Building a
strong brand is demanding work. Brand
teams are tasked with growing businesses with limited staff and small
budgets. In a world of multichannel
communication and multichannel points of purchase, creating and maintaining a
consistent brand experience can be challenging.
Building
and maintaining a strong brand can be even harder when there are many people
involved in brand communication. Think
about 5 or 10 different people reporting on the news story for different news
media. They will all tell the story a
little differently. When it comes to
communicating your brand message, the more people you have writing copy or
posting on social media, the risk of creating different versions of your brand
message increases. Each consumer touch
point becomes an opportunity for brand building…or brand confusion.
From just
observing the brand communications of many leading brands, you can tell when
there are too many authors speaking for a brand without good control over the
brand message. I have also observed
brands with poor control over their iconography with up to six different
versions of their brand logo in the market across packaging and marketing
materials.
Many of the
most effective brands have simple, consistent messages that are delivered
across all mediums. Consumers trust
brands that consistently deliver against their brand promise. Part of the strength of brand building is
keeping your brand promise and messaging consistent. It becomes harder to connect with a brand
that has a different voice in different consumer touch points.
When there is not good control over
your brand voice, your brand may suffer from one of these symptoms:
- Multiple personality disorder—your brand communication has several distinctive different messages and/or author styles in the market. While each author works to add their own individual value-added touch, they inject a different spin into the messaging. This split personality can sometimes be seen in the communication prepared by your agency vs. your brand team.
- Committee speak / designed by committee—it has been said that “a camel is a horse designed by a committee.” You can recognize brand communication that had too many inputs and crams too many different message points into an ad – the final result often does not match the creative brief.
- Communication of the week/weak—some brand leaders just lack the discipline to define and remain loyal to a chosen brand communication platform. Their messaging is constantly changing, making it difficult to know and connect with the brand value proposition.
- Communication of the novice—some brand work is delegated to younger members of the brand team and is not reviewed before going to market. This group is less likely to be trained in the brand character and brand standards and may communicate in a less formal way that does not fit the brand. This is often observed on Facebook and other social media. Brand leaders that give their intern responsibility for Facebook communication because they actively use social media, can risk introducing a new, very casual voice to their brand.
The
addition of social media to the marketing mix can often lead to multiple voice
communication if there is not a clear strategy and a limited group that is trained
to speak for the brand.If your team has multiple people
creating multiple messages, consider:
- Setting guidelines such as a brand standards manual and communications platform for how to communicate imagery and message points for the brand.
- Limiting the number of people creating communication on your behalf
- Having one person who reviews and approves all brand communication
When your
marketing plan includes a multi-channel media approach, the need for consistent,
integrated brand communication increases.
Review your current communications and identify the steps needed to have
the same message, imagery and branding in market at the same time. This includes product packaging, point of
purchase communication, advertising, PR, B2B sales collateral, social media,
website, event banners and more.
Often with
a tight budget, it is tempting to continue use of some materials while new
brand communication is introduced in different channels. This may be cheaper, but it is much more
effective to achieve the impact and alignment of integrated brand marketing by
introducing a new campaign across all touch points. The big challenge is to avoid having remnants
of several campaigns as you launch new ones.
A regular audit to identify and update out of date materials can help
you stay current and aligned.
In the time
pressured world of trying to do more with smaller budgets and fewer people, it
can be easy to let brand consistency slip as communication is rushed to
market. Don’t let your brand become the
victim of rushing work to market without the appropriate brand review. It is better to have fewer points of
communication that are consistently on brand than a mass of content that speaks
with many voices. While this can appear
to add work at first, over time your entire team will be more aligned and your
brand communication will be more effective in the marketplace.
GrowthSpring Group is a marketing strategy, market research, and
innovation firm focused on accelerating your sales and profit growth. We help
you identify new business growth insights & opportunities and execute
winning strategies & plans. www.GrowthSpringGroup.com
