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Why Consistency is Important When Branding Your Business
By Colette Mauzeralle
         
 

Branding your business begins with two questions. What is your business’ personality, and how do you want that personality to be perceived? Whatever the response to these questions may be, the most important element is staying consistent in your answer, which creates what is called “brand consistency.” Brand consistency means aligning all elements of communication to a common thread, and it is essential to understand why remaining uniform is the most important thing you can do when branding your business.

“The best burger in town.” Sounds pretty good, right? But when you sit down in the restaurant, you’re handed a menu that is dirty and unappealing. You get your salad and it is dry and tasteless. Why would you trust this restaurant to have ‘the best burger’ if it can’t even produce decent menus or a good salad? You wouldn’t. You would likely leave the restaurant and settle for the place next door.

The same is true with branding your own business. Every single aspect of your company should remind the client of the message that your business aims to portray. If you claim to have “the best,” “the fastest,” or “the brightest,” all elements of your business should communicate the exact same thing.

Whether you claim to have the fastest dinner service, the best gas mileage, or the highest quality Tupperware, part of your business’ brand is its promise to consumers. Consistency in branding reminds customers that you keep that promise in everything you do.

Does your web site’s copy look the same as your print copy? Do the colors of all your collateral remain consistent? Do those colors say something about the personality of your business? These questions only graze the surface of things to be considered in brand consistency. Every element of communication matters, and you will want all elements to be coordinated so that they provide the same message.

Say you meet someone who comes off a bit quiet. Then, the next time you see them they act friendly and outgoing. The third time you come into contact they have changed again, acting anxious and nervous. It becomes hard for you to determine the kind of person they really are, which makes it hard to feel connected or close to them. The same is true when branding your business. It’s important for the personality of your business to remain constant, so that consumers can feel like they are getting to know the same business over and over. Additionally, the more consistent and reliable you are, the happier your customers will be to return again and again.

If Apple were a person, what would they look like? Ask anyone this and the resulting description would probably sound quite similar. When the public thinks of Apple, they think of cool, advanced products that remain at the top of the trend list. The company has built its marketing strategy around brand consistency. They don’t produce semi-decent products because they don’t want to be seen as a semi-decent business. Apple pushes themselves to produce faster, newer, sleeker, and smarter merchandise, but their brand personality remains the same. That’s the secret to building a business of unfailing consumer loyalty.

We are a species that sticks to what we know. If a consumer can recognize your company because they have been exposed to consistency in your brand, they will keep returning to your business. By recognizing the same personality in your company, it will become comfortable for consumers to turn to your business when in need. No matter how you choose to brand your business, the clear bottom line remains this: staying consistent is key.