When we walk into McDonald’s or Tesco in anywhere of the world, we are greeted by the same familiar lighting, furniture, environment and service. Whether you’re in Thailand, America, Australia or Malaysia, the McDonald’s logo will always be covered in yellow and red while Tesco will be white and blue. This kind of consistency ensures the customers are walking into the right store that they are going after.
Once in a while, we might experience contradictions between what we perceive about a brand on TV or through social media from what we experience in our day-to-day interactions with these brands. These contradictions emerge a questions, “Is this brand really what I thought it was?”
The same thing goes to your company. If elements of your brand are very inconsistent across your physical marketing presence and online presence, your customers will get confused, which may leads to distrustful eventually. To prevent this from happening, your overall branding strategy needs to consistent, in both online and offline.
Connecting the dots between online and offline
To preserve consistency you need to make sure your action is consistent among all channels and platforms, with slight variations (if needed) to fit into the situation. Keep these things in check:
1. Is my overall personality and tone consistent?
2. Is the ‘look and feel’ the same in offline and online?
3. Is my message and copywriting using the same tone and context?
4. Is my price, product descriptions and terms do not vary too far?
Ask yourself the above questions and compare your online and offline efforts to see are they having too much of a difference. If your brand is serious, professional and formal in offline, you really shouldn’t go the comedian way in your social media channel, despite the fact that it will draws more engagements and interactions. The content you produce in your blog or social media should relatively link with your branding strategy.
Imagine if you are speaking on a stage, giving the audience an impression that you’re very friendly, helpful and willing to provide help if someone needs it. Right after your speech ended and people approach you for help, all of a sudden you push them away with a cold voice. How would people feel about it? Inconsistent and weird right? So, consistency is key.
Define Your Brand, Be Clear and Precise
If you’ve decided that your brand will be fun, modern and cheerful, stick to that theme and style unless it’s giving you troubles. Stick to it long enough and people will associate your brand with those positive traits in the future.
Think of durability in car? Volvo
Think of happiness in fast food meals? McDonald’s
Think of modern and prestige smartphones? Apple iPhones
Once you’ve determined what kind of image you want your brand to portray, start updating your online content, marketing materials, social media strategy and so on to match you overall theme and brand personality. Remove anything that is unfit or inconsistent with your brand standpoint.
Branding is an ongoing process, you’ll have to stick to the same tone for at least a year or more.
Remember, consistency is key.
Need help on evaluating your online marketing strategy? Contact us and we’ll be in touch with you shortly.
Sanz Teoh
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