Managing Brand Consistency
There’s no debating the fact that an online presence is essential in today’s market. Indeed there are only a few niche industries that do not rely upon or are affected by the global transition from workplace to web.
When it comes to doing it right, anyone with an ounce of knowledge of the way the Internet works will agree that representing your business or product online is by no means as simple as throwing up a website and claiming your territory in a small corner of the web.
Aside from the many factors that make a ‘great’ website, such as careful usability consideration, good aesthetic design and well-written copy; there are the numerous other external variables including SEO, PR and email marketing etc that help to promote your website, and in turn your brand.
What is a brand
Well, it’s just your logo and stuff isn’t it? Not at all. A brand is the representation of a business that is portrayed through a range of mediums – logos, product names, colour schemes, slogans, the style of language used to promote a product or service and much more. For a more verbose description, Wikipedia offers us this:
‘A brand is a collection of images and ideas representing an economic producer; more specifically, it refers to the descriptive verbal attributes and concrete symbols such as a name, logo, slogan, and design scheme that convey the essence of a company, product or service.’
It’s often found that as a company grows, the general acknowledgment of the value of it’s branding grows and becomes more apparent. Ideally this shouldn’t be the case, it’s irrelevant whether you’re a new start-up or a multi-million dollar corporation, your company’s image should always demand a level of priority.
However, creating a solid brand can take a lot of time, decisive and objective thinking, creative input and usually a lot more money. Thus many smaller business fail to see it’s relevance; ‘maybe a quick logo mock-up in Microsoft Word and some cheap template flyers should do the trick’. This is not a concept that should be promoted.
Losing sight of your brand
When it comes to web design, many businesses loose sight of their objectives and company image. I’m primarily referring to those that have transposed to the Internet, who already have a physical brand.
There are a plethora of reasons that explain this. Sometimes it’s a misunderstanding of the Internet’s potential which leads to carelessness, also the idea of building a nice new website can cloud judgement and obscure the realistic goals and objectives of a business. This isn’t helped by the appeal of free website templates and WYSIWYG editors that are far cheaper than investing in a professional designer.
Unfortunately taking this approach can cripple your existing image. Preset themes aren’t built around your branding and are almost impossible to manipulate to accurately represent your company.
At the other end of the spectrum, designers can also cause trouble. Even though we, as designers, are supposed to have a clear understanding of what works and what doesn’t on the web; we can also get carried away by our own creativity and artistic input – which in turn can tar our client’s branding that they may have created and built over time, purely because we feel our method is better or our opinion more valid.
New website – let’s rebrand!
Another popular trend is to completely rebrand to correlate with the launch of a new website. It’s often unclear to see what business do this, unless the rebrand came first and a new website is therefore a necessary measure. Some people get bored of their current image too easily, some believe it a positive, refreshing step to rebrand every so often, like a spring clean. But let’s remember that building a strong company image relies on consistency and recognition, which is impossible to attain if logos and colour schemes are changing every 6 months.
There can sometimes be a fine line between evolving a band and recreating it. You must step back and ensure that, when updating your image, you can guarantee that it still reflects and resembles the old look and feel – that it maintains recognition. The process of rebranding should be done in one of two ways:
- Gradual evolution, one small step at a time, over a long period of time.
- Complete transformation – a full, across-the-board revolution that demonstrates a strong step forward.
Maintaining your brand’s consistency
David Airey’s article on the top aspects of successful branding concludes that consistency is by far the most important factor in maintaining and growing a great brand. This means ensuring that your image is immediately recognisable wherever it is, and on whichever medium it’s found.
Take some of the most globally recognisable logos:
The topic of what makes a good logo is a discussion for another day, but what has helped to establish these logos as such undeniably iconic symbols is the fact they have remained consistent on print, clothing, packaging, TV and on the Internet.
Who’s the new kid in town?
What’s your reason for changing or developing your image? Is it to help pull your company into the current times, to motivate your workforce or bring in new clients? Are you changing your corporate image to transform people’s perspective of the company, perhaps to express a higher level of quality or when trying to enter a new market?
If you choose to redevelop your branding – make sure you’re clear of the reasons why you’re doing it. If it’s a half-hearted or foolish move, it can greatly damage your image and general recognition.
Rebranding across the board
When it’s time for a rebrand, make sure it’s definitely time for a rebrand – don’t do it for the sake of it. Your first step is to decide whether to gradually rebrand or change everything in one fell swoop. Once you’re settled on that account, it’s time to get as many heads together to brainstorm and construct a solid plan for change. Make sure everyone involved in the process is on the same page, understands the end target and is comfortable to express their opinions that may contribute to the process.
- Rebranding is not just a new logo. Mocking up a new logo is not rebranding – in fact it really serves no purpose at all if it’s not backed up by a full, fresh direction that incorporates new slogans, mission statements, business and marketing strategies, colour schemes, typography and imagery usage guidelines, print media (business cards and letterheads etc), occasionally new staff members and much more.
- Project manage the rebranding process. Treat your in-house development as you would a client’s project. Set deadlines, make sure staff are sticking to the deadlines and are on task, set someone in charge of the operation to ensure it runs smoothly and this will help generate a better overall outcome.
- Aim for originality, push some boundaries. Some of the most popular rebranding campaigns have been those that have boasted originality and new ideas. This can be a case of using an arrangement of the letters in your company name to build an adaptable logo that works on several levels, like the famous FedEx logo, where the space between the E and X forms the shape of an arrow – representing direction and haste. A similar idea is used in the Amazon logo, where the arrow underneath points from A to Z and also resembles a smiling face.
The main point is that if you’re going to rebrand, do it properly – consider all the elements and ensure that they relate to each other and don’t contradict the overall message.
Bridging the offline-online gap
When taking your branding to the web, many of the same rules apply at to print and other medium. Sometimes we’re held back by current technologies or accessibility and cross-browser considerations, such as a restricted number of typefaces. However – colour, imagery, copy and print design elements can be recreated or manipulated to suit the web.
A method to help retain brand consistency over different mediums is to create a brand guidelines document. This sets in stone various rules that must consistently be applied when developing any form of branding, such as what typography to use, colours to use and on which backgrounds, the kerning and spacing around letters, block content and imagery, how and where the logo is meant to be used and much more.
When creating a website design based on a company’s current image, I surround myself in print media and any form of branding I can find to help transform those elements to the web.
Don’t forget, the objective is to maintain consistent brand recognition. When a visitor arrives at the website – it needs to be immediately apparent where they are.
On your way to creating a stronger company image
Creating a strong company image is about more than just the visual essence you project. It relies on a well-crafted product, effective marketing, good customer service, in some cases a great portfolio or catalogue and lots of time and effort.
When making important design and business direction decisions and strategies – don’t rush into anything, take your time, research and gather as much opinion (especially from within the business) as possible.
For more ideas and information on branding visit David Airey’s blog and the Venture3 blog. I would also recommend ‘Graphic Design that Works‘ from Rockport.
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David Airey said:
Thanks for the recommendation, Nathan, and for also letting me know that people actually read my archives! Great stuff.
I’m pleased you highlight consistency here. It’s such an important factor where top-of-mind positioning is concerned.
Toon said:
Really great read
Jason VanLue said:
Nice job Nathan – consistency is absolutely critical to creating, growing, and sustaining a powerful brand.
Jordan said:
Loose =/= Lose
steve said:
Great article overall, just a few issues:
At times, the author seems to meld “defining a LOGO” with defining a BRAND which is not really the same thing at all.
The logo is a visual identifier that connects you with the company, and is a subset of the whole branding process.
“It’s often found that the larger a company becomes; the more important their branding becomes. Although this shouldn’t be the case, creating a solid brand can take a lot of time, decisive and objective thinking, creative input and usually a lot more money. Thus many smaller business fail to see it’s relevance, a quick logo mock-up in Microsoft Word and some cheap template flyers should do the trick. This is not a concept that should be promoted”
I’m struggling a bit with the logic here (or illogic?)
“although this shouldnt be the case, creating a solid brand can take a lot of time, decisive and objective thinking…”
Why SHOULDNT it take a lot of time? If there is ONE WORD that maps to BRAND in this context, it is REPUTATION. Reputation is not easily bought, it is EARNED over TIME. Like the goodwill of an ongoing concern, THAT is what people pay for when they buy an existing company, vs starting up themselves as competitors. We can accelerate that processes by choosing the right NAME as well as the right corporate visual image (logo).
i.e. BECKcellence! ™ The incredible web design portfolio of Nathan Beck
“Thus many smaller business fail to see it’s relevance, a quick logo mock-up in Microsoft Word and some cheap template flyers should do the trick. This is not a concept that should be promoted”
Garbled sentence structure aside, why *shouldnt we get a quick cheap logo? Other than the failure to properly own uniqueness rights on a stock ‘logo template’ (itself a BIG issue), there is nothing wrong with something cheap, only with something stupid.
The ubiquitous Nike swoosh’ only cost $35 dollars. It doesnt say much, but any African kid knows what it means and represents. The true danger to the client of using a stock logo template is not the “cheapness” of it ( HR Block’s logo after all, is just a green square,lol) but the fact that, after years of studiously developing a recognizable entity keyed to a symbol, some upstart can open up a copy of Word and have pretty much the same thing!
In short, for me at least, Brand=Reputation. Logo points to reputation AND “aspiration” what you want to be, or are striving towards
nathan said:
@everyone – thanks for the kind comments.
@steve – thanks for taking the time to analyse the article a bit and not just dismiss or love it. You’re completely right about melding LOGO with BRAND, this is a mistake and I do try to outline exactly what a brand is at the start of the article and how it’s far much more than a logo.
On the subject of that rather confusing paragraph – it must have been getting late when I wrote that bit and on reflection it makes no sense at all. I’ve now tidied it up to represent what I actually meant.
I understand what you’re saying about the price of a logo, and the fabled Nike story does indeed spring to mind. I shouldn’t make the assumption that more money necessarily means a better thought out, higher quality logo.
Paul Stevens said:
Thanks, good read.
Frak said:
Very good read, so please don’t take this the wrong way:
“sorts of medium” should be “sorts of media”
“Loosing sight of your brand” should be “Losing sight of your brand”
You stated, “A brand is the representation of a business that is portrayed through all sorts of medium [sic]” (16 words). Then you said, “For a more concise description…” and cite Wikipedia’s description (44 words). I would submit to you that your description was the more concise of the two.
David Airey said:
Steve,
I agree, there’s nothing wrong with cheap, though the chances of paying $35 for an effective logo in today’s market (not 1971) are slim.
I believe that once the value of the simplistic swoosh was recognised, Carolyn Davidson also received some shares in Nike, and a diamond encrusted ring (please do correct me if I’m wrong).
Your statement about branding being about reputation is one I also fully endorse.
nathan said:
@Frak – Oh dear, I check my articles before posting but I must have been hasty this time. Sorry for the mistakes. Amends have been made (sorts of medium > range of mediums, Loosing > Losing, ‘concise’ > verbose)!
@David – I’d read about her receiving shares but nothing about a ring! Hell, I’d just be proud to know that I created such an iconic logo, but I wouldn’t complain about the shares I guess
steve said:
David, absolutely right!
The interesting thing to note here that even though it was “only” a simple stylized swoosh, easily reproducible with the upward curving stroke of a fat felt tip sharpie, it came from the mind of a college graduate with graphics design training and knowledge of Greek Mythology! All her experience (her entire life and knowledge and interactions,reading etc.) were brought into play here to produce the obviously iconic and successful result.
(when I see “logo tutorials” that attempt to equate intelligence,a well rounded educational background, an insightful and interactive relationship with the client that intuits even their unspoken desires and aspirations with “drawing a fucking bee” http://www.vectordiary.com/illustrator/designing-a-logo/ … I die a little bit inside! )
Sean said:
A very interesting read for me as I am new to freelancing and design and thus am in need of building my “brand” – also working on a client site where the client hasn’t actually opened his business yet and he is also working out a brand/company image.
heading over to read the David’s article you linked to.
Dainis Graveris said:
Very exciting article, cann’t agree more..
Managing Brand Consistency | CrazyLeaf Design Blog said:
[...] Nathan Beck looks at how to manage and strengthen your branding across different medium while maintaining consistency and recognition. View source [...]
Jin said:
Good article Nathan, and interesting comments as well.
I have a knee jerk reaction to “logo design tutorial” type of articles these days. Most of them are simply about how to achieve a certain effect, but not logo designing.
That’s why I enjoy David’s articles on his logo design process. They’re far more useful than a 100 step Photoshop tutorial.
As for Branding, I strongly believe in consistency as well. In fact, the latest display of good branding is Obama’s campaign IMHO.
Thanks.
steve said:
Another good example of branding (not necessarily of PRODUCT) was, coincidentally, the McCain campaign!
I had a direct part in designing their logo (which I sent to John via E-mail, which probably explains why y’all didnt see it
Anyway, I used a stylized lightning bolt, which I then straightened out, then BIEZER CURVED (to indicate that, although a man of decisive and explosive action, John McCain can be flexible enough to Change (the new mantra), reverse direction and come to a stop.
I also used a Verandah font to cast the logo text (since John often spoke of sitting back on his Verandah or porch) Walk to the Future hence the logo:
WTF?
Website ROI | Anjolie said:
Its true that small businesses rarely get branding right because they don’t see the value. Branding seems like a fortune 500 concept to people when really we need to build brands from day one. And yes a brand is not a logo. Good post.
redswish - a web design blog » 1 year down! said:
[...] Managing brand consistency [...]
Susan S. said:
Very comprehensive read!
BTW, what do you think about recent Google’s favicon rebranding. To me, current favicon is terrible and does not correspond with their main logo (even considering the fact that the colors are the same).
aroopk said:
I completely agree with u when u say that people forget about their brands while designing websites. Basically one gets involved with elements of web design and some nuances so much that the larger picture tends to get ignored. Happened with some companies I have been associated with.
Kamloops Real Estate Blog said:
A good read and some great advice. I’m not at the point where I have to create a brand. Yet.
Torrey Hough said:
Consistency is key to maintaining the right feel and brand. I think in this day it is possible to find low priced logos, it just takes a little more leg work. There are many low price graphic companies out there, it’s just a matter of find the quality ones!