why is brand consistency important

When you go grocery shopping, you select specific brands and items because you know what they taste like or how they pair with your meals. You would be very disappointed if one day you bought your favorite nacho cheese dip and it tasted much spicier than usual. It might even be enough to put you off that brand and encourage you to try a different one. Consistency is key to loyalty. Without being someone customers can rely on, recognize, and easily discover, you will have trouble maintaining customers. Learn the secret behind brand consistency in content marketing and five tips to help you improve your brand consistency. What Is Brand Consistency? Brand consistency is creating a recognizable and predictable brand. Brand consistency runs deeper than your products. It’s about creating consistency in every interaction and publication. No matter what you do or sell, it should all relate to the brand image you are trying to build. In content marketing, brand consistency includes: Consistent images Consistent content Consistent video More importantly, brand consistency is creating a personality for your brand. Just like your fashion choices, hobbies, and food help define you, your imagery and content will represent your brand. If you want a definition your customers can see and relate to, you must invest in brand consistency. Brand Consistency Examples You will become more than a brand name if you have a consistent brand. Think about the last time a friend described a brand in a way other than the name. For instance, if someone asked if you wanted to grab dinner at “The Golden Arches,” you would know they were talking about McDonald’s. If someone told you to “Just Do It,” you would instantly think of Nike. For some brands, like Starbucks, you just need to mention the product and they will be the first name that pops into your head. Below, you will see how Google uses color to create brand consistency, so no matter which app people use, they still have that tie back to Google. HubSpot’s resource center shows how consistent branding on your website helps unify your posts. Even though they cover a wide range of topics, they connect all their posts. The posts have similar writing styles and imagery. Just look at those post headers. Each has the same fun image style and orange color palette, giving the entire resource page a cohesive feel. Why Is Brand Consistency Important? Branding consistency builds a personality around your brand. Interacting with branded content feels similar to buying name-brand food versus eating generic store-brand food. It is familiar and often better quality. Here are four of the top benefits of building a consistent brand. Increases Trust People are more likely to trust you when you are familiar and predictable. Next time you go to Starbucks, look at the side of their cups. The baristas use lines on those cups as guides so they know precisely how much ice, coffee, and milk to add. In addition, they have consistent recipes for how much sweetener or shots of espresso to add to drinks. Because of those guides, you can always expect a similarly flavored drink. Imagine if, one day, the baristas decided to measure with their heart rather than those guides. You would never know whether your drink will be sweet or bitter. Eventually, you will lose trust in the coffee shop and go somewhere where you can predict the flavor of your beverage. By being a consistent brand through consistent content marketing, your audience and customers know what to expect and trust you because of that consistency. Builds Relationships Would you buy a product from a good friend’s business or a stranger’s business halfway across the country? Building relationships with your customers transforms your business into a trusted advisor. Your clients are more likely to turn to you for advice and products. That relationship comes from being someone your customers can get to know. As a brand, you should keep your personality and appearance the same across your content so your customers can recognize you and become comfortable with your brand, like a friend. This helps your audience connect with you. Encourages Loyalty Loyalty is the natural outcome of building trust and relationships. When someone trusts you and feels connected to you as a friend, they are likelier to remain loyal to you.  About 72% of customers are loyal to one or more brands. There is comfort in reliability and predictability. When customers find a brand they can connect with or like the products, they will remain loyal. Establishes a Recognizable Brand We touched on this point earlier when discussing how easy it is to recognize Google’s apps. Building a consistent brand means more people recognize you across different platforms or even if you have other tools and products. Apple computers are so recognizable that animated movies will feature an Apple laptop, but switch out the logo with any other design, and viewers still know what brand it’s supposed to be. You can build brand recognition through consistent colors, design, speaking style, and logos. Not only will customers be able to find you easier, but you will also stand out among your competitors. 5 Ways to Improve Your Brand Consistency in Content Marketing Follow these five tips to unify your brand and create more consistent content. 1. Unify Your Imagery Brand consistency largely depends on what your content looks like. This includes: Colors Fonts Styles Formatting Here’s a look at two major chocolate companies: Hershey and Ghirardelli.     You’ll first notice they both promote chocolate, yet they look entirely different. Hershey uses bright, fun colors and thick, bold text. All their imagery and colors reflect their brand and ideal audience. Ghirardelli has a more luxurious theme. The colors are natural browns, greens, and blues. This reflects their regular customers. Choose imagery for your social media, blog post images, and email templates that reflect your audience and who you want to be. Then, stick with those colors and … Read more