Branding is more than a logo, a font, or colours. Successful branding is a consistent message that is easily recognisable and puts the consumer at ease. It should build awareness and loyalty with your customer and is your word, your bond, it is you saying trust us.
Brand consistency allows you to market yourself on an almost subconscious level. You are no longer trying to convince consumers to buy your product. Your brand is so consistent, so synonymous with your product experience that when a consumer sees your signature brand logo they are already thinking about making their next purchase from you without you even having to ask.
For example, when you meet a person, you start to develop opinions, ideas and assumptions about them based on your interactions. If they are different every time you meet, present themselves differently, look differently, talk differently, you may find it very hard to establish who they are and what they are about. Now imagine this same person is someone you are considering doing business with. You may now question their consistency in work, based on their inconsistent appearance. You may think twice about doing business with them because they are unpredictable.
Your consumers can feel the same about your brand if you aren’t careful. If your social media voice is loud and brash but your product packaging is very serious, you’re sending mixed signals that will confuse consumers and leave them feeling like your brand can’t be trusted. Your brand consistency is part of building a bond with the customer and ultimately consumers buy brands they trust.
People stick with brands for a reason, they know what to expect and they know they will like the outcome.
Consumers will respond well to a reliable experience. Visual cohesion across all your channels of communication will shout dependability. This includes packaging, your website and your social media voice. Consumers will feel more comfortable with you and will be more likely to purchase from you again. We are all aware purchasing is often more an emotional decision than a practical one. These emotions can be engaged by making the customer feel like they know your brand and that it can be trusted. This will often lead to them recommending you to their peers.
As much as consumers need trust in you and your brand, you also need trust in the people and platforms that look after your brand. Keeping a consistent experience for the customer across all their interactions with you is paramount. With the ease of content creation, now almost any employee or partner has the ability to make what they feel is the embodiment of the brand. Even with the best of intentions the variety of interpretations can undermine your carefully curated marketing. This is why it so important to develop brand guidelines and make sure they are adhered to by all.
Keeping control of your assets can also be a challenge in the digital world. Seeing your logo adulterated, pixelated or placed on lurid backgrounds can all make for a testing experience for customers. Making sure your staff and partners have access to a media library of high quality, well-branded assets can really help keep everything looking coherent and gives people a unified experience. Most customers will use multiple channels to interact with you which makes it especially important they receive a consistent experience.
At Brandlight our flexible, reliable, user-friendly platform is something you won’t find anywhere else. Our talented team have decades of experience in marketing companies to a global audience. We allow your brand to have a home away from home looked after by the people who care about it the most, you.
