Why is Brand Consistency Important?

When you think of brand consistency, which companies do you think of? Do you even know what brand consistency is?

Whether they like it or not, every company has a brand. Simply put, a brand is what comes to someone’s mind when they think of your company. A brand is who your company is at the core. Beyond that, it's the personality and character of your company. 

Brand consistency is agreement between all of the marketing elements of a brand. Think of some brands you’re familiar with: Coca-Cola, Nike, Starbucks, Target. These brands were built over many years, and they all have one thing in common: brand consistency.

6 Benefits of Brand Consistency (Why Brand Consistency is Important)

When looking at these brands, it’s easy to see that brand consistency plays an important role, but why? Our brains remember patterns, so they naturally recognize and create them — patterns make learning and remembering easier (Neuroscience News). This makes brand consistency, as a goal, important for several very important reasons. 

Brand Consistency Builds Brand Awareness

When a business first begins, it needs to identify its target audience and ideal customer, and speak directly to them. It needs to speak to them with a consistent visual identity and consistent brand voice. Building brand awareness is an essential part to a company’s growth; it’s how a company gains recognition and begins getting sales.

As the business grows, consistent branding helps build brand awareness and brand recognition. When brands are consistent, customers begin to associate different colors, styles, or marketing techniques with a company or brand. Consistent brand identity is important because this is when your brand starts becoming a pattern. Common sense tells us that brand association and patterns are good things.

Brand Consistency Communicates Credibility

In their discussion on cohesive departmental branding, Northwestern  mentions that it “confirms credibility as part of a larger, unified brand.” A unified brand creates a stronger company.

Brand Consistency Makes Your Brand More Trustworthy

The reason why referrals and recommendations are a big deal is because people buy from companies they know, like, and trust. We know what we’re getting when we buy from Nike. If someone you know and trust recommends a company to you, you are more likely to do business with that company (as opposed to one randomly found online). Consumers trust brands they recognize (or know).

In her helpful discussion on the importance of brand consistency, Beth Pop-Nikolov mentions that giving consumers a reliable experience across all communication channels is synonymous with giving consumers a reliable product. If you’re consistent in your branding, you’ll be consistent with the delivery of products or services.

Because of this, brand consistency communicates trustworthiness. In turn, this trustworthiness eliminates confusion and helps build confidence. When customers trust you and are confident in your brand, they are more likely to purchase from your company.

Brand Consistency Helps Manage Perceptions

As part of a company’s branding, consistency also helps manage perceptions. When the brand doesn’t change, expectations don’t change. When you give your customers a consistent brand experience, they know exactly what to expect. Take Starbucks for example. Every time a customer walks into Starbucks, whether in California or Florida, he or she knows what to expect. The atmosphere is as expected, and the Caramel Macchiato tastes the same.

What if, tomorrow, Starbucks changed their logo to a pink cartoon mermaid.

You would be so thrown off you wouldn't know what to expect. You would wonder, what else has changed?

Along the same lines of perception management, brand consistency builds on previous client experience and previous successes. No one is wondering, “I wonder what the Coke will taste like this time…”

Brand Consistency Takes Marketing to a New Level

When you are watching TV, a commercial comes on. Before the logo appears or a name is mentioned, light backgrounds, bold outfits, whimsical styling, and touches of white and red tell you it’s a Target commercial. There are variations in their branding, but for more reasons than the logo flooding the screen, the ad screams “Target.”

This is marketing on a completely different level. Without a single reference to the company, this ad has you thinking about, shopping in, and buying from Target. When your brand is so synonymous with your product experience that all a customer needs to see is your logo to imagine buying from you, you have taken your branding to the next level.

Brand Consistency Builds Brand Equity

The last thing companies want to do is waste money. Inconsistent branding often does just that. Northstar Marketing compellingly makes the point: “Without established brand standards, many organizations spend thousands of dollars crafting a logo and building a message, only to have it degraded by inconsistent, sloppy application. Build equity in your brand by being consistent.”

Consistent branding protects investments made in brand development and builds brand equity over time. This equity comes in part because of customer loyalty and brand recognition. Access Development gives the statistic that 86% of consumers say that loyalty is driven by trust. Twenty-six percent of consumers specifically call out “consistency” as part of this loyalty. 

When building a company, it is essential that brand consistency is a driving force throughout all communication. When we look around, we see that the brands with the biggest and most recognizable names are often the most consistent brands. Brand consistency helps bring your company through all stages of business growth. From building brand awareness and recognition, to communicating credibility and managing perceptions, to finally building equity and making your company valuable, consistent branding is crucial infrastructure for building any business.

Let me hear your thoughts. Why do you think brand consistency is important? Have you seen an example of inconsistent (or consistent) branding that really stuck out?

Convinced consistent marketing materials are important for your brand?Need some help? If you want to get started building (or maintaining) a consistent brand, contact Inkling Creative today!

Or, if you want to maintain brand consistency with design yourself, check out my course Attract + Transform. In this course, I teach you the skills and resources you need to make your company memorable and your brand consistent..