Basic Knowledge, Advice, Strategy

Why is it worth ensuring consistent brand communication?

What is brand communication? It consists of all the elements that our recipients encounter when they come into contact with our company. This happens when they read our posts on Facebook or content on the website, when they watch our videos and photos on Instagram, but also when they talk to our employees. Why is it worth ensuring that our communication is consistent and what does it actually mean?

In fact, the easiest way to describe what consistent communication is is to give an example of what inconsistent communication looks like. So let's imagine a brand that:

  • in the texts it presents itself as a joyful brand, talking about happiness and lightness of life
  • at the same time, the dominant colors in its message are black and gray
  • on social media, he puts brown frames on his photos
 
Of course, we could list more elements here, but I think that's enough. Although the example may seem quite drastic, we have actually encountered such situations. It often turns out that, for example, the person deciding on individual elements was guided by their own taste, without thinking about what emotions and impressions they would evoke in the recipients.

Consistency is repeatability

Now that we have told ourselves what inconsistent communication looks like, the question is what does consistent communication give us?
 
The basic value is building brand recognition and awareness. If our potential customers encounter us in various media, but see the same elements in all of them (colours, fonts, symbols, language), they will start to associate us much more easily than if these elements differ from each other. And what is even more important, if these elements are related to how we would like our brand to be perceived, what are the values in our company, then we are building not only recognition, but also how we will be received.

Brand DNA

You may have heard the term Brand DNA before. What is it?
 
Brand DNA is a kind of guideline of what values the brand represents, how it should be communicated, what its materials should look like. Thanks to this type of instruction, we are able to maintain consistency more easily. The most important elements of Brand DNA are:
  • Brand appearance, i.e. what visual elements, colors, and the like we will use.
  • Brand behavior, or what image we want to create, whether as a company in communication with customers, an employer in communication with employees or as a business partner. It is from the behavior of the brand that results where we will want to communicate, or with which ambassadors or partners we will want to identify. Importantly, the behavior of the brand also consists of the behavior of its employees who represent it. That is why it is so important that the identity of our brand is not something that remains in the head of the CEO, but something that lives in the entire company.
  • Communication style, or how and in what language our brand speaks. 

Is consistent communication the domain of large companies?

Unfortunately, there are still many misconceptions about elements of building a company such as communication strategy or brand DNA. Many people do not see the practical side, thinking that such aspects are not really needed by anyone. Many people put them off until later, saying that they have more important things to do right now.
 
On the one hand, we understand this way of thinking, because planning brand communication will not immediately result in higher revenues, while devoting this time to, for example, calling potential customers can bring a quick return.
 
Unfortunately, this type of approach usually ends in further problems. It could be compared to building a house from the roof down, ignoring the foundations. True, the roof gives us quick value in the form of protection from the rain, but without thinking about the foundations, we will end up with a shack at best.
 
That's why it's worth remembering that a good communication strategy isn't just a piece of paper that ends up in the CEO's drawer and is quickly forgotten by everyone. It's the foundation of how our brand will talk to potential customers, something that, if done well, will ensure recognition and allow us to achieve much better results.
 
And what does “done well” mean? Of course, you can’t create a perfect strategy right away, quite the opposite. Building a strategy is a never-ending process, because it changes and develops along with our company and our knowledge of the market, the target group, how we want to be perceived.

So even if you are a small company that doesn’t have the ability to create a full strategy, conduct in-depth research on target groups, and so on, it’s worth starting by defining some basics, even if it’s just your intuition. This will be the foundation from which your brand’s full-fledged strategy will later grow.

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