Valuable Ways to Build Brand Consistency

What does it mean to be brand consistent? In simple terms, it’s spending the time to plan and implement strategies and processes through all your customer-facing channels, reaching all customers anywhere they encounter your brand to deliver a consistent message and impression. From tailoring the appearance and content of your website to implementing uniform messaging throughout all communication channels and platforms, brand consistency requires careful planning and constant tailoring to meet shifts in customer engagement.

While most businesses develop core values and a mission statement before their brand launches, achieving true brand consistency requires a few extra steps. Here are tips to help you prioritize brand consistency in your business and ensure your customers experience the same impression and messaging, no matter how they interact with you:

Your customer service agents interact with new and returning customers every day. However, true brand consistency is achieved by training every employee on the fundamental values and messaging of your business. Why is this important, even if the employee may not be client-facing?

Advertising or marketing employees may not speak with customers directly, yet they are responsible for representing your brand. Training these employees on key brand messaging ensures the materials created to showcase your business contain the same messaging across all channels.

Managers and supervisors may not only oversee customer-facing employees; they may also be responsible for evaluating and coaching those employees. Truly effective customer service staff have oversight from managers who help reinforce the principles of your brand and offer valuable feedback for employees.

Media inquiries may require funneling through other employees to reach your PR staff. Administrative employees need to also deliver consistent branding to further synergize your branding across platforms.

One mistake many companies make is to choose a single branding message and stick to it, despite their core services or products shifting and attracting new clientele. Even if your essential business principles remain the same, revisiting your branding at intervals can lead to measurable improvements, such as increased customer conversions and reductions in returns.

Some small business owners may be hesitant to commit valuable resources and time to regular branding meetings and brainstorming sessions. However, experienced customer service providers like Canon ITS offer expertise with incorporating data in branding decision-making. What might that look like?

• Communicating trends in customer interactions (including demands for new products or services) so you can adjust messaging to meet this emerging customer segment


• Measuring customer interactions in real-time across various channels, helping you determine what subtle shifts in branding resonate best with consumers and investors


• Collecting and aggregating customer sentiment data (through surveys or social media interactions) to provide data-driven suggestions on shifting your branding

While many people think of branding in terms of slogans, calls-to-action, or mission statements, considering the visual representation of your brand is equally important. Significant research has been done over time on the value of consistent graphics, color schemes, and even the icons you choose for your website’s buttons and how they translate into greater customer engagement.

To make your visual branding sync with the messaging you deliver to customers, here are a couple suggestions:

• Create a brand style guide to define your unique elements and marketing rules to keep everyone on the same page as well as your materials and messaging on-brand. Your brand style guide should include your company’s mission, color palette, fonts (including when and how they’re used, such as for certain headings, etc.), voice and copy guidelines, photo and imagery styles, and any other information that your team needs to maintain consistency.


• Believe it or not - repetition and boredom are both signs that your visual branding is consistent! If your color schemes, icons, and images are the same, no matter which channel you review, you’ve achieved true branding consistency in a visual sense.


• Create several different visual themes, and test them out with friends, family, industry colleagues, or even loyal customers. The most honest and helpful feedback on your visual approach will come from folks who haven’t been painstakingly choosing between different color schemes and are operating at a distance from your brand.