24/7 we’re bombarded with promotional material demanding our attention. So, what’s so special about a particular promotion that makes us remember what we’ve seen? A major contributing factor is brand consistency.
Brand consistency throughout your marketing establishes a familiar identifying pattern that your customers can associate with. This enables better recall and product placement when key trigger words or images are used. For example – mention a “tick” everyone thinks of Nike, mention “The Flying Kangaroo” and everyone assumes QANTAS. Consistent branding has conditioned us to develop associations. So how can we apply this to our own businesses?
It’s pretty easy actually. It’s all about developing a brand and using the elements of that brand to be the styling of your marketing.
Step one. Get a great logo.
Your Logo should be something that reflects your culture and business philosophy. Make it memorable and make it simple. ….and get it professionally designed! Graphic Designer’s are trained professionals, just like a good accountant, they have your best business interest at heart. Would you ask a friend that dabbles in bookkeeping to handle your complex accounting needs? I hope not, so don’t skimp on your logo design, the wrong choice here could have a dramatic impact on your business.
Step Two. Colours
Your colours are critical. The colours you use in your Logo will become the foundations of the styling applied to all your marketing material. Never try to introduce extra colours, stick with your corporate colour profile, no matter how bored you get with it. Keeping everything consistently coloured helps consumer recall dramatically.
Step Three. Images
Images are a bit more flexible, still, be consistent by creating an image set per marketing campaign. For example, you may have a special offer to promote and the perfect image for that offer is an elephant (???) So, to make that image work, apply it to every marketing reference for that campaign, eg. Print material, website, display ads, electronic mail, social media.
Once that promotion has ended you can then choose other images for the next campaign and repeat the process.
We’ve all said – “remember that ad, the one with the ??? (elephant)”. Consistency creates familiarity. You’d be surprised how many businesses dramatically vary their marketing and then wonder why no body calls. Consistency establishes your business as a recognised provider in your field.
