Overseeing brand consistency can be a challenge for any company or organisation, but it is critical. Sometimes even the smallest details such as colours, logos and tone can change the way that your company is perceived by potential clients, customers and partners.

Why is brand consistency so important?

Your brand is one of the most valuable things that your business has. No matter how big or small your organisation, your brand will communicate what you do and deliver your service or product to your desired audience. The elements that are incorporated into your brand such as logo, colours and tagline are the key to creating and maintaining an impression. Therefore it’s important that this is clearly defined from the start.

Creating your branding style guide

As you begin to develop your brand, you need to start thinking about the following questions:

Are colours perfectly matched?

  • What is the quality of my printed materials?
  • What tone does the chosen font convey?
  • What delivery medium should I choose?

Ensuring that your visual branding and messaging is consistent across all channels will not only reinforce your identity but encourage current and prospective customers to trust in your products or services.

Of course, this does not mean that all of your branding efforts need to look exactly the same but the concept of ‘visual cohesion’ should always be kept in mind. Usually, you’ll see a natural progression from the creation of your brand to establishing a brand style guide for future designers, whether internal or external, to work with.

Brand consistency on a larger scale

Depending on the size of your business, you might want to think about a centralised brand portal to ensure that the creation and management of your brand remain consistent across all channels and materials. Something such as a marketing resource management system can be controlled by your own members of staff and house multiple, localised versions of pieces that can be created, managed and distributed to your clients or customers. You could even provide an external team with the required tools to create approved marketing materials that adhere to your brand. Without this, you may see multiple variations in messaging and branding efforts that will erode the strength of your brand.