What’s In a Brand
Before diving into the nuances of brand consistency, it’s important to spend some time getting to know the ropes (i.e., ask the existential questions).
If your company were a person, how would they think? Talk? Act? What would they wear? How would they express themselves? These are all questions that you should ask yourself when considering your own brand – because in creating a brand, what you’re really trying to do is personify your mission to make it easier for your clients to connect with.
Here’s the industry lingo you’ll need to familiarize yourself with.
Logo Usage
A brand’s logo is its visual signature, and like your own signature, it’s vital to maintain its integrity across various platforms to give it credibility and recognition. Logo guidelines usually address its positioning, acceptable variations, and spacing around the image, all to maintain its clarity and impact.
Color Palette
Colors are powerful communicators. A brand’s color palette sets the emotional tone for the interactions you’ll have with your client base. Energy, tranquility, reliability, dynamism – all of these qualities and more can be reinforced by using a specific color code. And a brand maintains visual harmony across different mediums and maintains its connection with its audience.
Typography
The art of typography goes beyond font selection. It’s about clarity, mood, and readability. By setting clear guidelines on fonts, sizes, and their application, a brand can communicate its message with dependability.
Imagery and Photography Style
Images weave narratives. Whether a brand leans towards candid captures, detailed illustrations, or polished photos, it’s crucial to have a consistent visual narrative. Guidelines in this area aid in choosing visuals that mirror the brand’s essence.
Tone and Voice
Every brand speaks in a distinct manner. Whether it’s playful, serious, or somewhere in the middle, maintaining a consistent tone is paramount to maintaining an open line of communication with your audience. Clear guidelines here help all communications echo the brand’s unique personality.
Here’s Why It Matters
In the same way, consistency forms the backbone of a solid friendship; brand consistency is the backbone of a company’s identity and relationship to its audience.
So many of the soft skills required for successful marketing are the same required for maintaining harmony within your social group. Who do you trust, respect, and connect with more? The hot and cold friend or the friend who responds reliably in most scenarios? More often than not, it’s the latter friend we choose to build a long-term relationship with, and it’s because predictability feels safe and attractive to human psychology.
Just like with friends, the brand that continuously reinforces its personality crafts a unified and memorable image in the minds of its audience. This doesn’t just mean using the same logo or color palette everywhere; it’s about conveying a consistent message and feeling across various platforms and interactions.
Here’s what you stand to gain:
Trustworthy Reputation
Trust is a valuable currency in the business world. When customers encounter a brand that consistently presents itself, whether on a website, a social media post, or even a physical product, they develop a sense of reliability towards it. This trust, once established, can lead to increased loyalty and advocacy.
Streamlined Operations and Decision Making
Clear brand guidelines act as a compass for all branding decisions. Whether it’s a design team working on a new campaign or a communications team drafting a press release, having a reference point eliminates the guesswork. This not only saves time but also ensures that every piece of content or design resonates with the brand’s essence.
Favorable Market Positioning
In a crowded marketplace like orthodontics or plastic surgery, standing out is crucial. A consistent brand becomes a beacon, distinguishing itself from competitors. By adhering to brand guidelines, a company can carve a unique space for itself, making it easier for customers to identify and gravitate towards it.
Strengthening Emotional Connections
Brands aren’t just about products or services; they’re about emotions and stories. When a brand communicates consistently, it resonates deeper with its audience, forging stronger emotional connections. These connections are invaluable, turning casual customers into passionate brand advocates.
Implementing and Maintaining Brand Guidelines
Use this as your branding playbook, then thank us later.
Set Brand Guidelines & Reference Them Regularly
There’s always something to be said for having things in writing, and your branding is no different. Take the time to develop your brand image, tone of voice, and personality and then create a brand deck that keeps all of these elements in one central location. The devil is in the details, so include exact shades, font names, and other descriptive notes to help anyone grasp the core aspects of your brand.
Regularly Review and Update
Brands evolve over time. This means that as market dynamics shift and consumer preferences change, it’s essential to revisit and refine your brand guidelines as they grow and develop. Remember: this doesn’t mean a complete overhaul – quite the opposite – but rather making subtle tweaks to keep the brand relevant and resonant in an ever-evolving world. Periodic reviews ensure that the brand remains fresh while staying true to its core values.
Foster Open Communication
Encourage team members to communicate openly about the brand. Whether it’s feedback on a new campaign or suggestions for improvement, open channels of communication can lead to richer brand expressions. It also helps in quickly addressing any deviations from the brand guidelines.
Celebrate Consistency
Recognize and reward teams or individuals who exemplify the brand’s guidelines in their work. This not only motivates them but also sets a benchmark for others to follow.
Trust the Neon Canvas Team
Look – we all want to be as implicitly recognizable as McDonald’s golden arches or the Nike swoosh, but branding takes effort and time that not everyone has, especially when you’re running and operating your own business. The Neon Canvas team is here to take your entire marketing strategy off your plate so that you don’t have to worry. Don’t stress yourself out – instead, trust our team to handle it all for you; call to learn more about how we can help today!