Your 3-Part System To A Brand Your Audience Can’t Forget

Hear me out: brand consistency is important no matter what stage of business you’re in.

However, I hear it all the time: Brand consistency does not actually matter. Or, brand consistency is for bigger companies. Or, brand consistency does not matter for me right now – I know it’s important, but it’s something I’ll have to deal with later.

You could be new in business, you could be 10 years in, you could be a small team of just one, you might have a team of 500 people – it does not matter.

Brand consistency does not play favorites. It really is important and it’s SO worth it to start now – no matter where you’re at.

Whether you’re just starting your side thing or you’ve been in business for years, creating consistency for your brand is going to work wonders for your overall brand strategy.

Speaking of brand strategy, I have a free Brand Habits Stack, which shows you the foundational steps in growing a brand that sticks in the minds of your audience. It comes with a pdf checklist and a free template, click here to get yours.

Today, I first want to crush the barriers and get to the heart of why you need brand consistency. I’ll tell you what it means, and why you need it.

Then I will give you a three-part brand consistency system that you can start implementing today. Let’s get into it!

What Brand Consistency Means and Your 3-Part System To Make It Happen by designwithclarissa.com

What Brand Consistency Is & Why It Matters

I know the word “consistency” is thrown around a LOT these days. When it comes to brand consistency, generally people are referring to visuals, like your logo, fonts, and colors.

However, it also means you’re consistent in everything from your strategy to your messaging, your brand identity suite, and all the way through your marketing strategies and tactics – from your website and social media and everything from the inside of your company to the outside, is consistent.

Why?

First, so that your brand is not confusing to your potential clients and customers.

And secondly, so that it’s also not confusing internally to yourself or your team, if you have one.

Brand consistency promotes brand trust and loyalty – and according to Forbes, “46% of U.S. consumers stated that they preferred to pay a higher price for a brand they trust.”

Who doesn’t want to be a trusted brand? Brand consistency is one of the first steps.

Practically, that could look like making sure you use the same messaging internally with your team, and externally on all of your promotional materials.

It could look like always using your logo set, as well as your brand typography and your brand colors.

It means not wavering and using different messaging or colors on a whim, but continually sticking to your brand strategy and your brand suite.

It means that, with anything you create, you’re making sure that those things are on-brand visually, verbally, and strategically.

For example, you’re not going to post something to social media that uses different colors or fonts or messaging other than what has been set up for your brand.

You won’t go against the brand strategy that’s been established for your brand.

You wouldn’t use messaging or visuals that have nothing to do with your brand, because that would not be considered “being consistent.”

And I will tell you, the only way that any of this happens is through systems and frameworks, yes, but also, pure HABIT.

You might have to make some new habits. You might have to break some old ones. You might have to have some mindset changes.

We might be referencing consistency a lot today, but the only thing that’s going to actually make that work is HABIT.

So you’re like, “Okay great, I need to be consistent. I need to make things a habit… But HOW??”

That’s where this 3-part system comes in – it’s going to help you create that ‘consistency habit’:

Part 1: Is all about your Brand Messaging
Part 2: is your Brand Identity
Part 3: is about your Brand Guide

Now, these are three pretty major components of your overall brand strategy.

That said, I’m not going to be able to teach you how to do each individual part in this one post. However, what I did want to do was hand over the system, and talk a bit about each part, and what you could do to get started today.

PART 1: Brand Messaging

Psssstt: Your messaging fuels your strategy, and your visuals.

I’m a brand designer, I love what I do, and I believe it makes such a big impact on companies. But, even I know that visuals – graphics, logos, colors – aren’t the only thing you need to be remembered by your audience.

Your messaging has just as much to do with your brand as the actual visuals.

So what exactly is included in your brand messaging?

It’s your brand story – like, how you get started, and why. It’s messaging like your brand tagline, your vision, values and purpose. It also includes things like your ideal audience.

I know this is a LOT. It sounds like a lot, and it is. But one of the simplest things you can do to get started is to brainstorm a brand tagline.

A tagline is a really great way to help your clients or customers remember you.

If you want to make your own tagline, here are some helpful tips:

  1. Make it simple – You don’t have to use big words, or complicated phrases.
  2. Make it memorable – Try to do this by rhyming, being clever or funny, or saying something catchy. (But don’t be too clever, people still need to understand it!)
  3. Be clear – Don’t complicate it, simply state what you do.
  4. Tell a story – Use words that paint an image in their minds.
  5. Be creative – Think outside the normal boring tagline ideas, and have fun with it!

A great tagline tells your customer what you do, grabs their attention, and makes them remember you. Don’t make it so clever that it doesn’t make sense, and don’t make it so long that you can’t say it in about 3-5 words. (This isn’t your elevator pitch – but I have heard you could use that as a starting point, if that tip helps!)

I recommend thinking of at least 30 possible taglines.

I KNOW. 30 might sound like a lot, but the more you write down, the more you’ll be able to get them out of your head and onto paper, and then narrow them down until you find the one that fits your brand best.

PART 2: Brand Identity

I’m going to give you a list of what’s included in a typical brand identity. Hopefully, even if you don’t have any of these YET, or maybe you have some of them, this will give you some good ideas and help you make a list of things you might need or want.

A brand identity typically includes:

  1. Logo Set: Primary Logo, Secondary, Submark, possibly one more logo variation, depending on the brand and their needs.
  2. Typography: This includes at least 2 different sets of fonts, but could be more depending on the brand.
  3. Color Palette: This could be anywhere from 6-12 custom-picked colors. I always lean more on the side of “less is more” and have about 6, but sometimes more colors just work in a palette depending on the type of brand and their needs.
  4. Supporting Graphics: This includes anything from a pattern to icons to any sort of graphics the brand might need in addition to their logo like a graphic for their tagline.
  5. Brand Guide or Style Guide: To house, reference, and point to all of the above things that make up your brand! This is important so that you and others know how to handle your brand, and to ensure it’s represented as intended.

A side note that I can’t not mention – There are two very important things that will help to fuel your brand identity:

  1. Your Brand Messaging: We just talked about this, but to reiterate, your brand messaging fuels your strategy, and your visuals. It has just as much to do with your brand as the visuals.
  2. Your Brand Strategy: ​​Put simply, your brand strategy is your long-term vision and plan to build and grow your brand within your market. It’s how you’ll establish trust over time, and win over your clients and customers. Ideally, your brand strategy will FUEL your brand identity and give your designer something to run with in order to create the best look for your brand!

If you want to solidify your brand identity, research and plan to hire a brand designer – and until you’re ready, keep working on your messaging and ideal client profile.

PART 3: Brand Guide

There’s a few names this document could go by, like brand guide, style guide, style sheet, brand book… Whatever you want to call it, it’s a handy document you absolutely NEED for a consistent brand.

It includes guidelines on how things should and shouldn’t look, and how to use them in different instances. Everything from your logo, to typography and colors you’ve chosen, to even more specific things like photography and your brand voice.

It’s a place of reference for everything you put out for your brand, so that you have something to compare what you’re making against, and confirm it’s actually consistent with your brand.

It’s not only for you, but anyone else inside or outside of your company that creates ANYTHING for your brand.

By this guide, everyone will know how to represent your brand and what to expect when creating something for it. 

Even if you’re not a designer, and even if you don’t have a logo or brand identity yet, you can still set some parameters around what you do and don’t want when it comes to your brand.

This is actually a really great thing to establish early on, because it allows you to set a firm foundation.

You don’t want your brand to be all over the place – you want it to have a structure and consistency built in, which is where a style guide comes in handy.

You can actually start this process yourself, by using a simple blank Google document, and adding what you do have –  like your tagline and any other messaging you’ve crafted, as well as your ideal client profile details. You don’t have to add a logo or any of that other stuff until you have it.

Now, with this approach, without consulting a designer first, I will warn you: You will make the rules…BUT you also need to stick to them!

I think what causes cases of brand confusion is this: If there isn’t a clear set of rules, guidelines or boundaries for a brand, then it will look and feel… Weird and off. Clients and customers will be confused. Your team will be confused. Even you will be confused!

However, if you set guidelines and actually stick to them, you’re going to see results. And remember, no matter what you do, a habit of consistency is very key.

Here are some things that typically go into a brand guide:

  1. Brand Messaging
  2. Logo Set: Like your Primary Logo, Secondary, Submark, etc.
  3. Typography
  4. Color Palette
  5. Supporting Graphics
  6. Photography
  7. Branded Templates: Like for social media posts, blog posts, video thumbnails, presentations, business cards and even invoices.
  8. Additional Guidelines: Such as Social Media Usage Guidelines, Website Style Guidelines, Artificial Intelligence Usage Guidelines, etc.

If you want me to walk you through a VERY simple but effective way to make your own Style Guide for free, click here for a tutorial when you’re done here.

To recap the 3-part system:

  1. It starts with your Brand Messaging
  2. Then solidifying your Brand Identity
  3. And then putting it all together into your Brand Guide.

Action Items:

  1. To get going on your messaging, brainstorm and pick your tagline to start.
  2. To solidify your brand identity, research and plan to hire a brand designer – and until you’re ready, keep working on your messaging.
  3. Lastly, if you want to get started on your style guide without a brand designer, head here for your free tutorial.

All of these things work together to help you have a brand you love, and your audience can’t forget.

Want To Go Deeper?

If you’re looking to dive deeper and get some clarity around your brand direction, which will then help you with brand consistency, I have a Brand Strategy Framework Template that comes with a video tutorial and editable template. This is the only template you’ll need to learn how to create your brand strategy on your own, and put it into practice. Grab that here!

At the end of the day, in order to create a consistent brand, it comes down to one 5-letter word that makes a huge impact: HABIT.

Just like anything else in life, it’s not easy, and it takes repetition. But I’m going to guess that if you’re here and reading this, you’re not afraid of any of that!