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Consistent branding across marketing channels is imperative, and we are not just talking logos. Brand identity flows from the aesthetics of your campaigns through to the message, tone and pitch. Research finds that a consistent brand presentation across all marketing platforms increases revenue by up to 23% (source).
Why is branding important?
Brand identity is the image that your brand portrays onto the world. It is one of the most valuable assets that your business has. This identity forms part of your clients opinion of your brand, so it is imperative that you pitch it right, to attract ideal customers. Your brand also gives your potential customers a level of expectation about what the brand is about and also how trustworthy it is.
There is so much information that can be derived from a brand and don’t think that the customers are not paying close attention.
Why a strong brand is important?
Your customers will use your brand to differentiate between you and the competition. A positive response can pay dividends to your overall success. A negative one will be damaging.
The challenge for brands when they are on multiple channels is to keep the messaging consistent and clear across all channels, but also remain tailored to each audience.
How confused branding can put off customers?
It is a challenge in today’s multi-channel world to hold on to a brands identity when they are communicating across various marketing channels. Yet it is a necessity for brands to be consistent, mixed messages can lead to confused customers, and detract from the overall value of the brand.
For large enterprises who have multiple teams covering your marketing channels, the challenge is greater. One key step to creating a seamless transition from channel to channel is to have very clear brand values that are communicated continuously to your marketing team. This will then be filtered through your communication.
Be adaptive
A successful marketing department will be able to pitch a brands message differently depending on the audience. With social media, it is often seen to have a friendlier tone compared to a push notification that may have a more direct approach. Being able to adapt to the audience and keeping the same values and identity can be a hurdle.
Looking at some of the biggest global brands can provide some insight into how this can be achieved. In an excellent article on Adweek, with Denny’s CMO, John Dillion, he goes into detail about how they created their brand identity across social media, explaining that it was the strategy to create an extension of the experience customers gets in their restaurants [article]. Denny’s have created a successful brand identity, they use their core values across all of their marketing channels, yet constantly pitched to the right audience.
Another brilliant article, this time from Forbes, gives some do’s and don’ts for building a brand identity, and is well worth a read [article].
Simple steps to success
Creating brand guidelines that include guidance on tone across all marketing channels, the more in-depth your guidelines the more consistent your brand communication will be. In addition, these guidelines will provide the boundaries for your marketing team to work within. As already established, brands need to be adaptable to each channel. With clearly defined boundaries in place, your team will be able to determine what language is best for each channel.
For more insight and advice on delivering a consistent brand identity across marketing channels, get in touch with the Xtremepush team and find out how we can help.
Related reading: Maintaining brand consistency across multichannel marketing campaigns
