Let me guess. You have at least one Apple product somewhere in your household.
If you don’t, I bet a close relative does. (Tangent: This might make me unpopular, but I personally am an Android user. However, my husband *made* me a Mac user…so I guess that makes me a hybrid ;+).
Let me also guess. If you saw an Apple or a Target commercial, you would know long before the logo was shown which company the commercial was advertising.
Am I correct? Believe it or not, it's because
Branding Matters...and Patterns Matter
Apple and Target take marketing and branding to a whole new level, but hopefully, those illustrations serve my point: branding matters. Brand consistency matters.
And I want to explain why — from neuroscience.
Our brains remember patterns, so they naturally recognize and create them. Patterns make learning and remembering easier (Neuroscience News). If information is contained in a repetitive pattern, it is far easier to remember. (Something I have most definitely learned from experience).
And as such, we want our companies to become one of those patterns. We want people to remember our company when they see a color, hear a jingle, or view a shape.
Question: if we want our brand to be remembered, if we want our brand to become a pattern, how do we do this? Answer: By having consistent branding.
Brand consistency is agreement between all of the marketing elements of a brand’s visual identity such as your logo, your colors, your fonts, and your style.
If you always use different logos, you dilute the consistency and integrity of your brand. Your brand still may become a pattern, but it will likely take longer. Also, psychologically, people trust your brand less — and people buy from companies they trust.
Brand consistency speaks to the reliability of your company — if people can trust your company to look the same, they can trust your company to be the same and deliver what you promise.
It’s psychological:
If you’re consistent in your branding, you’ll be consistent with the delivery of products or services.
To make your brand memorable, you need to make your brand consistent.
[Relearning everything in your twenties gives a great perspective on why things are the way they are. And a brain injury can teach you a lot about business.]
So that’s your action item for this month:
You need to make your brand consistent. To do that, you first need to change your mindset and how you think about and present your brand. Just like a consistent person is reliable, think about your brand the same way. If you are in charge of your marketing materials, this will change the way you create them. And whether you create them or someone else does, you need to…
Create an easy way to keep your brand consistent. Keep your logos, your fonts, your icons, and all of your brand assets in an easy-to-access location (along with a quick reference guide like a brand board).
Remember, a consistent brand is a memorable brand.
If you need help with gathering your assets and creating your brand board to reference, email us, we would love to help.
Rooting for you!
