Good marketing work is essential for companies to achieve an important goal when exploring their image in the market: brand consistency.
Positioning aligned with values and identity is crucial. It allows the brand’s audience to recognize its characteristics more in each campaign.
As logical as it is to maintain this consistency, it’s undeniable how challenging it can be. It demands continuous efforts, always respecting the concept the company wants to build.
With this in mind, and with some practices and understandings, it’s possible to build and maintain a consistent long-term image in the market.
The benefits of this consistency in brand positioning can provide significant differentials within competitive markets, generating authority in the segment and loyalty.
In this post, you will understand:
- What does it mean to have brand consistency?
- What can brand consistency provide?
- How to build brand consistency?
- How does it work in practice?
Keep on reading and find out!
What does it mean to have brand consistency?
Brand consistency is a company’s ability to maintain communication and positioning in line with its values and the elements that make up its identity.
In branding work, organizations are always looking to develop their image through actions that explore elements that make up the brand. For this to happen, consistency is essential.
What builds the robustness that organizations seek for their brands is precisely the recurrence in using elements such as:
- the tone of voice used by the brand;
- the graphic elements that make up the identity;
- the use of slogans;
- the application of the company’s values in its actions and campaigns.
The clearer the pattern in the communication and use of these elements is, the more consistent the brand will become.
Besides a matter of coherence, this work ensures a natural acknowledgment by the public. Building an easily recognized image depends on this consistency, and this is the key point of the issue.
Imagine a company that positions itself differently in each marketing action. In a moment, it adopts a more lively and fun tone. Then, suddenly, it chooses a serious approach, even if the subject doesn’t require it.
If this variation happens constantly, there will be natural disruptions in the message, preventing a clearer understanding of how the brand really looks like.
The same problem can happen if there is no consistency in simpler issues, such as the colors used in graphic pieces. This is a crucial detail related to the visual identity of the brand.
What can brand consistency provide?
Good branding work based on brand consistency can bring incredible results for companies in the long term. It happens especially in terms of competitiveness and public relations.
Next, find out the main advantages of consistency and the importance of achieving it.
It differentiates the business in the market
There are markets where competition is high, with many relevant companies seeking to attract and keep the public’s loyalty. Therefore, brands must have a solid identity and maintain regularity in how they communicate with their audience.
When a brand can maintain consistency, there’s a tendency for it to grow as a result of public recognition and identification.
It boosts authority
Authority is an important achievement that brands can obtain if they do a good job when consistently exploring their image. Some companies have developed their image so well that the authority has tied the brand’s name to a product.
Want a concrete example? Kleenex! That’s the name of a brand of tissues. But it’s very common for consumers to refer to the product as Kleenex, even though there are several other brands of tissues.
This is a brand authority at its highest level: when thinking about a particular product, the consumer makes a direct association to a certain brand. In some cases, even this kind of generalization that we just mentioned occurs.
It creates loyalty with customers
Customers are more attracted to brands that are easier to identify in the long term. It’s only possible with a strategy based on consistency.
The consumer wants quality. When they find it in a brand, they need to have the assurance that they will always find it.
In this sense, consistency-focused branding can generate this kind of acknowledgment in the long term, bringing more security to the consumer. The main results are loyalty and, in some cases, enhanced authority.
How to build brand consistency?
The work to build brand consistency is based on strategic efforts that put the company in the spotlight. This is done by aligning ideas with campaigns and marketing actions.
Following, find out what are the basic steps to achieve the expected results!
Understand the meaning of the brand
You must first understand the purpose of your brand and the value it has been providing since its creation.
That should be the starting point. This way, the brand will be respecting the foundations on which it built its audience and stabilized itself in the market.
Only by understanding the brand’s meaning, it’s possible to build a consistent branding.
Define guidelines
Guidelines are essential to ensure that the brand always follows a path in its communication strategies. They are rules that should never be bent since consistency is related to standardization.
Thus, with solid guidelines, the tendency is that branding will always be aligned with the elements that make up the brand.
Use consistent messages
Consistent messages are those that always convey the main idea about the brand. The same approach, a specific language, the traditional tone, and resources such as slogans are essential to give consistency to messages.
The way brands communicate with their audiences daily is one of the crucial points in maintaining consistency.
Meet the expectations of the public
The public has expectations regarding how a company carries out it’s branding. This is related to how that business has built its image over the years.
For example, it might be strange if Netflix suddenly stops using the good-humored approach that brings it closer to its audience. This could lead to a lack of identification and undermine engagement.
Create a positive image
Brand consistency also depends on a positive approach to topics, a coherent positioning, and a perfect image.
The public expects companies to do a good job consistently and stay away from controversial issues or events that leave negative impressions. Keeping distance from that is also part of the job!
How does it work in practice?
After conceptualizing an idea, it’s important to show concrete examples of case studies. Regarding brand consistency, some companies have been very effective.
Learn about some of them below!
Netflix and its communication
As we mentioned, Netflix is a case study when it comes to brand consistency. For years now, the company has been known for engaging in important social causes and humorous language.
It also interacts a lot with its audience on social media, and, especially, uses excerpts from movies and series to generate fun content.
Starbucks and its good use of visual identity
Starbucks is one of the world’s best-known coffee brands. The franchise has emerged as the pioneer in offering not only good coffee but also a pleasant place for customers to enjoy.
In 2011, after a drop in sales, the company decided to promote some changes in its branding.
These changes involved, for example, removing the word coffee from the logo and offering other products like shirts and mugs.
These alterations caused sales to increase, besides making the Starbucks name stronger. After all, it requires great use of visual identity to be recognized without the brand name on the logo.
Heineken and its connection to lifestyles
Heineken also stands out for its well-produced campaigns and brand activations at events.
The company preaches a busy and young lifestyle, always maintaining a sophisticated and precise communication. Its image is commonly linked to areas such as sports and music.
Thus, the company uses this cool approach to connect its brand to those segments, exploring the graphic part of the campaigns, and reinforcing its visual identity.
Investing in brand consistency ensures that a company keeps catching the consumer’s attention while keeping its ideas, values, and identity in focus.
This is essential to generate identification and recognition, key elements to building solid brands that are highly capable of retaining their audiences.
To develop this consistency, learn more about brand awareness!
