Think of your favorite brand.
Whether they sell cars, cereal, or socks, think about what the message is that they convey to you with every Facebook ad, TV commercial, billboard, or Instagram post.
Are they the most durable product on the market? The healthiest? The most environmentally-friendly?
Odds are that the brand you thought of not only has a powerful message that resonates with you, but they also consistently convey that message to their audience.
They hammer a strong message that stems from a consistent brand strategy everywhere they interact with their customers — commercials, brick-n-mortar shops, website, etc.
Today, we’re going to talk about why keeping your brand strategy consistent is so crucial to the success of your business, as well as an example of a brand that got it right.
The number of channels and mediums that your brand should be present on is, quite frankly, overwhelming at times.
According to a recent Forrester report, 95% of consumers use three or more channels to interact with a company in a single transaction.
In addition to the traditional print and television channels, there is an ever-growing digital sphere that you must focus your attention on. Because of all these different channels, you need to make sure that each post, each ad, and each interaction with a potential customer is consistent.
Why? Because customers value consistency from brands.
An Accenture study found that 65% of consumers surveyed expressed frustration over inconsistent experiences or information between different channels.
A focus on consistent experiences and information across physical and digital channels is a focus on customer satisfaction. Satisfied customers and prospects mean more business and help strengthen the overall health of the company.
It would be easier to ensure consistency in your cross-channel marketing if every single campaign was run by the same people. But this is usually not the case.
Graphic designers. Creatives. Copywriters. Web designers. Social marketers. Email marketers. Customer Service. Retail salespeople. The list goes on and on.
All these members of your company determine how your brand is perceived, in one way or another. So, everyone needs to be on the same page to ensure consistency across campaigns and channels.
This is why a brand standard guideline is essential to any business.
This guideline should feature such information as:
The brand standard guideline should be readily available to everyone in your organization, especially those that have a hand in marketing your brand.
Without it, you’ll run into scenarios where messaging and user experience is inconsistent across different platforms. Don’t forget, consumers get frustrated with inconsistent experiences and information.
You can read more about creating a standard brand guideline here.
One brand that we are all familiar with — thanks in large part to their consistent brand strategy and messaging — is Disney.
After acquiring the rights to Marvel and Star Wars, Disney ran the risk of losing their identity of the fun, kid-friendly imaginative brand they once were.
However, Disney has done a great job at retaining its sense of magic and innocence. Through their social platforms, website, physical stores, and most importantly their parks and employees, they are still the imaginative brand we remember from childhood.
While there has been a pivot in Disney’s strategy in terms of marketing their new franchises, they still haven’t forgotten who they are. They continue to constantly create marketing campaigns with the message of the magic of Disney.
For example, the Walt Disney World Instagram page features all of our favorite characters and spots from the parks that we enjoyed as kids, and can’t wait to take our own kids there to experience it for themselves.
It has taken years and years for Disney to create their association with the word ‘magic’ and they are doing a fantastic job of maintaining this relationship.
MediaBeacon helps with brand consistency by providing a single source of truth for your brand assets. With a digital asset management (DAM) system like MediaBeacon, you can store, search for, and distribute images and videos. The assets are approved and can be accessed in one location from all the different teams that run your campaigns. You can easily create different versions of the same asset so that it can be optimized for each channel in the campaign. To learn more about MediaBeacon, contact us.
