A strong brand has tangible value. In fact, consistent brands have been found to be approximately 20 percent more valuable than erratic brands, meaning that taking steps to ensure uniformity across your brand can generate serious value. Because so much of your brand is communicated through visuals — such as logo, product packaging, and advertisements — its overall appearance is a vital component of overall consistency. Today, we’ll discuss why visual consistency is so important for brands, and how setting brand standards can ensure that the same visual look and feel greets consumers every time they come into contact with your brand.
Unfortunately, you can’t guarantee that everyone will see your campaign as you intend them to. Although your audience would ideally see all of your messages in a given campaign, and in the correct order, it’s impossible to perfectly plan the customer journey. To adjust for this inevitable inconsistency, keep a steady visual thread that helps consumers complete the missing pieces in their mind. If consumers see pieces of campaigns out of their intended order, your visuals still indicate that the messages belong to one brand. This way, no matter how your messages are received, you have the chance to make a good impression and get your message out — like when Mercy Health rebranded with consistent visuals across print and digital marketing and increased brand awareness to 77 percent.
We recommend making your brand imagery robust, but still flexible and fluid enough to adapt and grow over time. This way, you won’t abandon the visuals or shift gears randomly for each campaign. For example, if your chemical company specializes in personal care products but also dabbles in other industries, make sure your brand visuals don’t limit your ability to expand further into new markets.
Writing for Entrepreneur, advertiser John Williams writes that when it comes to branding, “you don’t need to be fancy, just consistent.” To maintain brand consistency, we recommend establishing a framework that ensures the same logos, colors, fonts, and images are being used no matter where consumers come into contact with your brand. You might stipulate that your logo must have two percent protected space around it, can’t be placed onto a colorful background, and can’t be rotated.
It’s important to understand the core of your brand and use this understanding to develop the appropriate guidelines for the visuals. If your medical supply firm’s brand communicates a message of innovation and market leadership, make sure that your brand guidelines dictate that the photographs used in marketing materials reinforce these messages.
Because multiple people might develop marketing visuals, it’s important to establish and provide rules that help users prepare for unexpected scenarios. For example, if someone can’t obtain access to your preferred font, provide a few back-up font recommendations that still stay consistent with your general look and feel.
Keeping your brand’s visuals consistent means consumers see the same message every time they come in contact with your brand. When it comes to B2B marketing, did you know that over half of these touchpoints take place before the consumer engages with a vendor or sales rep? Check out our paper, “Engaging B2B buyers before the buying process” to learn how to connect with consumers through “Brand Empathy.”
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