Online Brand Management: A Simple Key to Brand Consistency for Your Company

Brand consistency is a challenge for many companies. You spend hours trying to maintain the same look across all materials, but it's hard when people don't understand why it matters, or there are too many variables in play.

Your employees may have outdated materials or the wrong source. Different departments may be ordering from different suppliers, leading to design and color mismatch. Individual employees may even be altering the design when they order their business cards, which is how you end up with that one guy who insists on having his name in Comic Sans because it looks "fun".

In this post we offer some ways that you can fix your problems: provide training on branding guidelines; periodically provide updated materials; order from the same supplier; and invest in an online order portal where employees can order everything from business cards and brochures to branded company apparel.

Why is inconsistent branding a problem?

Your company’s tone of voice can make or break a customer experience. Lack of brand consistency will result in an inconsistent customer experience, leading to lower sales and profits for the business.

And don't forget about your internal customers! Employees are more likely to quit if they don't feel like their work has any meaning or value. Inconsistent branding fails to convey a clear message, leading to a lack of connection to your company's culture and values.

The effects of inconsistency are not limited to just one department or area within the company; they have a ripple effect that reaches every aspect of the business.

If you're struggling with brand consistency, these steps will help:

1. Provide training on branding guidelines. Do employees know what the standards are, why they're important, and where to find them?
2. Provide updated materials periodically. Make sure Jeff in Des Moines isn't still handing out flyers with the old logo from back in 2013.
3. Order from the same supplier. Color inconsistencies are hard to avoid when ordering from multiple print vendors, unless you always have your printed materials run on a press in Pantone spot colors. These days, digital 4-color printing is far more common, and more cost-effective, too. Using the same vendor for all of your print materials makes it far easier to keep your brand colors consistent.
4. OUR FAVORITE, because we keep seeing it work for our customers: Online brand management. Invest in a central portal where employees can order everything from business cards and brochures to branded company apparel.

Challenges you may face

• Don't underestimate the time it takes to get everyone on board. If the company's colors are blue and gold, but they're used to being able to order company shirts in hot pink, it may take time and patience to help them understand why sticking to the brand guidelines is important.
• Make sure you have a plan for how to deal with resistance from employees who don't want to change their habits. 
• Get buy-in from management before launching your program so they can support and promote it. 
• Keep things simple at first, then gradually introduce new ideas over time.

How online brand management helps you keep control of your brand

When you centralize your brand assets, it's far easier to keep them under control. With an online order portal you're able to provide only the most current marketing materials, so you don't have people handing out brochures that are out of date. You're able to choose company apparel options that fall within your brand standards. You're able to provide approved templates, letting people order variable items like business cards without having to create them all yourself in order to make sure the design, color, fonts, and even things like titles and location names remain on-brand.

Brand consistency: yet another reason to switch to online order management for your business.

Next step

If you're ready to learn more about how a central online order portal can help keep your company's brand cohesive and consistent, let's talk.