Your brand is who you are. It’s not just a random logo or a randomly picked slogan. It is so much more than that.
Your brand should portray the vision, mission and the purpose of your company. Once you have carefully chosen all the components of your brand, you should stay true to it.
Your branding will determine the direction of your business. If you want your consumers to be loyal to the brand you want to become, you should be loyal to it in the first place.
Uniform branding sends a clear message to your consumers, which is why you need to think it through before launching any of it into the marketing atmosphere. Here are some key elements to think about:
Consistency
According to Mitch Joel, the author of Six Pixels of Separation, a brand is a complete experience and manifestation that a company produces, and how it is then internalized by the consumer.
Developing the same look for your brand across all marketing channels shows your customers that you are consistent with your work. Just try to put yourself in the shoes of a customer. If a brand you encounter has a different logo on their website and in store, or if they use different colors in their emails and on their website, wouldn’t you be confused?
A slight difference, as simple as the position of the text on the logo, can make a huge difference – the difference between gaining a client and losing a client in fact. Even if people aren’t directly aware of these differences, they perceive them subconsciously, and it really makes you look sloppy. Inconsistency may also confuse your clients. If you saw the McDonald’s “M” in blue, I’m sure you would think it was a no longer the real thing.
Remember that people are visual beings – they will remember your branding, and associate it with certain things and emotions. You don’t want to end up trying to rework the connections they have already made.
Familiarity
Why do we always buy the same brand of milk or the same brand of computer? It is because we are familiar with it. We know what to expect and we know what we are getting for our money. According to Harvard Business School professor, Gerald Zaltman, consumers often don’t even look at the alternatives to their chosen brand. Therefore, the one thing we need to do is make consumers choose our brand in the first place, but how do we do this?
A brand is what gives your company personality and attitude. People relate to this personality, and this is what helps your company build strong relationships with consumers. They need to get to know you, your reputation and your product or your service before they are ready to make a purchase. In short, we buy from the brands we trust and brands we are familiar with. This leads to brand loyalty, and, eventually, it fortifies the company’s position on the market.
Building familiarity takes time and a series of memorable contacts. That’s why branding uniformity is so important. You need to present your company and your product in the same way across all marketing channels for the customers to be able to familiarize themselves with it. You need to keep reinforcing the image you want to send out with every contact, and do so by sticking to the branding you have chosen. Even if you come up with an idea you like better, if there are people out there who have seen the original branding, that is what you will have to stick That’s.
Recognition
Being easily recognizable can make a difference between a sale and a fail. If you make sure that the look of your brand is the same across all media channels, across your website and even your offline imagery, your consumers will be able to recognize your product and will more likely purchase from you again. Building recognition again takes time, but it will take a lot less time if you make your brand uniform.
For example, if you are attending an exhibition or a networking event, making sure that the banners and stalls you use are branded will help attendees recognize you and come check out your offer. If your website theme is orange, but your stalls are blue, people will not immediately make the connection, and you might get lost in the sea of other exhibitors.
Standing out from the Competition
No matter how original the name of your business might seem, there is probably another company out there with a similar name. I’m sure there are a bunch of companies called Apple all over the world. Yet, at the very mention of the word apple, the first company that comes to mind is certainly not one making organic juice, is it?
What makes them stand out from their competition is precisely their brand uniformity. They don’t just apply this branding to their logo, you can see it all over their stores, their packaging, and basically all the marketing elements they employ across all channels, online and offline. They are selling more than just a product. They want you to buy into a lifestyle, a way of lie, become a part of the brand.
What you should aim for is to be visible to your consumers and make sure they can easily recognize you whether they search the internet, use social media networks or come across your advertisement in the street. That way, you will have a much better chance of making a sale and closing the next deal.
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