Here at The Branding Spot blog, we like to talk about consistent branding.
What is a consistent brand? A consistent brand presence means that your logo, your brand colors, and the look and feel of your business is consistent across ALL of your marketing collateral and present in every way your customer interacts with your business—from website to tradeshows to business cards and so much more. We like to call this Brand Alignment.
Why be consistent? Brand consistency is hugely beneficial for your business. The more consistent you are across all your brand elements, the more recognizable your brand becomes. When you see fire engine red and mustard yellow “McDonald’s” probably pops into your head, automatically—probably even subconsciously. Consistent branding is just one reason the McDonald’s brand is so easily recognizable and memorable.
The Business of Consistency
Across-the-board consistency is the key to the overall success of any franchise. One of my favorite business books, The EMyth talks at length about this phenomenon. While not all successful businesses need to be franchises, the principle behind the franchise is what makes these businesses work.
Think about it: Whether you go to a Taco Bell in South Carolina or in Wisconsin, you expect your experience to be relatively the same. You expect to receive the same food at about the same price, with the same level of customer service and speed. The EMyth explains, “Discipline, standardization, and order [are] the watchwords.” By standardizing business processes and creating a consistent brand, business owners were able to step outside their business and work on business growth, rather than constantly being distracted by everyday minutiae.
Success means the same customer experience, the same bell logo, and the same bean burrito wherever you go. As a business owner, franchise or not, these principles still apply. The more consistent your branding, the more your brand works FOR your business—so you can focus on GROWING your business!
You Can’t Be Consistently Memorable Without a Great Brand
When you look at this list of fast-growing business franchises, which names immediately catch your attention? We’re betting that you’re familiar with MANY of the fast-growing franchises on the list. (Frankly, I was surprised by how many of these business brands had snuck into MY subconscious. Kumon Math & Reading Centers, for example…but who could forget that strange little face in their logo?)
So why are these businesses so familiar? Well, if you haven’t directly purchased anything from these companies, it’s because you’ve seen their brand so many times that you now know it by heart. If that brand were different every time, whether in look, feel, or in the experience you had when interacting with that business—that brand simply wouldn’t be very effective, would it?
THAT is the power is brand consistency.
A consistent, recognizable and memorable brand is just one business component that sets these franchises above the rest. When you duplicate that power across a variety of locations, you bolster the long-term staying power of the business and the brand. These franchises are growing quickly because they’ve created a brand people can TRUST: both in branding and in business practices, it all comes down to consistency.
How’s YOUR Brand Alignment? If you’re struggling with consistency, it’s time to take a step back and revisit how to get your brand components in line to create a lasting and memorable (and super successful) brand!