The Importance of Brand Consistency in eCommerce

Consistent branding is crucial for success in your business. It improves the overall customer experience, makes you recognizable, and helps set you apart from your competitors. Brand consistency takes a little bit of work in the beginning, but once you have a solid brand, it is easy to keep up with.

What Is Brand Consistency?

Brand consistency is ensuring that your brand is presented the same across all platforms and customer touchpoints. This includes colors, fonts, messages, and values. The goal of brand consistency is to promote a unifying image, no matter where your customers are looking for you.

Why Is Brand Consistency Important?

One of the biggest reasons to have a consistent brand is for brand recognition. Say a potential customer finds you on Instagram and is interested in finding you on other platforms. If they go to your Facebook, Twitter, or website and your brand seems different, they are going to think they have the wrong company and leave. Think of the brand Nike. Customers immediately know when they are visiting any of Nike’s pages by their signature “swoosh” logo, their famous slogan “Just do it”, and their simple color scheme. There is no question if you are visiting one of their pages.

Keeping your brand consistent also helps keep you at the top of your audience’s mind. If they know exactly what they are looking for, they start to feel more familiar with your brand and are more likely to come back to shop with you again. Everything about your tone and aesthetic connects you to your audience, and you want to make it as easy as possible for them to recognize you.

How To Ensure Brand Consistency:

With a little planning, brand consistency is fairly simple. Start by creating a style guide for your brand. This will include your logo, color scheme, fonts, language, tone, and anything else that will help you build an identity. Your style guide will depend on what speaks to you as a business and your industry. There is no right or wrong when it comes to creating a style guide, but create a style guide that reflects your brand. For example, a bright red and yellow color scheme is more suited to a fast food restaurant (like McDonald’s) while a simple neutral color pallet and clean fonts are better for luxury brands (like Dior).

Create your brand story and keep it consistent across all platforms. This can include why your company started, why you are passionate about what you do, your journey to get where you are today, or anything else that helps bring out your personality. Having a brand story not only helps you stay consistent, but helps you connect with your audience. As your brand continues to grow, you can update your brand story. Your About Us page is an excellent place to add this.

Post social content consistently. It doesn’t have to be at the same time every day, but choose how often you want to post on each of your social channels and keep up with it. It is perfectly fine to experiment with this to see what your audience responds best to- there is a fine line between posting too often and not enough. When creating posts, make sure to consult your style guide!

Brand consistency is all about knowing who you are as a brand. There is always room to grow or adapt, as long as you are staying true to yourself. If you are planning a major branding overhaul, think very carefully through the process and give your audience a heads-up so that they are not put off by the changes. If you are creating a brand new brand consistency strategy, keep your ideal customer in mind and use it as a guide to ultimate customer satisfaction and brand growth! Do you think your brand is consistent? What are some of your favorite brands to follow? Let us know in the comments!