By Brian Sankey
Long gone are the days when businesses operated from one place, be it a shop front, catalogue, or a website. Now companies must diversify for the modern consumer and make sure their products or services are available in a number of different locations to make sure they are profitable. Nowadays, this can mean that they branch out into mobile apps or even augmented and virtual reality in the race to attract as many customers as possible. But when crossing such a vast amount of diverse mediums, it is also imperative to keep brand identity consistent so that your clients recognise you.
Creating a strong brand identity is useful for setting your product or service apart from competitors, generating active buyers, and motivating your employees. It can lead to customer loyalty and trust which in turn produce good financial returns. In fact, research from Business 2 Community shows that 63% of consumers have come across negative brand content, which has led to 53% of those saying they were unlikely to read that brand’s content again. 88% of consumers are loyal to a brand if it provides a quality experience, while 71% said that they are more likely to make a purchase from a brand that they follow on social media.
Having an easily recognisable and memorable logo is an important aspect of building a strong identity. Clothing labels such as Nike with its famous tick and Adidas with the three stripes are instantly distinguishable despite the fact that the colours often change between different clothes ranges.
Some businesses which are based online use a change of colour to differentiate between the various other sites on offer from the same company – it’s a smart trick, as the font and shape of the logo is consistent, allowing for the public to still associate each product with the brand. For instance, 888 is a well-known and diverse brand. The company offers a range of different services, including casino gaming, poker and sports betting, and they want their customers to know that each offshoot is unique but still part of the same company with the excellent reputation. For that reason, they incorporate the same font and spacing each time and use similar web page layouts, but change the colour of the logo. The 888poker logo is blue on a black background, for example, but the 888sport logo is white against orange. By keeping the brand name prominent (888) and adding “poker” in lowercase next to it – or in the case of poker tables, on the next line, right on the felt – the poker product of the Gibraltar-based brand is identifiable and easily associated with the overall brand name. Looking at their poker tables and mobile app, the blue-on-red colour scheme is followed here too, to amplify the identity of the product.
Coca Cola is another prime example of a strong brand image which stays consistent but also changes slightly for the various products offered. The font of the drinks company always remains the same, but the original cans are white writing on a red background, while the zero sugar variety uses red writing on a black background. With a quick glance consumers immediately know it is Coca Cola, and also instantly know which flavour/variant it is.
For young businesses or for companies seeking to strengthen their image and keep it consistent across all their products, it is crucial to create a distinctive logo and keep the font or shape the same no matter what. When people are familiar with your logo, you can then change the colour of it for the various other products you offer. One final tip – use a catchy name that people can easily remember.
