create sizable revenue.
Overall, investing in branding means investing in business growth. After all, strong branding differentiates a business and makes acquiring new customers easier.
How Consistent Branding Affects Businesses
Consistent branding can help businesses gain customer loyalty, be seen as reliable, and even facilitate product diversification.
- Increase in Customer Loyalty
When customers connect personally to a brand, you know the business has strong branding.
Coca-Cola presents itself as something that reunites family and friends rather than soda. That is incredibly effective for marketing. The brand is universal and understood across different cultures.
However, branding can be successful and a bit more nuanced too. A brand design can imply what kind of product customers will be acquiring (e.g., healthy, fast-food, gourmet).
Brands must link the customers’ needs to the brand’s values to establish a connection. That can ensure brand loyalty and lead to brand longevity.
- More Returning Customers
Businesses should invest in brand consistency to build trust and see returning customers.
The more consistent a brand is, the more memorable it will be to customers, and so, they’re more likely to perceive a brand as reliable.
- Engage Ideal Clients Easily
Companies can target specific audiences through branding. In doing so, they reach out to customers in more personalized ways.
All it takes is market segmentation (targeting customers according to brand interactions and behaviors). Once that happens, communication and engagement with clients will be more effective.
- Earn Credibility Through Consistency
By embracing consistent brand messaging and visual elements, brands can build a strong connection with their audiences, making themselves instantly recognizable.
“Appearances” are not enough, though. Businesses must always aim to live up to consumer expectations to gain credibility.
- Smooth Introduction of New Products & Services
The diversification of products helps businesses grow their market share and increase sales and revenue.
However, it can also bring costly delays or mistakes and an overextension of business resources.
Brand consistency and good reputation help customers to be more willing to give a new product introduced a chance.
This built trust facilitates sales and consumer appeal.
5 Elements of Brand Consistency
Some aspects (including logo and coloring) contribute to a better alignment of the brand message with its core values. Also, using the same tone keeps the brand consistent and memorable.
1. Mission & Vision:
An effective mission statement defines the business purpose and what it wants to achieve.
It should be exciting for customers and employees, making clear to people what they can expect from the brand.
Meanwhile, the vision describes how the business will be like and how consumers will perceive the brand in the future.
The relevance of the product or service, the business USP, and future consumer’ perception can help create a brilliant vision statement.
2. Brand Logo:
A noticeable brand logo differentiates from competitors and makes a great first impression on customers.
Also, it creates an easy association between a brand and its products (making it memorable for consumers) and represents the foundation of brand identity.
Overall, a brand logo is more than a design element. It’s a powerful symbol that can foster brand loyalty.
3. Use of Slogans:
Catchy slogans are essential for any brand marketing. It highlights the brand image and allows it to be recognizable.
A phrase with meaning has more impact on the customer than just the brand name alone.
Effective brand slogans are memorable, give the customer something to commit to, and tell what the brand stands for.
4. Coloring:
Color is key in branding and marketing, as it’s the first thing customers visualize when they see a product. Certainly, exciting color combinations grab the customers’ eyes.
Certainly, coloring has a crucial role in creating the company’s identity.
5. Tone of Voice:
The tone of voice primarily relates to its content, including its ads, interactions face-to-face with customers, and online.
Brands must use the ideal tone of voice to communicate effectively with their target audiences and influence how people see their messaging.
Clarifying Your Brand Message
In worst-case scenarios, miscommunication leads to companies’ failure. Nokia went from the world’s largest mobile phone manufacturer to a brand without its competitive edge as soon as smartphones became the next big trend.
Nokia struggled to turn good ideas into products due to bad communication habits that favored unfocused discussions about strategies over effective plans to give the consumers what they wanted: new phone models.
To avoid communication disasters, StoryBrand Certified Guide provides a marketing plan designed to make messaging clear.
Assessing Your Brand for Consistency
When evaluating a brand, consider making plans and creating a feedback system.
Establish Feedback Loops with Customers & Employees
Feedback loops can be handy for companies. Gathering feedback on the company culture and requesting improvement can turn the workplace into a more positive and productive one.
Everyone has a voice online, so companies must be careful in their communication (especially on social media), always looking to be thoughtful (e.g., apologizing, issuing a refund, asking their opinions).
Whether consumers share a positive or negative experience with the brand, it is worth ensuring they feel heard. Also, it is important to consider the needs of people with accessibility issues. For that reason, companies should regularly conduct accessibility audits and make the content accessible to everyone.
Decide on a Set of Goals
Whatever a business vision might be (improve its social media presence, create a marketing campaign to rebrand) won’t be accomplished without setting goals first. Always set up goals.
Make a Plan to Achieve Them
Companies must consider the employees’ and customers’ feedback and the vision statement.
Brands must consider what it will take (e.g., innovation, partnerships with influencers) to achieve those goals.
By creating a strategy, planning how to achieve goals, companies can succeed.
Focus on Internal Support
Good workplace practices such as keeping a conversational tone, providing support to multiple communication channels, and setting clear expectations help create an environment in which employees are satisfied.
When employees are happy, they’re more likely to perform better. It’s businesses’ interest to ensure that employees feel motivated and focused on their work (without dealing with workflow issues).
Brand Consistency is Achievable
By using consistent branding, choosing the brand elements wisely, and evaluating the brand consistency, brands will be much closer to success.
Author Bio
Moses Mehraban is a StoryBrand Certified Guide who helps businesses clarify their message and create a marketing plan that grows their revenue. Currently he lives outside of Toronto after living for nearly 15 years in the Caribbean and Europe.