Having consistent branding throughout a company is one of the keys to successful marketing, and with the digital age in full swing it’s no longer good enough just to have a brick and mortar presence, you need to be visible online too. This can cause conflict between on and off-site branding, but using your brand logo on everything from the signs outside your office through to every page on your website is important, and if done correctly this consistency raises brand awareness and ultimately helps convert customers.
Uniformity & Reliability
Every part of your branding efforts should have a uniform feel. For example, your logo should appear on the same part of each webpage (such as the top right-hand corner) and it should also feature on the same part of your branded stationery including on your letter headed paper, envelopes and leaflets – using an online service that provides customisable stationery printing can help maintain regularity. This will evoke a sense of familiarity between your brand and your target consumers, and this is how you draw new customers in; they feel they trust you before they even use your services due to brand recognition.
In the US, Apple have a blank canvas and can easily recreate every apple store anywhere they set it up, but in other regions the company has to recreate their stores amongst the pre-existing buildings, making matching the branding harder. Even under these limitations, Apple always strive to keep the core feel of their stores as on brand as possible, with large windows, an open layout and with a very ergonomic feel.
Online & Offline Presentations
When you present a brand both on and offline, they need to work well together to support your marketing strategy. Your email signature should always include your company logo and slogan, as well as contact information and this is the same for business cards. Everything needs to match, so that it all works fluidly as a whole and has a positive influence on the way your brand message is perceived.
Having the same colours, format, logo and wording in each line of communication helps raise trust; customers pick up on the familiar themes which subconsciously strengthens their conviction in the brand. Even with different shapes, Amazon boxes can be very easily distinguished from others, showing that even minor changes with distinctive prints and logos can help reinforce the brand. Coke’s distinct bottle design was originally created to ensure that it could be recognised, even if broken, under limited light, or in a bucket of ice. Reviewing Coke’s online, and offline branding, the consistency is obvious, with the colour scheme, cursive logo, and bottle designs all displayed prominently across platforms.
Create Brand Guidelines
When you run a small business it is imperative to ensure that all of your staff are on the same page, having a set of guidelines to reference when creating documents, marketing the brand, or setting up a new webpage for the site, makes it easy for everyone to portray your brand exactly how you see fit, both online and offline.
Having a consistent message across the board will help you to portray professionalism, show stability and promote reliability and all of these features will help you to run a successful business.
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