Branding consistency is important to customers. You may not recognise it but every time you go into a store that you know and trust you have a natural feeling for the place, understanding exactly what it looks and feels like. If something is changed, whether a colour scheme, packaging of a product or placement within a shop you’ll be knocked off-balance for a second. Now, for some customers this momentary confusion can prevent them from making a purchase there and then. Humans like familiarity and if you are a brand that has a good reputation, maintaining consistent branding standards across the board is crucial to keeping your customers happy and with you for the long haul.

If you have a chain of stores it is important to have a sense of uniformity. It isn’t always essential to have everything exactly the same. In fact it is virtually impossible to have the same physical layout in every store, but it is possible to have enough similarities that a customer can be in any store and feel comfortable.

Having brand standards in place offers you a number of benefits as a company owner. These include:

A Clear Focus Across the Board – Putting together brand standards at the beginning of a venture or before a new marketing effort begins is a great way to deliver greater focus from all staff members in terms of your services and products, and how they are to be delivered to customers. From packaging to fonts, colour schemes and marketing copy, if something feels only slightly out of place to a customer it can cause a ripple effect of dissatisfaction. Clear brand guidelines are a great way to have one single vision for the company as a whole.

A Cohesive Unit – Having a clear branding standard brings everyone together. As the owner of a company you’ll understand clearly what your brand stands for and why it has the feel it does. Your staff will have been taught how to deal with the product or service, how to approach customers and why you’re using the marketing techniques that you are. If everything has trickled down from the top clearly this leaves your customers with a fair and accurate perception of your brand as one they can trust and will continue to purchase from.

Build Your Company as a Recognisable Brand – The longer your brand exists in one clear state the more likely it is to become recognised by your customers, their friends, family and colleagues and any other potential customers. If your brand standards are executed no matter the location, your customers will know they can walk into a store in Cardiff or Carlisle and receive the same level of customer service that they are used to from the first time they purchased from you.

Integrated branding and customer service standards are important to building your reputation as a company to trust, retaining customers and encouraging them to invite others to use your services. Keep on top of your brand standards with regular analysis to ensure it remains consistent.