3 Ways to Stay Brand Consistent in the Digital Age

Current digital trends come with loads of platforms for you to promote your brand — spreading your message. But don't let that fool you: these opportunities could also pose danger in upholding a consistent (and strong) brand.

‘Why?‘ you might ask. Well, how do you make sure your social media manager uses the same logo as Jeff down at the printer? 'They've all got access to that same ol' Drive folder', you might say. Well, I'm pretty sure this Drive folder's got quite some different versions, new and old iterations, specific color variants for specific channels. Etcetera, etcetera. Since no one can really blame Jeff for choosing 'master_logo_new-2' over 'company-logo-use_this_one,' I'm pretty sure you get my point here. So since I have your attention, here are three ways to keep your brand on track in the digital age:

Create a Brand That Fits Your Vision

Keep in mind that customers evaluate every single interaction they experience with your business – and let's be clear, your brand is only as strong as it's perceived. Brand consistency is the idea of keeping your brand clean, for that audience of yours to immediately recognize you for you. It doesn’t start or end with visuals — it expands to things like the behavior of the people within your company – how they're representing it.

Therefore, your brand should be a representation of your company culture, as well as your vision – through and through. Take time to develop a proper brand that suits your company style while serving as a prime example for consistent company behavior. You’ll notice how your peers start building a connection to your brand, simply because it's them. It's built on their idea of the company. Educate them on the importance of brand consistency, and they’ll be sure to check themselves from time to time. In other words: make sure your brand sends the right message and is able to stand by it.

Set Up a Style Guide

Once you’ve managed to create the outline of a strong brand, it’s important to provide them a home. Templates, assets, and guidelines on how to apply and use it. Give them something they can refer to and take advantage of in daily operations. Create a Style Guide and include visual definitions like logo, spacing, sizes, fonts, icons, and colors.

Remember that broad categorizations (such as dark green and light green) aren’t sufficient to uphold brand consistency. Coca-Cola wouldn't say 'yeah, kinda red.' Instead, describe your colors with precise hex code classifications. Again, keep in mind that digitalization comes with multiple channels where you need to communicate your brand. One thing you don’t want to deal with is seeing the thousandth variation of your logo online.

Make Your Brand Digitally Accessible

That’s right folks, we have technology. As amazing as your Style Guide might be, you can't claim to uphold brand consistency as long as your coworkers are unable to make use of it. So make sure to share your Style Guide with the relevant people, and more importantly, share them online. Using a centralized brand management platform for your brand resources helps you save time, while providing you with more control and efficiency. With a cloud solution, you can say bye-bye to those PDF mountains as you're looking for logo guidelines, or trying to find the latest version of it.

To cut a long story short: the need for brand consistency in today's digital world is pretty obvious. When competing with numerous companies, sometimes doing the same thing, the one key differentiator for consumers is the brand. Make sure it's always the very best it can be.