The importance of consistent branding.
When it comes to branding and creating a memorable brand, consistency is key.
By being consistently consistent, you’re helping your brand:
Gain and build recognition
Differentiate you from your competitors
Evoke positive emotions in target audiences
Build trust and loyalty
Customers are more likely to purchase from a brand they recognise and trust. So by consistently showing up, using your brand colours, fonts, logo, messaging - all of it, you’re giving them something to remember you by and helping you to stick in their minds.
Customers like being able to easily identify who you are and by remaining consistent you’re helping them to do just that.
I’m a bit bored with my branding…
You may be sick of looking at your branding, you might even be a bit bored with it - and if you are, it means you’re doing it right.
An important thing to note here is that just because you’ve seen your logo, your colours, your fonts a million times, your audience and potential new clients may not have. Or they have and they actually enjoy your style and as a result they remain loyal, they keep following you on socials, they keep coming back to purchase more and more from you.
Now don’t get me wrong, it can be super tempting to change things up, throw in a few new colours, fonts and styles here and there. As a designer who sees a LOT of brands and styles daily, I can relate 100%.
But if, for example, your branding has been consistently calm and serene with nice earthy tones and you go throw in a neon green colour with electric symbols and hard edges, (because it looked cool on someone else’s instagram) it’s going to look and be jarring on your brand for your clients and on those ever important social tiles.
It’s going to stick out like a sore thumb.
Imagine for a moment.
Imagine for a moment, mega brand Apple. Their branding, font choices, colour palette, style - even price is always consistent and the same. And their audience love them for it. They know their audience and they target them over and over with the same consistent branding, colours and style, and you know what? Their audience keep coming back for more, over and over. (I am 100% guilty of this, Apple fan fo lyfe right here)
Now imagine, if tomorrow, Apple changed their branding, without warning or notice. Instead of their usual clean minimalist design style, they started using hot pink backgrounds, floral imagery with glitter and unicorns everywhere - what will people think? What would you think? Alarm bells would go off in your mind because it is so out of character for the major retailer. It’s not the brand look you’re used to. Extra alarm bells start to go off when you see the new iPad is only $100…
You’d think Apple has been hacked.
You’d think something here is wrong. You’d think, I’d better not place that order for a new laptop today because this is not normal. This is not how Apple usually looks.
There is an instant mistrust and confusion around the brand and even alienation in their target market and as a result a loss in product sales for that day/week or until the unicorns are removed/rectified or explained.
You don’t have to be a brand expert to notice when your favourite brands make a change (for better or worse).
Tips to keeping your brand consistent.
Keep your branding the same across every touchpoint. Make sure everything is utilising the same fonts, colours, logo and imagery. That’s everything from your business cards, uniforms, price lists all the way through to your website and socials.
Keep your messaging and tone of voice consistent. Make sure that you sound the same on your socials, on your website and in your print collateral.
Keep your values front and centre of everything you do. Your values will help guide you to make a decision whether or not your particular new project or social media post is going to help or hinder your audience.
You might be a bit bored with your brand colours and style, but it means you’re doing it right. It means that you’re being consistent. (If you are actually hating on your brand, that may be a sign though and we recommend reading this blog here on knowing when to rebrand)
Remember,
Your consistency keeps you in people’s minds.
