Brand Consistency. When consumers come back to a business for repeat sales, they usually expect to receive the same level of quality as they did the first time. Restaurants and their food and service quality are a great example of this.
No one wants to deal with a company they can’t rely on for consistency. With so many industries being saturated with competitors, inconsistency is often enough of a reason for consumers to take their business elsewhere.
Ensuring that both your messaging and visual branding is clearly and consistently applied across all communication channels makes sense, as strong consistent branding reinforces your identity and drives positive sentiment and trust.
Consistent use of your logo, brand colours and key messaging across all communication channels is important and will help to strengthen your brand identity.
This doesn’t mean that all of your communications have to look exactly the same, far from it, but it does mean that you should strive for visual cohesion. Make sure you stick to a number of standards, such as your colour palette, visual style, font and size and spacing of your logo.
With regards to digital or print design it is important to take into account the fact that different designers have different visual styles. A skilled web or graphic designer will take on your style and emulate that across all of the work they produce for you, unless you are seeking a visual re-brand, you’ll need to ensure that a designer doesn’t ignore your branding in order to impose their own design style on you.
Developing a set of brand guidelines is a natural progression as a brand begins to establish itself and it gives any service providers you work with, a blueprint to adhere to. Your branding guidelines need not be complex (I’ve come across branding guidelines for some big international names over 70 pages long), a simple document detailing colours, fonts and some basic styling information will generally be sufficient.
Keep your visual identity and key messaging consistent and you’ll effectively develop and strengthen your brand, helping your business make a far stronger, long lasting impression.