Brand Consistency

Tell me, is it just me as a graphic designer that notices it or or does poorly designed marketing material make you twitch too? Whether it’s noticing a bad advertisement in a local newspaper while reading an article or the very obviously not-customized twitter background for a self-proclaimed “Social Media Expert” I find myself twitching when such obvious to me branding avenues are sorely overlooked.

I can say with confidence that the most important focus of our company is Brand Consistency.  And by that I mean you have a look, feel, colours, etc, for yourself or your company that you’ve developed into a brand and you carry that through all your marketing material.  So if you’re handing out a business card or brochure they not only look good together but if someone visited the website listed on them it would match, or if they find you on Twitter, that matches too.  Having a brand is important, but USING the brand and being CONSISTENT with the brand is CRUCIAL.

I touched on it in the intro paragraph in what makes me twitch, but how often when you go to Twitter to you see someone with one of the generic twitter backgrounds that you can select in the Twitter back-end?  You know, those brown birds across the top on the light blue/teal background or the carbon-fibre type look one?  That to me screams missed branding and looking professional opportunity.  When I see companies or people that specialize in online services of any sort with those generic backgrounds for twitter I can honestly say my opinion of them starts much lower than someone who has taken the time to customize a professional background image that matches their website.  And by customize I don’t mean use your logo and set it to tile the whole background!

This Twitter profile is just one example of MANY out there.  Having a brand is really important and making sure that it really portrays you/your company is of utmost importance.  If you can capture your business in your brand then when you use that throughout all your points of contact with your customers, so your marketing material, how much easier is it for people to get an impression of your company?  We’ve already established that it makes you look professional by being consistent, but if you have a good brand then it can also help your customers understand you better too.

So the next time you get ready to hand out your business cards at a networking event or start posting tweets online think about it.  Is my brand consistent through all of these things?  And, is my brand consistent with what I want it to portray?  If you’re not sure about either of those questions make sure you talk to your graphic designer so they can make sure you’re putting your best foot forward visually!

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This entry was posted by Anna Kouwenberg on Wednesday, January 16th, 2013 at 4:34 pm and is filed under Branding. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.