You’ve probably heard us say this before, and you’ll probably hear it many times again!
We don’t just preach this because we want your branding to look nice (well, we do want this too), but, we want your branding to have a real impact on your consumers and leads – and the best way to do this is…(drum roll please) – brand consistency.
Have you ever heard of the term ‘context dependent memory’?
“Context Dependent Memory refers to the phenomenon of how much easier it is to retrieve certain memories when the context or circumstances around the memory are the same for both the original encoding and retrieval. Research shows improved recall of specific information when the context present at encoding and retrieval are the same.” (1).
Try reciting song lyrics without thinking of or singing the song’s tune. You might find that a song’s lyrics you know off by heart are now at a loss – or at least harder to remember.
Have you ever visited an old home, school, playground or place you used to frequent, and memories from that place came flooding back?
What about thinking back to that time you lost your wallet or keys. You simply couldn’t remember where you left them, so you started retracing your steps, and you suddenly recalled where you put them.
These are all examples of context dependent memory, and you can use it to your advantage to market your brand. If you hit an audience with an ad at evening time, they might end up falling asleep with a million other things on their mind. But when evening surely enough comes around again the next day, they are more likely to remember your ad at that specific moment.
But, just like Rome wasn’t built in a day, brand awareness won’t be either. You will need to keep consistent with your logo, colours, fonts, styles and more and continue to market – even if you feel like it’s not doing anything for you right at the moment. Did you know that most people need to see your brand four – six times on average before they will even consider purchasing from you? (2). You can achieve this by using a range of different touch points (think digital, print, in-person) while still keeping consistent with your choices.
If you keep changing the look and feel of your branding and marketing, it’s going to become more unclear and unrecognisable. Once someone sees your branding four to six times (on average), they start to put trust in your brand instead of just recognition, and trust leads to purchasing.
Remember the good old saying – CONSISTENCY IS KEY!
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