a quick lesson on brand consistency
our creative director, Aaron Brand is ready to school you!
Whether your brand has been around for years or your brand just recently launched and hit the market, brands usually strategize to maintain brand consistency. For example, Heinz is one of the most famous condiment brands in the world, not only have they kept their brand consistent, but they have managed to also have fun with the brand’s packaging at the same time.
A good brand is built over time and requires thought, strategy, and consistent implementation. Let’s take a look at Heinz, a great example for taking your brand to the next level!
From the name to the logo, from the product to the messaging, everyone knows Heinz. It has been said that Heinz Brand is one of the most widely recognized brands worldwide.
Interestingly, their logo has remained largely unchanged since the 1900s. The Serif font and classic shield with green and gold stripes remains consistent.
A few helpful tips to help you maintain brand consistency:
- Don’t associate consistency with boring. Do you think working on Heinz ad campaigns is boring? Consistency actually paves the way to creativity with impact.
- Communicate to your team the importance of your brand. Start the conversation by asking them to name a few companies they admire and why.
- Create a Brand Standards Guide – the guidelines that map out how your logo, fonts, colors, tagline, etc. will be used. Make it visual with proper and improper usage examples. It has to be simple and easy to follow, or it won’t have the intended impact.
- Go through the Brand Standards Guide with your entire team and provide print and PDF copies for them to reference as needed.
- Provide access to the proper logo file types to anyone who needs them. Your team members shouldn’t be recreating your logo on the fly.
- Hold your people accountable and retrain if necessary. It’s okay to appoint some team members to be the “brand police” who flag down offenses and keep the peace.
Now that’s how you maintain brand consistency. I’m just saying.
