By: Craig Smith
What Is Brand Consistency?
Brand consistency is exactly how it sounds: It’s a cohesive, consistent visibility and presentation of your brand both inside your walls and out. It includes everything from CTA button style, how you talk about yourselves, your brand colors, logo and more. All of these small pieces create a web of experiences that communicate who you are to customers. Are you reliable or flighty? Are you consistent or less than predictable?
Twenty years ago, we had a sliver of the options we now have at our fingertips. With so many brand competitors, you need to stand apart from the crowd, and you can’t do that with inconsistency.
When you visit your local Target, do you expect to find yellow checkouts? Purple carts? Of course not, because Target has been consistent over time with how they express their brand overall in the media. When you see red, Target wants you to think, “Target.” And they’re absolutely on to something. Research has shown that using a signature color can cause an 80% increase in a consumer’s recognition of your brand.
When you visit your local Target, do you expect to find yellow checkouts? Purple carts? Of course not, because Target has been consistent over time with how they express their brand overall in the media. When you see red, Target wants you to think, “Target.” And they’re absolutely on to something. Research has shown that using a signature color can cause an 80% increase in a consumer’s recognition of your brand.
Earning Customer Trust
A consistent brand experience helps your brand earn customer trust. It’s the reason they’ll choose you over another competitor. Earning customer loyalty can be a nuanced endeavor, but a cohesive brand will help them along the way.
What we’re seeing in increasing amounts is the importance of an authentic experience for users. In fact:
- 83% of consumers say authenticity is important when deciding what brands they like and support
- 65% of customers say they are emotionally connected to a brand in a way that makes them feel like the company cares about them.
While a consistent brand experience does require diligence in upkeep, it can generate great results. According to Marq, the average revenue increase attributed to consistently presenting a brand is 10-20%. Furthermore, it could increase your ROI significantly.
Your brand reputation isn’t just a nice-to-have for the growth of your business – it’s vital.
How to Make Your Brand Voice Consistent
If you’ve been putting off getting your arms around your branding or don’t know where to start, we’ve put together four starting points to help you move your brand into a better position to grow this year.
1. Audit Your Brand
This includes your website, social media pages, internal and external deliverables, internal communications, packaging, etc. Making a list of everything your brand touches will help you track where to make changes to reflect your brand better.
2. Create a Brand Style Guide
When you create your brand style guide, make sure you include the following elements:
- Mission/Vision Statement: If you don’t know who you are, how do you expect your customers to? Check out this article from Hubspot for some inspiration on the topic.
- Who We Are: Describe your brand in five words: Who are you? How do you serve your customers? What’s unique about your brand?
- Who is Your Audience? Knowing your audience or typical client will help you choose how you speak to them. Is your typical client a middle-class male in their 20’s or an upper-class 50-something female? Your audience will shape your message.
- What Do We Want to Convey? Pick five things you want to get across to your audience. For example:
- “We get it done right the first time.”
- “The highest inventory of auto parts in the US.”
- “Our customer satisfaction is priority #1. We’re not happy unless you are.”
- “Our innovative approach to HR helps your business operate smoother.”
- How Do We Talk About Ourselves? This question is easy to overlook. Often, businesses try to tell customers who they are on their own terms, but in doing so risk losing various groups of visitors based on their knowledge and/or interest in a topic. For example, talking in jargon about medical supplies will be off-putting to an audience new to or at a low level of understanding of your product. Meeting customers where they are should always affect how you talk about yourself.
- Include style tips in this section. Create everyday examples of how to speak about your brand in various areas with “Do’s” and “Don’ts.” For example:
- DO — Show Our Fun Personality
- DON’T — Sound Cold or Sterile
Examples to Get You Started
As you begin to think about how consistent your brand is and reflect on changes you might consider for your brand in the next year, we’ve compiled a list of some brands doing an incredible job of creating and maintaining a strong, consistent brand voice and experience.
Free Website Assessment
OuterBox would love to help you incorporate your new, consistent brand voice and guidelines into your online presence. If you’d like a free assessment or to learn more about OuterBox, you can set up a free 30-minute meeting with our team, here.
