A balanced brand is essential to captivating an audience while staying true to your identity. Simply being creative isn’t enough anymore as so many brands seek the attention of consumers.
This balancing act requires many traits – and too often, brands fail in one or more areas. Many businesses fail because their brand is unbalanced, leading to problems with awareness, messaging and retention.
Business owners can be surprised to find that creativity isn’t the only part of building a great brand. It is certainly a vital element, but can go too far without a strategy in place. Building a brand also requires consistency and there is a balance to be struck between these two forces.
Creativity with no boundaries can be overwhelming and confusing, while consistency with no spark is dull and forgettable. Balancing the two is vital to creating a brand that is both memorable and evocative. Brands that are in balance can stand out and maintain trust. Striking a balance is key to long-term success – brands that manage this are both reliable and innovative.
This article will show you what consistency and creativity can do for branding and how to create balance between them.
Consistency in Branding
Brand consistency is the act of maintaining a uniform message. There are many parts to this message. Voice and tone are obvious factors, but this also includes visual elements, customer journey and interactions. Building a consistent brand experience across all touchpoints builds familiarity and helps customers recognise the brand.
Familiarity is important as it breaks down walls to selling. A buyer who has several positive interactions with a brand is more likely to buy than one who sees it for the first time. Customers are more likely to buy from a brand they know or trust. Consistency speeds up this process by using a uniform approach to be memorable.
Examples of consistent branding
Coca-Cola
The Coca-Cola brand has remained largely consistent for over a century. The iconic red and white scheme and signature script font have been tweaked but never changed. Alongside consistent messaging, this has created a highly uniform brand that feels familiar all across the world.
Apple
Apple has built a brand on the back of consumers knowing what to expect. The sleek product design is reflected in minimalist branding and consistent messaging. The innovation-focussed message is reflected in everything, from logo to product design.
Benefits and challenges of consistency
A balanced brand uses consistency in several key ways. Firstly, trust and reliability are built through consistency. These are vital factors of any purchase – clients and consumers need to believe you can deliver. If your brand lacks a consistent message or identity, it is more difficult to trust. Additionally, trust ensures they will remain loyal to the brand.
Consistency also fosters brand recognition. A consistent use of visuals, messaging and tone makes the brand easily identifiable. This makes it easier to remember, recognise and recall. Additionally, a consistent brand simplifies decision-making. This makes it the secure option – helping ensure it is chosen and aiding in customer retention.
It’s important to remember there are negatives to consistency too. A brand that doesn’t innovate can stagnate or become complacent. Consumers might choose more dynamic options if they see your brand as irrelevant or boring.
As you can see, consistency is important to build trust and recognition. But what about creativity – how is it used to prevent your brand from becoming bland and boring?
Creativity in Branding
Creativity is what most people think of when we talk about branding. It’s the act of thinking outside the box and bringing fresh ideas to a brand. Creativity brings excitement and dynamism to a brand identity – helping brands stand out and be noticed.
It’s also one of the key ingredients to connection. A creative marketing campaign can grab attention, even amongst busy or noisy industries. It’s this spark that helps brands stand out and create a lasting impact on clients. Customers need to be aware of your product or service – and creativity helps to spark this awareness.
Examples of creative branding
Nike
Nike’s ‘Just Do It’ campaign may well be the most famous example of creative branding. The brand built a deep connection by focusing on the emotional empowerment associated with the product. The slogan revolutionised the sportswear industry, leading to other brands being more creative in their branding.
Old Spice
The Old Spice rebrand is an excellent example of how creativity can shake up a brand that has fallen into the ‘boring’ side of consistency. Their quirky ads broke the mould and dramatically changed brand perception from outdated to youthful and innovative.
Benefits and challenges of creativity
As with consistency, creativity brings its own benefits and challenges to a balanced brand. Creativity aids in differentiation, helping a brand immediately stand out. This helps with initial customer awareness. It also provides emotional engagement as creative campaigns quickly tap into customer emotions. Early emotional connection leads to an increase in brand loyalty as customers associate a brand with a set of feelings.
Creativity is also vital for adaptability. Brands are not stagnant – they evolve and change with market perception. Creativity helps brands get ahead of changes and lead perception rather than be at the whims of an evolving market.
There are some distinct negatives to creativity, however. Inconsistency is the major one. A brand’s message becomes scattered and unfocused when creative without a strategy or plan This can confuse customers with a diluted message and conflicting identity. Creativity is also high risk, high reward – and that doesn’t always pay off. Creative risks that miss the mark can have negative effects on brand reputation and perception.
Achieving a Balanced Brand
As you may have noticed, consistency and creativity act as foils to one another. Consistency without creativity is boring and uninspired. Creativity without consistency is confused and unfocused. This is why you cannot have one without the other.
The key to maintaining a balanced brand is down to how and when you utilise each strength. This can take practice, but there are several things you can do to make this easier.
- Define your brand identity – This means having a defined purpose, mission and set of values. This wll ensure your message stays strong and consistent, allowing you to present these in unique ways creatively.
- Create brand guidelines – Having a set of guidelines to follow helps keep your brand on track without stifling innovation. Creating rules around core elements such as the logo, colours and typography allows for creative interpretation without sacrificing consistency.
- Build boundaries and experiment within them – Just because you build boundaries doesn’t mean everything is permanent. In fact, building an ‘area’ for our brand to operate in allows you to be creative and still stay on message.
- Get customer feedback – Monitoring your customer mood and their reception of your branding is critical. Regular feedback helps you make the adjustments needed to keep them happy.
Case studies of successful brand balance
Lego
Lego has kept a consistent core product – interlocking plastic bricks – while creatively marketing its products to many demographics. Even more interestingly, they have embarked on dozens of creative collaborations with film and video game-themed sets to attract new audiences.
Airbnb
Airbnb has a consistent brand narrative based around the mission to ‘belong anywhere’. This consistent core allows for flexibility when it comes to ad campaigns and marketing, blending creativity with a defined brand narrative to resonate globally.
Practical tips for achieving brand balance
Achieving a balanced brand doesn’t happen overnight. Like anything else in branding, it is a process that will produce results as you work on it. There are, however, a few things you can start doing early that will help create a more balanced brand.
Firstly, learn to evolve gradually. Sudden change can shock clients and lead to distrust. Introduce creative elements over time to ensure you retain trust and loyalty. To ensure a smooth transition even rebrands and brand refreshes should be done over time.
Testing creative concepts with A/B testing is also good practice. This can help you gauge how new ideas are received by the market and ensure they align with your core message.
Embrace storytelling in your brand. Stories naturally reflect change and bridge the gap between familiar and new. Using stories to reinforce your brand values and message helps maintain confidence.
Finally, evaluate and adjust regularly. Periodic brand audits ensure you notice potential danger areas before they become problematic. You can use these audits to check your brand against evolving markets and trends. This ensures you can keep a balance between creative periods and consistent periods.
Conclusion – Achieving a balanced brand
Where consistency builds trust and recognition, creativity keeps you relevant and engaging. A brand needs BOTH of these factors and needs to learn to balance them accordingly. By aligning both elements, you can create a brand that resonates deeply, has a steadfast identity and also evolves with the times.
Like a monk seeking enlightenment, this is a delicate balance. It isn’t a one-time achievement, but rather a constant state of ebb and flow. Learning to read the path ahead and acting accordingly is key to ensuring your brand retains a balance between consistency and creativity.
Achieving this balance is the true path to brand enlightenment. Succeed, and you put your brand in a position where trust meets innovation and stability exists with dynamic thinking.
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