Apr 25 2005
Consistency in Branding
In marketing there is a fundamental concept that we call branding. It is one of the holy grails of a marketing effort, and you’re about to see why.
Branding is the act of creating a perception that your product possesses unique properties that cannot be found anywhere else. It also includes the efforts necessary in order to create a recognizable entity that represents your product.
In English – by creating a logo, slogan, service offering, or some other uniquely identifiable trait, your product or company has effectively carved out a niche for itself amongst its competitors. And we loooove that.
How do you do this? Anyone can come up with a logo, or a saying, or representative colors. The art of branding can lie heavily in the marketing efforts associated to presenting the brand to the public.
And how do we ingrain our brand into the public’s pretty little heads? Consistency.
People do not react to marketing messages that they only see once, no matter how fantastic something may be. Occasionally you may have a campaign (or product) so ingenious and highly targeted that a first impression makes a customer, but that is not traditional. What is much more common is a person begins to develop brand recognition through seeing a consistent effort over time. As the brand is continually marketed to the public, brand recognition can turn into brand loyalty. Now we’ve got em!! When you have brand loyalty, you can develop an inherent sense of trust in your product – a sense of quality about your brand.
This adds up to two of my favorite words – repeat business.
So remember – find a trait or image that shows the unique value of your product, then consistently create awareness of it. If your product is worth it, you will develop loyalty that can almost guarantee long-term customers.
