Brand Consistency

It takes a lot of work to establish a brand - both with your employees and the public. However, it can take very little to undermine it. One of the easiest, quickest ways to undermine your brand is to show inconsistency in what you are delivering to your audience.

Some people find it hard to understand why this is so important - why is something like always using the same font, for example, necessary? These are the same people who will unwittingly erode your brand by making little changes to suit their personal tastes. That's bad news.

A good example of this is a former colleague who was responsible for sending invitations to various stakeholders. The invitations were to brunches, lunches and special events. To ensure consistency of the brand, I had templates created for a variety of documents, including an invitation template. The template included the correct logo, approved corporate colours and the approved, single font in the body. It was easy enough to use: simply place your cursor on the area that needed updated (ie. date, location) and fill in the new information. The font stayed the same.

For this former colleague, however, invitations represented a chance for her to stretch her creative muscles. On one invitation she had sent out, prior to the template creation, she used five different fonts, a variety of colours and clip art. Not a very professional representation of the organization.

Even with the invitation template, this person, like some you will work with, still needed to have it explained why she couldn't use more than one font on an invitation. She really wanted to use a variety of fonts and script types to 'dress up' the invitation. She needed to understand that consistency, even in use of font, helps to show that the organization you work for is also consistent. Being consitent is a very good attribute for any company - so long as you are consistently good at what you do. Being consistent removes the guess work for your audiences -they learn what to expect from you and grow to appreciate and demand that consistency.

Whether it is using the same font, the same layout, the same logo, greeting with the same positive attitude and smile or serving the same delicious food or drink, a consistent brand is a winning brand.