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Is consistency the best way to promote brand awareness?
Posted by Quillcards • 2/24/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: brand awareness, creativity, Marketing
Is it best to promote brand awareness by consistency?
Over the past several months I've made several visuals for a product I have been developing and the question that keeps coming up in my mind is whether it is best to promote brand awareness by using one chosen design, logo, message, etc.
In other words is it best to promote a brand by keeping on putting the same message with the same look and the same feel before the public over and over again?
And the answer that my intuition keeps coming back to me with is that it is not the best way.
Far better to let creativity have its head and come up with different visuals and present them all over a period of time.
Of course, have enough consistency that the name or the logo is always the same - that's a given - but play around with colors and shapes and style, and present them all.
Do it over a period and mix and match.
Some time ago there was a quiz asking how many product brands you could recognize. I was lousy at recognizing brands - particularly car marques, and I put it down to how little they tickle my imagination.
The Porche badge with the horse and the Ford Mustang badge with the horse both stick in my mind - I guess because the image of a horse is more memorable than a geometric design to me.
Yet what tickles my imagination might not be attractive or memorable to someone else. But the idea of a continuing variation on a message, now that might be attractive by virtue of its inventiveness.
And more noticeable. Because I know I can fail to see things because 'I have already seen them'.
I know that repetition is a terrific way to teach anything. The two best teachers I ever had would teach by telling the same thing in different ways until the message sank in.
Then they would ask the students to tell the message back to him and to each other and to vary it and put their own stamp on it.
And I can see this carrying over into the commercial world. If I simply repeat the same message over and over, my listeners and viewers will turn off because they have already seen the message. But if I can vary the message...
What do you think?
User Comments
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Logos really need to remain consistent to get brand awareness. While they do evolve over time, think about the Pepsi circle. You can see that circle and not even the word Pepsi and know which product it is.
You can shift the wording of your messaging over time-- think how Geico uses the Gecko, the Cavemen, and that rather annoying stack of money all at the same time-- but their overarching message is the same...
That you'll save a lot of money on your car insurance.
That's just one example.
Being consistent doesn't mean you have to be boring. There are ways to look at the same messaging and take it from another angle.
Logo consistency, however, will be really important for your brand.
Just my two cents, anyway. I'm a professional writer for a marketing company, selling b-to-b services. -
Thank you for the feedback.
I use Marsedit to write posts to my blogs. The reason I mention it is that there is something about the Marsedit website www.red-sweater.com/marsedit/ that I like. Take a look.
I get a little fillip of excitement when I go the page. And I hope the author of the site doesn't change the design.
And I do remember the hoo-hah when Pepsi changed its labelling.
Message me about your writing.
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