What is Brand Consistency?
Brand consistency is made up of two parts: visuals and messages. It’s all about the persistent delivery of visuals and messages that align with a company’s core values. It encourages loyalty by creating trust and immediately recognizable content.
Visuals include color palettes, font styles, logos, photos, etc. An example of consistency would be having your logo in your brand colors in the header of every document. Messages include the company mission, brand voice/tone, personality, etc. These are all conveyed through your messages and are used to help identify your brand.
Why does Brand Consistency matter?
The number one goal in reaching consistency is becoming recognizable by your desired audience. This process can sometimes take a while because your audience may have to come in contact with your company a few times for them to recognize you. The more they see you and recognize you, the more credible you become, and more importantly you gain their trust. One of the most important things a company can be “branded” as is reliable and trustworthy. When clients know they can depend on you, they always come back for more.
Other benefits of brand consistency are that you can shape your audience’s perception of the brand, create a center of positivity and set yourself apart from the competition. Your competition might be offering similar services or products, but the customer will choose you because they perceive you as a halo of positivity. Sometimes it actually is important that people like you.
How to Create Brand Consistency:
The first, and seemingly hardest, lesson to learn when creating brand consistency is that if you don’t eventually get bored with your own, you aren’t doing it right. You might find another branding idea and have the urge to redo yours, but that’s not very consistent. That’s why it’s important to be willing to stick to the brand you choose when creating it. I mean, it’s called brand consistency for a reason.
What’s the message you want to get out to your audience? After you’ve found your message, pick a personality. Are you edgy? Humorous, formal, or relaxed? Incorporate your personality into your message, and every message after. The way you want to represent your brand visually comes from the message you want to convey and the personality it holds. You want your visuals and messages to compliment each other.
The most efficient way to ensure that your brand is consistent would be through a brand guideline. This guideline would include how to use your logo, color palette, the brand font, how to phrase messages, what kind of graphics to use and where to use them. Brand consistency truly doesn’t have to be a daunting task.
Killer Consistency in Action:
Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo has been around for many years with the same family values and goals to help people.
Dove
Dove has a clean, slick look that they use on all their products. The same font, color, and logo are used for each.
Bob the Builder
Can he fix it? You bet he can. Bob is consistently there for his friends and his community.
