Play it Again Sam

The marketing director for one of my longtime clients used to complain "does it have to be purple again?" What she and many others don't realize is that the color you are seeing in your sleep, your prospects might just be beginning to recognize, and if done well, associate with you.

Consistency cannot be stressed enough in brand development: whether it is a color or a font, where you place your logo, the schedule for newsletters and promotions, or the way the receptionist answers the phone. One predictable encounter after another carves your brand in the customer's consciousness.

Its Not All Repetition

One of my favorite advertisers is Target. Their commercials are fun, displaying the same flair and style that they market in their store. Interestingly, the logo and store name are not even mentioned until well into the spots, frequently displaying the signature bullseye in a pattern on a dress or as wallpaper in the background. Often it's not even red, still overtime I know it for a Target ad instantly.

Consistency is about recognition and familiarity, not necessarily duplication. When building brand we are trying to create attachment. Target has room to be very flexible, developing consistency through a certain style. Their continuous advertising allows enough repetition that we see the pattern in their message.

The Flexibility Trap

While Target takes a lot of license with consistency, you'll also notice that some things are always the same. The shape and scale of their logo, the pace of the message, the patterns created with their logo, the font for their name and it's positioning at the end of their ad.

The secret to remaining interesting while maintaining consistency is planning ahead. Before you start a brochure or an ad campaign, make corporate-wide decisions on your brand. What can change, what must stay the same? What colors or color palette will you stick with? What is the underlying message of any marketing direction? In short, know your brand message, the key visual elements that support it and how they should be applied. As your business grows and more people handle distributing your message, your brand stays in your control.

About The Author

Beth Brodovsky is the president and principal of Iris Creative Group, LLC. Brodovsky earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communication Design from Pratt Institute, New York. Before launching her own firm in 1996, she spent eight years as a corporate Art Director and Graphic Designer, providing a sound foundation in management and organizational standards and structure. Iris Creative specializes in providing marketing and strategic communication services to clients in service industries and small businesses. For more information contact Beth at bsb@iriscreative.com or 610-567-2799.

More Resources

Unable to open RSS Feed $XMLfilename with error HTTP ERROR: 404, exiting

More Branding Information:

Related Articles

Brand Components
Your brand is the culmination of everything about you and your business. It is how people come to know you.
Brand Warfare is More of a War than You Think
We will discuss Brand Marketing for a minute. In this discussion we would like to talk about brand line extension and how to do it correctly.
You'll Bring a Parade of Business to Your Door!
Parades happen in every big city and many small towns. They are fun, relaxing and most people are there because they really want to be.
Brand Equity Building - Measuring Brand Value
Measuring brand equity allows a company to establish a baseline and track changes in its brand equity over time. If a company consistently works to improve the strength of its brands, it must trace progress, or risk "flying blind.
Branding Guru - Brand Identity Guru
Branding TodayHave you ever had a good brand experience? How about a bad brand experience? Is there a difference in your mind? How many people do you tell about a positive brand experience? How about for a poor brand experience?One poor brand experience will not destroy a firm. One poor brand experience per day, however, can ruin a company in the long run for sure.
The Importance of Branding - Can It Really Make a Difference?
As consumers, we don't really think about the importance of branding. We just seem to go with the flow of brand names that have become synonymous with our daily living.
How Much Is A Great Business Logo Really Worth?
A great logo can help a business project a positive image while a bad logo can bring a negative impression about a company. For many companies, a logo is the only identifiable mark a potential customer may ever see, so it needs to be memorable, descriptive and easily recognizable.
Branding Your Products Is Important
I was chatting with a couple of friends, all of us are either copy writers or graphic designers?or both?.in the advertising industry, so, naturally, our conversations leaned towards the topic.
Fast Forwarding Your Business
If you think only big corporate names need to think about things like brand names, think again. Your brand says a lot about you and your business, and that's as true for a one person home-based operation as it is for a multinational conglomerate.
A Successful Failure
A successfully positioned business sometimes doesn't win a new client. And that, my friend, is the point.
Do What Works
"Can you hear me now?"You'd be hard pressed to find someone in the US who doesn't know the company behind that question.So why do big companies, like Verizon, hammer us with the same message over and over? Because it works.
How A Crazy Branding Stunt Can Bring Results For Years
As a beginner, you would be forgiven for thinking that marketing is simply advertising your product or service, how wrong you are.Marketing is the art of allowing people to know that your business exists.
New Uniforms Could be the Gold Charm for the Golden Arches
New designer uniforms could be the gold charm McDonald's needs to connect their new hip marketing campaign to their fast-food restaurants. This possible gold charm for the fast-food chain has the ability to let the actual fast-food restaurants reflect the image they are portraying in their advertisement campaign.
Shattering the Branding Myths
If you've been online long, you're sure to have seen many "gurus" give their ideas about branding. However, much of what you read simply isn't true.
Brand Strategy - Brand Value - Brand Identity Guru
Developing brand strategy is extremely critical. The most important asset your company has is its brand.
Brand Value - Brand Identity Guru
Successful Guru marketers have a secret weapon that they use every single time they communicate about their businesses. It's one of those intangibles that are easily misunderstood.
Its Time For Some Steak
Recently, I was reviewing our website statistics. One of the sites that had a link to mine caught me by surprise.
Living Your Brand on the Web - Part 1
OK, so you took the plunge and purchased your internet domain. Good for you! Now what? According to Google.
Branding - Brand Identity Guru
Brands are important aspects of any business, but unlike money or bricks, mortar and paperclips, a brand is an intangible aspect of business. It lives in people's heads and is defined by all of that person's contacts with a company.
Into The Limelight
To stand out in a cluttered world, become a recognized expertThere are millions of small businesses vying for our attention. Yet, because the marketplace is more discriminating and skeptical, it's hard to get noticed.