Brand Consistency

Why is brand consistency key? Well, not only does it make decision making in marketing activities so much easier and quicker, it’s essential for being noticed and building a rememberable brand.

How do we become a rememberable brand?

Firstly, let’s explore how our memory works. We have two types of memory, our short term memory and long term memory. Our short term memory is very limited and gets easily distracted, whereas our long term memories are built up of pattens.

We’ve all been in a situation when someone we’re talking to is telling us some important information, like a name or number, but we don’t have a pen or paper to hand (which is ironic because all we do is grab free pens when out and about). We repeat the information over and over in our head, but as soon as we put the phone down someone asks us a question and…voila…like magic, the name and number we’ve tried so hard to remember has vanished. Thats an example of our short term memory.

Thankfully our long term memory works completely different. How? Well as we discovered earlier it’s made up of patterns and once that pattern is created the slightest hint of relevance will trigger that memory. That trigger could be anything at all…even a sound, think back to the last McDonald’s TV advert you saw, as well as the visuals there was a distinctive whistle sound that you instantly related to them, and maybe even repeated after you heard it. Another quick example is colour. Virgin are successfully consistent with their brand colour, whenever you see anything to do with Virgin you see the same colour red, from their planes to their credit cards and everything in-between.

We can’t switch our long or short term memory on and off, even though that would be handy, and we don’t always remember everything first time around. Consistency helps your audience subconsciously build a memorable pattern. Before you know it they’re recognising your brand by just seeing your brand colours, or associating your brand to a particular sound or icon. When you give your audience a consistent message to focus on they’ll easily be able to remember it. Putting you at the forefront of their mind.

Without brand consistency your business will most likely never pass peoples short-term memory.

Lets look as some examples:

Looking at the image above, can you identify what brand it belongs to. Thats right, Amazon. How did you know? Well, Amazon are masters at consistency, this icon is everywhere, from their TV adverts to their parcel boxes. Not only that but their message is always the same and communicating the same personality. This not only makes it rememberable to us but we develop a trust with the brand, even if we’ve never engaged with them before. Its just like if someone was to tell you about a great restaurant, and then only a few days later another friend has the same opinion, and the more you hear that consistent opinion the more you start to trust it, whether good or bad.

Lloyds is also a great example, all we have to see now is a black horse and we will think of Lloyds bank. We all know their brand colours are green and black but they don’t only show these colours in their logo. Again think back to the last Lloyds TV advert you saw, every little subtlety has been considered to trigger your long term memory associated with them. To achieve this they’re very particular about the landscapes, characters and props they use, for example the iconic black horse in a bright green field.

Thats why brand consistency is so important. It’s the key to not only building rememberable patterns but triggering them. Making your audience grow to love and trust your brand, increasing your brand awareness and ultimately gaining you more loyal customers.

You can make consistency easy by adapting a personality that best represents your brand. Every brand and marketing decision should reflect your brand personality. If not, then it won’t be consistent, and you wont see the results you’re hoping for. Having a clear understanding of your personality will create a very powerful and rememberable brand. To help you choose your personality, have a read of another one of my articles: Channeling Brand Emotion.

Understanding your target audiences is essential. Theres a lot more to consider apart from how people remember, such as how people see, focus, think and even read. Understanding your audience to this level will help you communicate with them effortlessly. Stay tuned for my next article, which is exploring how people see colour.