The Importance of Consistent Branding

The Importance of Consistent Branding

Providing an awesome product or service is always paramount when running a small business, but it’s not enough if you want to stand out in today’s market. Nathaniel Hawthorne said, “No [brand], for any considerable period, can wear one face to [itself] and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true.” The same goes for your audience, if your branding is constantly displaying inconsistencies, how do they know what to trust?  

Can I See Your ID, Please?

Brand identity is how the public perceives your business. Whether right or wrong, this perception will be influenced by your messaging and general aesthetics of your company. One great step to keep these pieces together is creating a brand style guide (also called brand guidelines). A brand style guide defines rules and standards for your brand's visual and verbal elements -  details on logo usage, color palette, typography, imagery, tone of voice, and other design elements to guarantee consistency on all platforms and material. 

A strong, cohesive identity will support your brand’s values, mission, and tell a clear story about your brand. Without this, your audience will struggle to connect with you and instead form stronger relationships with other brands.

Hey… Don’t I Know You?

Patagonia, Crocs, Harley-Davidson, Kleenex, Fruit of the Loom, John Deere -  just by reading those names you can almost certainly picture their logos right down to the colors and fonts. That’s the power of instant recognition. Repeated use of your stylistic elements allows the audience to easily identify you in a sea of competing businesses.  Consistency in the elements in your brand style guide across all touchpoints will build recognition. 

Along with your brand style guide, social media is an excellent way to build consistency through regular, authentic posts and interaction with your audience. There are endless opportunities to solidify your brand identity and build a true relationship with your audience by engaging them on social media.

Once you’ve built the recognition, trust and credibility start to form. People gain familiarity with your brand because, to a certain extent, they know what to expect from it. Familiarity then becomes reliability, making your audience more likely to choose you over a competitor and return in the future. If you need help with something, would you rather ask a friend you see regularly or a minor acquaintance? Simple as pie.

Flip-Flops Belong on the Beach, Not in Marketing

With your brand identity in place you have a solid foundation where you’ll build all marketing efforts and communications. Those campaigns are more effective from the jump because you’re reinforcing your previous messages and doing it in a way that quickly lets the audience know it’s you. Stray outside of the established guidelines and you risk sacrificing the recognition and reliability you’ve built.

That Was Easy

Maybe one of the best reasons to have an established brand identity and style guide is that it makes all other content creation much easier. It doesn’t matter what its purpose is; online, a billboard, an email blast to customers - whatever. Because you know guidelines to follow and it’s consistent with everything else, the connection with your audience is built in, the ideas will come more naturally, and whatever you’re creating is automatically aligned with your business - forget what the folks next door are doing.

When All is Said and Done

At the end of the day, only good things come from having a consistent brand identity. Taking that extra time to create guidelines and follow them will drive home who you are as a brand, amplify your message, communicate more authentically, and build trust. Focusing on consistency for your brand creates something that resonates with your audience and drives the growth of your brand when you do it right and authentically. But know that this isn’t always an easy task, and there is much more to it than we could ever hope to encompass in a single blog. That’s why we’ve also created this free template to help you get started establishing your business identity guidelines and document them.

TAWC Brand Voice/Visuals Template

Of course, if there’s anything we can do to assist you further with your brand identity - just reach out.