Brand Inconsistencies: What Causes Them And How You Can Avoid Them

Your branding – logo, tone of voice, typography, imagery, and color palette, define you and your product. Creating consistency around all of these elements creates brand recognition and customer connection.

Sometimes, brand inconsistencies come up, and they derail your efforts. These inconsistencies occur when businesses do not have a single source of truth for their messaging and digital assets. For example, many businesses store their logos and assets in Google Drive, but not everyone in the company may have access or the latest files.

This is why your business needs a brand management strategy that gives you an easier, faster, and more reliable way to ensure your message comes through loud and clear. 

From a digital standpoint, inconsistencies can occur when people work in silos. For example, if you have different parties working on email, social, or campaign strategies, the core brand messaging can sometimes get lost. Some of the most common causes of inconsistencies include:

Asset storage: While storing all of your assets may seem like a good thing, it is critical to archive any outdated images, videos, logos, etc., so that your team and marketing partners do not use an old iteration of your branding by mistake.

Frequent social posts: When posting across social media outlets, you might be more laid back and share content multiple times a day, so every post doesn’t go through a thorough review process.

Has your business fallen victim to any of these errors in the past? There are solutions! Taking action to improve your branding can reduce confusion, mistakes, and increased time and cost associated with these issues.

Here are a few ways you can improve brand inconsistencies, according to Canto, starting now! 

1 – Create and share clear brand guidelines.

Curate brand guidelines and make them easily accessible to all employees and marketing partners to ensure that all parties have the correct logos, colors, and brand elements. 

2 – Provide specific collateral usage 

Having brand guidelines are important, but it is also critical to inform employees and partners which assets are created for what purpose. Give specific instructions to ensure that there is no confusion! For example, you should share the exact logo, how to use it, and how not to use it. 

3 – Keep collateral in one shared location

Make sure that all of your brand elements are stored in a shared location so that anyone who needs access has it. No one should be storing assets on their personal computers!

4 – Create approval checkpoints

All digital and social assets should be vetted internally and by your marketing partners to ensure everything is correct. 

Are you looking to create greater brand consistency? Ensure all of your digital marketing is being done by one agency partner! Get in Touch to get started. We would love to help you build brand recognition.