Branding Information

By Jeremy Tuber

Have you ever noticed that all of the Old Navy commercials on television all have the same look and feel? How about the mailers that you receive from Staples, Office Max or Best Buy? They’ll feature different products each week, but have you ever noticed how consistent their look is from week to week? Is this an accident or just a company being cheap? Neither.

Big companies know the power of establishing a consistent, recognizable brand image. Now you probably don’t have a business the same size of a Best Buy – doesn’t matter, you’ll still reap the benefits of keeping your business image and brand consistent. Whether it’s a television commercial, web blog, direct mail campaign, etc., there are inherent benefits in keeping your business image consistent. I’ve found four main hurdles that typically keep a company from keeping a brand consistent:

The company isn’t comfortable or confident in the brand – they might not like it

The company elected to buy a quick, inexpensive brand with the idea of adding on later. Instead of making the initial investment in a professional brand, the company is in constant update mode.

The company is attempting to create the brand from in-house people (perhaps the owner her/himself or an inexperienced designer), who haven’t studied how to create a strong, consistent business brand

The company jumps from one designer to another, which can cause rifts in their brand consistency

Advertising agencies would like you to believe that you have to keep your advertising, your marketing message and your image up-to-date, fresh and always looking different, “Never run the same ad twice”. Bogus. Did you know that it often takes your ad or marketing material at least 3 views or impressions by a prospect before she/he even pays attention to it? So you don’t need to radically change your advertising every time you run an ad. Admittedly, there are clear-cut instances that require you need to change things up, but businesses as a whole have often been duped into thinking that they have to change their marketing, advertising and brand image almost as much as they change their pants. Not true.

So how can you capitalize on this? You first need a good brand – hire a professional to do this for you. A unique effective business brand is the catalysis that starts everything off. Make sure all of your marketing is capitalizing on your brand, and that you’re establishing a consistent and cohesive business image. An experienced marketer/designer can do this for you. Once you’ve invested in and established a unique, professional business brand that’s working for you, here are the benefits you can expect to reap (this is what having a consistent brand can do for you):

You’ll receive your future projects much faster. The initial design always takes the longest. You should be amazed at how fast a designer can turn your projects around if she/he has designed a professional brand image for you.

It’s more cost effective. The designer won’t have to reinvent the wheel in coming up with a totally new look and feel, so it will take less labor hours. When you work with an experienced designer, she/he will build the cost savings right in, and you’ll see your costs going down.

Credibility through consistency. Prospects can sometimes experience apprehension in working with a company that can’t seem to pick a direction with their image – they often get confused and assume the company can’t make up their mind. Conversely, consistency leads prospects to conclude that the company is confident, stable and yes, credible.

With all of the distractions out there, it will take a few times of people seeing your consistent brand before it sinks in (called impressions). On average, you’ll need to make at least 3 consistent brand impressions on a prospect before she/he recognizes your brand and takes notice. Staying the course and being consistent will eventually lead to having a recognized, familiar brand image.

An interesting phenomenon happens: prospects feel that if they’ve seen something enough, if it’s being advertised enough it must be good. I know it sounds crazy, but it’s true.

What Happens if You Don’t have Consistency with Your Business Brand, Advertising and Marketing?

You lose credibility

You appear undecided and confused to prospects

Prospects think you can’t make your mind up, look unstable

You look like you haven’t been in business very long

The Bottom Line if You’re a Business Owner:

Building a solid, recognizable brand doesn’t happen overnight.

You’ve heard the phrase, “Garbage in, garbage out” – the rule applies here. To get everything you can out of your brand, make sure that a professional designer creates it.

Realize that having a professional brand designed is an investment, not an expense: Jeffrey Fox writes in “Marketing Superstar”, “Brand names are intellectual assets, often more valuable than tangible assets…Treat great brand names like great paintings; great brands are priceless.

Make sure your designer knows the power of the building a consistent brand across your marketing. As a quick rule of thumb, gather all of your materials and line them up on a table. Are the consistent and cohesive?

Watch for signs that indicate a change is needed. The way to know this is to have your finger on the marketing pulse of your industry. Most all businesses do make shifts in their brand or marketing over time, you may want to as well. If this isn’t your area of specialty, hire a marketing expert to work with you.