CONSISTENCY BUILDS A BRAND

There’s a saying in marketing circles: What are the three steps to building brand recognition? 1. Repetition. 2. Repetition. 3. Repetition.

Of course, repetition isn’t the only requirement for building a successful brand, but it is certainly an important consideration.

The reason for this lies in psychology. The human brain learns through repetition. Seeing or hearing something repeatedly strengthens nerve connections in our brains and imprints it in our memory.

The big brands know this. Take Briscoes for example. I’ll bet that whenever you see one of their mailers or television commercials, you know at a glance who it is for.

Why? Repetition of course. Their brand colours of blue and yellow, the Briscoes lady and the jingle, “You’ll never buy better.” Consistent use of these elements has imprinted them in our brains as belonging to the Briscoes brand.

You might argue that this repetition is annoying. But the bottom line is, it works.

Even for small businesses, consistency is the key to building a strong, memorable brand image.

Employing a consistent style across your signage, website, advertising, brochures and other communications collateral enables your customers to recognise your brand at first glance.

What’s more, this consistency demonstrates professionalism. When your business has a consistent brand image, it communicates that it is established, competent and trustworthy.

Here are some easy steps to take to create consistency in your branding:

1. Engage a marketing professional to help you develop a brand and logo that reflects who you are and what you stand for. Your brand is your identity so it is important that it is based on research and consideration of your industry, as well as your organisation’s unique values and personality.

2. Ask your marketing professional to put together a brand guideline for you. A brand guideline outlines the rules for using your brand, such as the correct colours to use

and minimum size your logo is to appear at. This should be supplied to all internal and external users of your logo and brand.

3. Establish a strong relationship with your chosen marketing and design professional, and work with them to develop all elements of your brand collateral – your stationery, your website, your signage and your advertising. This helps to ensure a consistent style is used across all of your communications material.

4. Once you have established a consistent brand style, stick with it. You may be sick of looking at the same style of advertisements month after month, but chances are your customers aren’t.

Follow these steps and you’ll be well on your way to building a brand that can stand up with the best of them!

Erin Ward is the Marketing Services Manager at Market South. If you would like assistance in developing local marketing initiatives for your business, talk to the team at Market South. Phone 03 214 4455 or email info@marketsouth.co.nz