Striving for Brand Consistency

At some point in your career, you’ve probably done business with an organization whose image did not accurately reflect the quality of their work. They had friendly and knowledgeable employees, unsurpassed craftsmanship, excellent customer service, and years of experience, but if you judged them solely on the basis of their brand and marketing, you would never have considered doing business with them.

How can you be certain that your own company’s brand communicates the dedication and professionalism you and your staff possess? You can start by avoiding the following common pitfalls:

Selective rebranding

Rebranding your business is a big decision. Remember, your company’s brand is your mark on the industry – the symbol by which others know you. When calculating the true cost of a new branding campaign, it is important to remember that everything with your logo on it will need to be reprinted or redesigned. This includes:

> Physical Signs (both on your business and directing people to it).

> Marketing Collateral (including brochures, postcards, flyers, folders, and catalogs).

> Administrative Materials (this includes business cards, stationary and letterhead, fax cover sheets, and invoices).

> Web and Social Media (including your company’s website, Facebook, Twitter, blog, etc.)

> Advertisements (including online banner ads, print ads, and video ads).

It might be tempting to save money by rolling out a new logo on certain items and ignoring the rest, but don’t fall for that trap – inconsistent logo deployment is worse than consistent use of a poor-quality brand. It confuses customers and prospects, undermines their confidence in your organization, and can send the message that you don’t have your act together. At best, it makes you seem perpetually in transition – not a good place to be. Make sure the logo on the wall matches the one on your website, your business cards, your advertisements, and whatever else your business produces. It will cost you more, but the results are worth every penny.

Not letting your brand look its best

So, you’ve spent money getting the perfect brand designed for your organization. The proofs look amazing, and everyone is happy. But somehow, it never seems to look all that great when you actually use it in your materials. Why could that be? Watch out for the following:
> Using low-resolution artwork or improper file formats. Many people gravitate towards JPG, GIF, and PNG images no matter what the application. They’re comfortable with them, and they look great on the web. But when you’re printing, always use a EPS, PDF, or high-resolution TIF version of your logo.

> Not tailoring the design to fit your logo. In the same way that each element of your brand was carefully selected to maximize the impact of the whole, each design element in your advertisements, marketing collateral, and website must work well with your logo. Just because a brand is well-designed does not mean it won’t look out of place (or even poorly-executed) when the rest of the design does not serve it. Work withyour brand, and it will work for you.

> Not sticking with the brand you selected. In order for your company to feel established and stable, your brand needs to become a fixture. That is to say, people need to expect it – become accustomed to it. For that reason, you should avoid the urge to “mix things up” by frequently changing the color of your logo, varying the font of your tag line, etc.

> Working sloppily (remember to hold Shift). One of the worst things you can do to your logo is to “stretch” it so that the design no longer conforms to its original aspect ratio. It might not look all that bad to you (and it might make the logo fit better in a small or oddly-shaped space), but others will notice immediately. Whenever you place your logo in a document, hold down the Shift key before you resize it. If you squish or stretch it by accident, undo and try again.

Reusing outdated materials to save money

At some point in your life, you’ve probably picked up a brochure or business card and noticed that it had been “edited” to hide incorrect information – a piece of tape over an old phone number or address, a new section glued on top of an existing one, or even an item crossed out with permanent marker and corrected in the margin. This sort of thing is especially common when dealing with smaller companies without a clearly defined marketing budget. And the rationale is easy to understand: Why spend more to order new collateral when you’ve already got a stack of mostly-correct pieces ready to use – right?
Unfortunately, reusing outdated materials is a huge mistake. Instead of conveying a sense of professionalism and knowledge, it leaves potential clients with the distinct impression that your company:

1.Is unconcerned with its brand image
2.Plans poorly for the future
3.Is cheap

Imagine how jarring it would be for a potential client if you handed them your business card, then took it back and proceeded to cross out most of the information and write the new details on the reverse. How would you feel about a restaurant where every time you picked something from the menu you were informed that they no longer served it? Would you want to do business with an organization that couldn’t be bothered to reprint their brochures when their services changed – even if half the items in the brochure were no longer valid?Situations such as these leave a bad taste in your prospects’ mouths –and rightly so!

But how to avoid this issue? After all, printing is expensive, and throwing away hundreds of beautiful marketing pieces because of an old address seems awfully wasteful. Solution: Plan before you order. Suppose the item in question is a brochure. How many clients per week do you meet with? Do you include your brochure in every proposal you send out (you should)? Is there a display rack in your lobby? How often do you refill it? How often does the information in your brochure change? Are your products and services relatively static? Or dynamic (perhaps seasonal, or influenced by outside markets)? Choose a time period during which information is unlikely to change, and calculate the number of printed pieces you’re likely to use during that period. Make that your order quantity. And don’t be swayed by volume discounts – ordering 5,000 brochures to save 10 cents apiece is meaningless if 3,000 of them end up in the trash in six months.

Cutting corners in the name of frugality

Nothing can sabotage your company’s image faster than using poorly produced or unprofessional marketing materials. Yet many companies find themselves doing just that. Why? Oftentimes, the answer is simple: Money.

When faced with the cost of printing professional business cards, brochures, rack cards, catalogs, and folders, many business owners get sticker shock. They become convinced that the materials are not worth the investment, and decide to do things themselves: Photocopied and hand-folded brochures, templated business cards printed on scored cardstock, and hand-stapled catalogs run off at the copy shop. While these items may seem cost-effective, they are usually far from it. Here’s why:

> You aren’t really saving all that much money. When you factor in the time spent formatting things for printing, purchasing paper and ink (or photocopies at Staples), and the cost of the time you spend folding, stapling, and cutting, do-it-yourself marketing often results in a noticeably subpar product that costs nearly as much as the professionally-printed alternative.

> Your company’s image will suffer. Handmade fliers are fine for bake sales and local cover bands, but when it comes to businesses they fall short. Prospects can (and do) judge you by the quality of your materials. A glossy, well-designed catalog can inspire confidence and land you a sale. A stapled photocopy can do just the opposite.

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Cíntia is a high-performance, seasoned marketing professional committed to excellence and recognized as a critical thinker who is able to develop compelling and effective promotions. Innovative, motivated and with a strong ability to set her clients' business image apart from the average, she thrives on challenges. Cíntia's proven skills in developing high-impact marketing campaigns on slim budgets has a track record in the various positions she has held in Massachusetts and Maine. Cíntia holds a bachelor's degree in International Management and an MBA with concentration in marketing from the University of Massachusetts at Boston.

In 2009 Cíntia founded Pulse Marketing Bangor, located in downtown Bangor, ME. Pulse is a full service marketing and advertising agency servicing clients in New England and abroad. To learn more about Pulse Marketing Bangor and the work of Cíntia Miranda, visit her website @ http://www.pulsemarketingbangor.com, sign-up for her free monthly newsletter, follow her blog http://blog.pulsemarketingbangor.com and join her on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/PulseMarketingBangor and Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/pulsemarketing.