Positives of brand consistency:
- Projects professionalism
- Promotes customer loyalty
- Limits audience confusion
- Provides creative simplicity
- Builds on internal culture.
Here are 5 questions you need to answer before you can truly improve your brand consistency across your business.
1. Do you understand your target audience?
Understanding your target audience is an essential element in creating a successful brand. The words, colors, images and media platforms you use must be inline with your target audience in order to create engagement.
A few questions you need to know:
- What is the demographic breakdown of the target audience?
- What motivates the target audience?
- What are your target audience's expectations?
- What media platforms do your target audience use?
- What benefits are you offering to the target audience over your competitors?
Knowing who your business is speaking to will help you target your branded communications.
2. Do you keep things simple?
Your branded communications need to be simple and uncomplicated. When you try to do too much with your brand, things get confusing and inevitably consistency is easily lost.
A business should consider these brand-building basics:
- Use only two or three colors and one or two fonts
- Use recognizable and memorable shapes or design elements
- Use clear messages of professionalism, innovation and trust
- Use social media platforms that are easily accessible to your target audience.
3. Do you have a style guide?
An easy way to maintain brand consistency is to create a style guide with clear communication guidelines and specifications.
A style guide should include these essential basics:
- Brand message
- Brand colors
- Logo usage
- Copy – length, voice, tone
- Images and graphic style
- Media platform usage
If you don’t have a style guide then now is the time to create one to ensure a consistent look, feel and audience experience.
4. Do you audit your brand?
Having a clear communications style guide in place allows you to objectively audit your branded communications.
A brand audit should cover these initial basics:
- Business cards and stationary
- Brochures and flyers
- Email format and signatures
- Website and banners
- Social media profiles and posts
Of course, additional elements like advertising guidelines, product packaging, employee uniforms and even office design all play an important role in ensuring brand consistency.
5. Do you actively monitor and analyze your brand?
As your business grows, your target audience reach/diversity may also grow. For this reason, it is important to actively monitor and analyze your branded communications regularly in order to make sure your brand consistency is maintained. Scheduling an annual brand audit workshop allows varying departments to play an active role in the evolution of your brand.
A brand audit workshops should consider the following questions:
- Are brand communications inline with style guide?
- Are brand communications inline with customer expectations?
- Are brand communications inline with market changes?
- Are brand communications inline with industry trends?
Monitoring and analyzing branded communications will help position your brand for long-term future growth opportunities.
Scopic looks, listens and works with you to build a brand that attracts and engages your target audience, contact us to find out more.