Brand consistency. As a new puppy owner, I’ve been thinking a lot about the importance of consistency lately: consistency in the walking and sleeping routines, commands, discipline, feeding, rewards, you name it. It all makes for more efficient and effective puppy training. The same holds true for your marketing activities. Let’s take a look at a few areas where brand consistency is crucial.
Consistent Brand Logo and Design
Everyone notices logos—it is the most visible aspect of your overall brand. Seemingly small tweaks or changes in color can become a big deal to your customers. One way to build consistency into your branding is with the use of a design style guide. Dave has written previously about the importance of having a design style guide.
The style guide is your company’s visual bible. It contains all the rules related to your company’s look and feel–its name, logo, color palette, and how to use them. And it provides guidance on how to carry your company’s look and feel into all of your communication pieces (from website to social media channels, to newsletters, to brochures, etc.). Inconsistent use here can cause confusion among your customers and potential customers and detract from your overall brand.
Consistent Tone and Messaging
Every company works to develop a voice that is uniquely their own. Some may refer to this as tone, manner or style. Is it formal? Is it more casual or personal? Do you use humor? Or are your communications more businesslike and serious? Here again, consistency is key.
Larger companies often have multiple employees handling their communications activities. For example, the individual who works with the news media and sends out news releases may not necessarily be the person who is developing and promoting social media content. If everyone isn’t coordinating, this will result in confusing, sometimes contradictory, messaging and tone.
Just like it’s helpful to have a design style guide for the visual brand, it’s often helpful to have communications guidelines. These guidelines dictate how the company name is referenced, what type of information is public, how you describe services or products, etc. Many companies may also identify one person as their company spokesperson. This is similar to how many big advertisers (think car commercials) tend to use the same voiceover talent in television or radio commercials. You identify these voices or people with the company. Assuming you’ve picked the “right” voice, this consistency can be powerful.
Consistent Timing
Here I’m mostly referring to your company’s social media activities, but consistency in timing or scheduling also carries through to annual events you may host, company newsletters or other regular customer communications.
We’ve written before about the importance of sticking to a regular publishing schedule for your company blog. But it’s also helpful to maintain a regular schedule with your other social media activities. For example, if you find that your weekend Tweets generate the most re-tweets or engagement from your followers, you’ll want to stick with the weekend publishing schedule. If you’re on Twitter sporadically or post to your blog intermittently, with no rhyme or reason, it will be more difficult to build a following.
Your social media activities are an opportunity to engage with your customers or potential customers and build a dialogue with them on the issues they care about. Sticking to a consistent publishing schedule is crucial.
Consistent Rewards
Just like our puppy expects (and receives) the little treats we give him after he’s taken care of his “business” outside for the umpteenth time, your customers appreciate knowing they will be rewarded in some way for their continued patronage. It doesn’t have to be big, but in some way your loyal customers expect to be recognized — at a customer-only event, or with reward points, or in advance notice of important new information, or by preferential pricing. Consistently making your customers feel special is essential to maintaining their loyalty (and consistent buying behavior!)
Brand Consistency
Just like I’m learning with our new puppy, brand consistency helps your customers (or our puppy) know what to expect. A lack of consistency keeps everyone guessing. Consistency in your marketing will strengthen your brand and set your company apart from the rest. And that’s a reward everyone can enjoy.
