Why your business needs consistent branding

Imagine opening your favorite social media mobile application and feeling like everything is off. From the app’s logo to the buttons and typography, it just feels awkward. You wouldn’t think much of it. You may even consider it to be just an update. But what if you keep on feeling that way for the rest of the week?

That’s when doubt starts creeping in. After all, using any application shouldn't be making you feel weird or uncomfortable. If it does, it won't be long before you uninstall it. That’s what consistent branding should prevent you from doing. Want to learn more about it? If so, read on for a deep dive into branding consistency!

Get your branding right

When you’re creating a brand identity for a business, your primary focus should be on what you communicate, and whether this communication will leave a mark on your client's memory. The customer's perception of your brand is of utmost importance. It’s the make-or-break of making a positive first impression and establishing a functional business cycle. That's what branding is about.

Achieving branding consistency is not an easy feat. That's why it’s best to focus on it from the get-go. When you want to change the way your company looks on the internet, you should take the customer's perception into consideration. Simply put, go for a user-friendly approach.

With an accessible website created with consistent, easy-to-read typography, pleasant colors, solid backgrounds, and useful elements, you will surely be able to create consistent branding, even if some changes to your logo or colors will be necessary down the road.

When it comes to brand consistency, and branding in general, you may also want to think about your brand's core values, and the way they should be communicated. Business values are basically a set of guidelines that help establish what the company wants to be known for. Now, consistent branding can help get those values across.

It boils down to how your customers perceive you. If you get branding right, other things are bound to fall into place. But why does your business need its branding to be consistent?

1. Brand consistency makes your product memorable

What name comes to mind when you think of a social media platform where you can create short video content? Also, when you hear of a search engine platform with a multi-colored logo, a clear picture of a certain brand comes to mind, right?

Why are these brands so easily remembered by the customers? Because they've got good, memorable products, and their product branding is unique and consistent, plain and simple.

Now, coming up with and creating a good product is a topic deserving an article of its own, but with branding – whatever it looks like visually – you need to put in the effort to position it in front of your target audience over and over again. It's where branding will work most effectively, creating association and lasting memories. Eventually, the audience will easily recall your brand when it's time to make a purchase decision.

However, to achieve that goal, you need your product to have memorable branding. You've also got to master the art of repetition. It’s where the “Rule of Seven” comes into play. It's a popular concept among marketers around the world. In short, customers have to hear, see, or read something about your brand at least seven times before they remember it.

A good enough product with memorable branding is likely to become a great product in due time. So, if your sales pick up after you implement new branding, it’s because this mechanism has worked!

Cavai's branding is a delightful example of consistency achieved through inconsistency. The abundance of colors, gradients, and the uniqueness of typography used throughout the project is a conscious design decision, aimed at making the project stand out from the cookie-cutter designs that are so common in the company's industry.

2. Brand consistency leads to brand recognition

Brands tend to position themselves using online ads and TV commercials. But for such a strategy to be effective, every element of the brand has to be just right. In other words, the logo, colors, and other visual designs have to be consistent with other branding elements. This will, in turn, make the brand recognizable by the target audience.

When it’s time to make a buying decision, customers will almost always choose a product they recognize. Why? Because customers desire a positive, comfortable, and satisfactory experience. They get to fulfil their needs by choosing brands that not only make a good product, but also deliver a positive experience.

Brand consistency helps customers immediately recognize your brand, and tell it apart from the competition. That’s why you will often see market rivals coming up with the exact opposite of what their direct competitor is doing – all in order for the audience to recognize the difference.

As a general rule of thumb, you need consistent product branding across all marketing channels — and your brand should be tied to your product or service experience.

If your branding is done right, and it's consistent, you'll most likely evoke a positive emotional response from your customers. For instance, if you have a sports brand, your customers should be inspired to play their favorite sport upon seeing your advertisement. If you run a food business, then your company’s consistent branding should result in memories of their favorite delicacy flooding their minds.

3. Brand consistency builds trust

Customers stick to businesses that are predictable and trustworthy. To evoke trust, you need your product’s branding to make promises and deliver on those promises. Simply put, when your company has an exciting, outdoorsy name, your product looks modern, and your branding is flashy and flamboyant — all of this won’t sell if you try to market it to the elderly!

Customers should know what to expect. If your branding is always changing, then it’s unlikely your audience will make the connection between the newest iteration of your branding and your company’s products, resulting in failure to meet your customer’s expectations. This will, in turn, evoke negative emotions and damage trust and loyalty among your customers.

It’s alright if you want to re-invent your company’s branding, but make sure a sufficient amount of time has passed between your last branding change. Otherwise, you might end up confusing your customers.

4. Brand consistency boost revenue

Consistency in branding, coupled with good quality products and thought-through advertising, leads to more recognition and an overall increase in brand revenue. If something doesn’t click in your marketing department, investing time, effort and some money into brand consistency could be massive for your company's growth in the long run.

Create an easy-to-understand brand book, synchronize your product line’s packaging, create templates for social media, re-design your website around your company colors — there are numerous ways in which you can improve the general reception of your brand and boost its recognizability.

If you're consistent in your logos, marketing efforts, messaging, and product delivery, you're likely to attract more customers. This will, in turn, lead to a huge difference when it comes to business growth and revenue. A reliable experience with a consistent tone and voice is a sure way of attracting new customers to your brand.

When we were designing Lingocruit's website, we wanted to make the interface fit other website elements. We went for one of the brand's colors – bright orange – and gave it to omnipresent icons and buttons, as well as decorative scribbles.

5. Consistent branding shapes customer perception

Customer perception is how your customers feel when they see, hear, or think about your brand. One way of improving your audience’s perception of you is to design your branding with a clear goal in mind.

Make sure your colors reflect the feel of the company and the product. Utilize carefully selected slogans and captions. Address your audience in a language that they understand. Finally, keep in mind that actions speak louder than words. If your branding signals that you stand for something, then stay loyal to those principles. If done properly, you are sure to create a positive image in the minds of your customers.

Branding cuts across all industries. Whether you're managing an e-commerce business, a web design and development agency, or any other type of business, it's your responsibility to create the right reputation and perception of your business on the market — and that starts with consistent product branding.

Use the power of consistency

Building a valuable digital product is good, but it's not enough. To dominate in the market, you will need branding that stands out, is engaging, and, above all else, consistent. And that goes beyond using the same color palette everywhere. Everything ranging from your social media communication to your website should be designed to help you generate more traffic and conversions.

Branding involves setting the right expectations and delivering on your promise — and that applies to sleek, physical products and digital services and experiences alike. This way, you are bound to evoke positive emotions in the minds of your customers.