I’m sure we all know the importance of a strong brand. But not everyone understands what it takes to develop their brand. When I speak with clients and business owners, they’ll often agree with me on the importance of building a strong brand. But quite often, I’ll find that the people in charge of maintaining the brand (the employees) are often so busy and caught up in day-to-day work that they lose focus and simply forget about maintaining brand consistency.

Consistency Is Key
Consistency solidifies a strong brand, while inconsistency weakens it. Creating a brand is instant. But strengthening that brand takes time. The number one rule in building a strong brand is consistency.

At VigorFish, we primarily deal with the web so we’re often preaching the importance of a consistent web presence to our clients. It’s very important to keep a consistent style throughout your site. Whether it’s being consistent with color scheme, font choice, button styles or quality of stock photography – keeping the website consistent and using consistent brand elements will only strengthen the company’s brand image over time.

Inconsistency Weakens Your Brand
This concept of staying consistent not only applies to the web, but any portion of your business where the brand is being represented. An example I like to use is with Bank of America. For the record - I’m a happy customer with BofA for over 14 years. Also, I think BofA has a great brand. I only use BofA in this example because they’re the first bank that comes to mind. 

When I think of Bank of America, I get this image of a large company that values great customer service. I imagine it’s a part of their brand image. Let’s say I walk into the bank and I’m helped by a representative that has a bad attitude and that isn’t so helpful. As the customer, I’ll leave the bank thinking BofA offers terrible service. I then tell my friends, they tell theirs and so on. On the other hand, other customers served by other representatives with good attitudes will leave the bank on better terms. 

In this example, Bank of America’s brand is still intact – it’s just inconsistent. Some customers will be happy with their service, but others will not. The inconsistency of quality customer service will only hurt Bank of America’s brand image over time.

It’s the same when you visit a website with a poor design, inconsistent behavior or an unfriendly user interface. Most users will leave the site with a bad impression. Others may not. In the end, the inconsistency only weakens the brand.

Keep it Consistent
The concept is quite simple (Consistency) but the follow-through can be difficult. That’s why companies like VigorFish and other brand agencies are so important. Our passion is brand development. We’re passionate about building strong brands and improving brand awareness. So having a team like VigorFish on board to maintain your company’s brand image is invaluable.
 
Thanks for visiting and reading our first blog post here at VigorFish. We hope to continue to share our insight, thoughts and feelings over the next several decades.

If you have any questions or would like to discuss how we can help improve your brand or online web presence, send me an email.