Taking Your Brand to the Next Level Through Consistency
Pin ItMaintaining a consistent brand across all online platforms is critical when trying to grow a business. Between YouTube, Facebook pages, Twitter, Websites and promotional materials it is important to have a consistent brand for consumers to see every time they see you.
Branding is your company’s image and identity and is created through your logos, color schemes, name and actions. Excellent branding is just as effective as advertising when it comes to maintaining recognition.
Brand consistency is taking that concept and applying it across multiple media platforms. It is making your web presence match your live presence so customers can find you at all times. It is maintaining your brand over several years through changes in the marketplace or in consumers. It is making your brand the same in all forms of media, and maintaining that consistency as new forms of media open up. It is your Twitter avatar, logo, website header, and business cards all maintaining the same look and feel so consumers think about your company the same way every time.
By keeping a consistent and memorable brand, you will be able to build recognition for consumers which will keep customers coming back for more. When you think of a pair of shoes you think of the Nike Swoosh or the Adidas Stripes thanks to years of branding themselves as a leader in stylistic shoes. They began their branding years ago, but even now they maintain their brand through consistent naming in all social media platforms.
A consistent brand also builds trust with customers in your product. If you are constantly changing your name and image, customers will see a lack of trust and faith in your own product and will be less likely to purchase from you. With all of the different mediums that consumers can see your brand now, it is important to present a uniform image to consumers of all types.
Proper branding consistency is especially valuable for small companies without a lot of money. Instead of spending money on complex advertising campaigns in TV, radio and print media, a company can maintain an image through social media and web. With a consistent brand, customers and viewers will see your image and remember you. Additionally, you will be recognizable on a variety of platforms, ensuring that people will find you. If you can maintain your brand across multiple platforms, it will make it easier for people to connect and engage in whatever medium they choose.
Once you have a positive brand image, it needs to be cultivated and maintained. Your brand can easily be impacted by a negative experience or event, and a negative brand image can be very difficult to shake. It’s hard to come back from being the tire manufacture that has tires explode, even with excellent brand recognition. With work an image can be changed or restored, but that takes years of work and money to rebrand and redesign your image. Consistency can help break that issue by presenting a unified message to people everywhere. Domino’s Pizza just underwent one of the most extensive rebranding processes by having a consistent brand message across multiple mediums. Using TV and Youtube they explained the process that they went through to try and make their pizza better. On their Twitter they respond to complaints about their food or service aggressively. They are now the pizza company that listens to it consumers and is willing to reach out and change things when issues arise.
Branding and brand consistency are important issues for companies to consider at all times. Monitoring their image and brand allows companies to maximize their space in the market place and address issues as they arise. Maintaining a consistent brand across multiple platforms lets companies see how people in different markets respond to their brand and can address those concerns in similar ways.