Myth Busted: Brand Consistency DOES NOT Create Monotony

Everything from your mom’s lasagna to your wifi benefits from consistency. The interesting thing about consistency, branding and otherwise, is that in all scenarios it equals success.

Keeping thought, strategy and implementation consistent builds a strong brand with notable trustworthiness, dependability, dedication and quality. When a brand is consistent with image, product and service, it almost ascends to a higher level of marketing that says, “Ya, we know we’re great but so does everyone else because we know how to keep it real.”

Consistency doesn’t mean monotonous or unvaried. It means that your brand is recognized, respected and recommended. People come to know what to expect from your brand and will be more likely to share that good experience with others.

It also deeply relates to User Experience and ensuring your customers have a pleasurable and consistent experience from start to finish. Basically, brand consistency is gold.

Ensuring the branding message and style is consistent across the board builds loyalty and trust in consumers, elevates your marketing influence and creates a sense of dependability.

Brand consistency does not just stop at your website, however. You should ensure that the following are all on message and inline with the rest of the channels you cover.

• Social Media
• Email Marketing
• Audio or video channels (podcasts, youtube etc)
• Marketing and Advertising
• Events
• Customer Service or Customer Relations
• Literally anything else you can think of

On the flip side, another important area of business that absolutely has to be consistent is your follow through and follow-up with clients. You shouldn’t only focus on showing prospective customers that you’re consistent and reliable, but also follow through in order to keep your current customers happy and coming back.

Good business comes in through referrals. Leverage the relationships you’ve maintained for years after the initial sale. Be consistent, authentic and truly care about your clients and customers. You don’t want to disappear once you’ve made a sale, you want to stay fresh in their minds so they not only know you care, but also so they know what you’re up to.

You’ll consistently get referrals when you consistently inform clients and customers about what is currently going on with you and your brand. By staying fresh in their minds, they know exactly what you’re working on which in turn helps them make a connection to your brand when a friend or coworker mentions they need a product or service you provide.

From brand image to customer relationships, consistency truly is king.

Recently, I was talking with industry leaders Will and Tina Walczak, owners of Hiilite Web + Marketing, about a recent client experience. This client came to them with a mission to help the community of Royal Roads University understand the importance of sustainability. When the Walczak’s did an audit of their distribution channels, they were shocked to identify a massive disconnect. There was almost no consistency between the website, social media platforms, email marketing and more. At a glance, you’d have no idea of the importance of sustainability on campus.

This story got me thinking. Many brands who do not have the pleasure of working with a major marketing company need to follow one simple rule - consistency. You can save yourself a huge headache and pricey (but necessary) rebranding strategy if you just keep it real and really consistent from the get go.

Tina explains/says that “in order to educate your audience, your brand message must be clear and top-of-mind."

Tina's solutions is “keep your brand message consistent. Everything communicates: from the way your company’s voice sounds (the words you choose, and the language you use), to how staff treat customers, and to the messaging you use on your website. This isn’t rocket science, you get to control your user's experience."

Whether you have a personal brand, a major brand or are just starting to build a new brand, have a close look at everything you’re doing and ask the people on your team to do the same. There shouldn’t be any discrepancies, and if there are, make it a priority to fix them.