Last Updated: April 2024

Have you ever wondered what makes a brand recognizable? There can be many factors that contribute to the recognition of a brand, but “consistency” seems to be the key factor.

This post will help you know why and how consistency can help your brand stand out from the crowd. But first, let’s know what does a brand means?

A brand is an identifying mark of a product, service, company, or business. A brand is an intangible feature that distinguishes one’s product from another’s. It may be in the form of a logo or a tagline.

For example, the tagline of Nike is “Just do it” while its logo is a tick mark:

Whenever people see a product with the above logo on it, they immediately recognize it as the product manufactured by Nike. In a survey about recognizing sports brands, 89.7% of responders said that they knew about Nike.

But a brand is not just about its logo! It is also the perception of what people think about a product or a company. It is the impression that people have when they hear or see a product. For instance, in the case of Nike, your perception might be that its products are durable and of high quality.

But the question is – how consistency can help your brand become popular and recognizable? Let’s study a brand in detail to know more.

What makes Coca–Cola a great brand?

1. Consistency is not boring, it’s creative. You can be creative and build a brand that can have an impact over the long – term.
2. Brands Standards Guide. Your company can have a guide that can provide guidelines on how your brand name logo, name, and tagline can be used. The font, the style, the color, and the tagline can be made precise and clear. The ‘Brands Standard Guide’ can be made easily available both online and offline for everyone.
3. Make logo files available to your employees so that they use the correct and appropriate logo whenever necessary and do not have to spend time re-creating them.
4. Encourage your team to maintain consistency. A company should encourage and guide its employees to maintain consistency, and why it is important.

Brand Consistency seems to be a key to brand popularity and recognizability. Changing the brand in-between can create confusion and hurt your brand’s image. Therefore, while building a brand, you must do proper research and analysis so that there is no need to change it later and waste your brand-building efforts.

Over the years, Coca–Cola has invested hugely in advertising and promotions. In 2010, Coca-Cola’s budget for advertising was $2.9 billion which was increased to $3.3 billion in 2013. Further, in 2016, the budget was set at $4.3 billion.

Their branding budget is more than that combined of Apple and Microsoft. The CEO of Coca–Cola referred to this huge investment as Brand Building Initiatives.

Along with a huge branding budget, consistency has been a contributing factor in the success of Coca–Cola.

Coca-Cola has followed consistency by:

• Not changing its formula
• Not changing its brand

The logo of Coca–Cola has remained consistent throughout the years with only a few minor changes. It seems a strategic commitment of the company, they seem to consider brand consistency as important as their secret formula.

The Result:

After the word ‘Okay’, “Coca–Cola” is the most widely known word/term in the world. People recognize Coca–Cola in terms of its product, logo, and message. People recognize its red color and the script font all over the world even though it has been displayed in different languages.

It is most probably because they remain consistent and delivering their message is of utmost importance to them.

Take a look at an interesting case that proves the superiority of Coca-Cola as a brand.

A Case Study on Coca-Cola

A team at North Star was asked to draw the logo of Coca–Cola from their memory.

The results were found to be interesting.

• Everyone remembered the brand’s logo and no one had a doubt about how the logo looked like.
• Even though none of the logos drawn were perfect, some results were close. This seems to be a result of Coca – Cola’s brand consistency.

Why consistency is the key to a great brand?

1. Consistency helps in managing perceptions. People like stability, and stability comes from consistency. When you develop a brand, you also develop a perception in people’s minds about the brand. This perception can affect how your brand is valued in the market.
2. Consistency shows attitude and commitment. It can help in delivering a specific message in the market. If your company is consistent in its message, it can show your focus, commitment, and seriousness. It can also show that your company respects its values and can follow through with its promises.
3. Consistency eliminates confusion. It is the key to recognizable brands. Changing a brand can create confusion for the customers to recognize a brand. Consistency can eliminate the risk of this confusion.
4. Consistency protects the brand investment. It requires a huge investment to develop a brand. Along with monetary resources, one needs to invest a lot in terms of time and strategizing. If a company changes its brand, the money and effort spent on building the existing brand may be in vain. To optimize the use of your resources, you should be consistent in your branding.
5. Consistency ensures a consistent brand experience. 87% of customers believe that the brands should work harder in delivering a consistent experience. When a consumer develops an experience with your product, he would like to have the same experience in the future as well. For example, the success of Coca – Cola is maybe because of the consistent taste of its beverage.

How to maintain consistency for the brand?

1. Consistency is not boring, it’s creative. You can be creative and build a brand that can have an impact over the long – term.
2. Brands Standards Guide. Your company can have a guide that can provide guidelines on how your brand name logo, name, and tagline can be used. The font, the style, the color, and the tagline can be made precise and clear. The ‘Brands Standard Guide’ can be made easily available both online and offline for everyone.
3. Make logo files available to your employees so that they use the correct and appropriate logo whenever necessary and do not have to spend time re-creating them.
4. Encourage your team to maintain consistency. A company should encourage and guide its employees to maintain consistency, and why it is important.

Brand Consistency seems to be a key to brand popularity and recognizability. Changing the brand in-between can create confusion and hurt your brand’s image. Therefore, while building a brand, you must do proper research and analysis so that there is no need to change it later and waste your brand-building efforts.