Brand yourself today

Every business’s plus point is its brand consistency. You will see brand consistency everywhere around yourself; the stop lights, exit signs, pedestrian crossings, emergency vehicles etc. Everywhere you go, you will be surrounded by brand consistency. How do you recognize these products? You recognize them easily because they all have been branded. All everyone talks about in business and entrepreneurial seminars is about keeping the look of your business, all the time.

How do you maintain brand consistency in this competitive world? And why is brand consistency so important for survival in the market?

Let’s take the example of coffee. Now assume you have four options; Starbucks, Krispy Kreme, Dunkin Donuts and Tim Horton’s. You are asked to choose one of them to buy coffee. Which one will you choose? Majority of the people will choose Starbucks. Even though, Krispy Kreme’s, Dunkin Donuts’ and Tim Horton’s coffee is equally good but Starbucks has earned the brand name and brand consistency in the coffee world. Thus, given an option amongst any other coffee brand and Starbucks, majority of the people will choose Starbucks. And you know why. So, how to keep your brand consistent?

IMPLEMENTING YOUR BRAND

Implementing a brand is incomplete without a plan. If you don’t have a plan then you don’t know where to go about or what to do with your brand. When you are implementing a brand, you have to plan everything for every touch point of your customer’s journey. This creating a plan means making guidelines like visual identity guidelines, verbal identity guidelines, digital guidelines and print guidelines. Another step of implementation process includes updating training modules and brand resource centers. Many organizations develop help centers and create brand modules so that new people can educate themselves regarding the functioning of the brand. To implement your brand effectively, there needs to be factors in all other types of communications like social media, advertising, networking, conferences, events, speeches, exhibitions etc.

FINDING AN APPROPRIATE MARKETING VEHICLE

A marketing vehicle for your brand should be one in which you are comfortable to implement your brand and you know that your target audience will view it. These vehicles can include media testing, templates like presentations, business cards, brochures, internal websites and country specific homepages and, the design of packaging mechanicals like printer ready files built to printer’s specifications.

USE SOCIAL MEDIA

There is no better way to attract your target audience in this new generation than through social media. Social media is one of the key parts of brand management which is mostly interpreted as a means of controlling your brand and keeping a consistent image. The use of social media encourages a two way relationship between the brand and its customers. It encourages dialogue and continuous evolving impressions of brand in people’s mind.

Brand consistency used to be about limiting external influences and rigidity was synonymous to consistency. Now, with the internet ruling everyone, a one way communication can in no way lead your brand to be consistent. To survive, every brand needs to co create with their customers.