What is brand compliance?
Brand compliance is the integration between all communication actions to convey a brand’s unique aspects. It means aligning employees and channels to convey a clear and consistent message across at all points of interaction with customers.
This strategy is essential to unify your marketing, with all your actions cooperating to create a personality, with a voice, visual characteristics and well-defined objectives.
Thus, the consumer will not perceive a specific employee, an isolated channel or a single way of acting. Instead, they will see an entire brand, strong and present, with attributes that are interesting to them.
What is its importance today?
Talking about compliance is essential nowadays, since we have many marketing approaches being developed everywhere. Whether in the offline or online worlds, there are always many companies trying to get the attention of consumers.
In the fight for prominence with physical pieces or with clicks on search engines and websites, there is always certain pollution of communication pieces in all these situations.
Therefore, the client must choose with whom he will negotiate. As they have several options, they are more demanding and ponders a lot before making any decision.
Companies that focus on brand compliance are already ahead. After all, they manage to broadcast a clear message, which allows the customer to differentiate the brand and understand why it stands out.
The logo will be used in a standardized and intelligent way, also with the right attention and care dedicated to the user experience in all aspects. In addition, messages will be created according to what the brand wants to say and what the customer expects, employing elements that allow to hook the user and convince them.
In this way, the relationship begins. It is like a picture in which all the components seem to complement each other. Thus, when people look at the image, they do not see a set of separate objects, but a single composition.
The edges of one end at the point where the other begins, which creates this unison. If in a picture, photographers have the power to guide the viewer’s eyes, in marketing, the reasoning is the same.
The opposite of this is fragmented communication, where each point of interaction says something different about the company. Thus, the customer does not know who you are and what you think. For them, this fuels distrust and makes them close your website and look for another competitor — just a few clicks away.
Which aspects should be considered?
Aligning your marketing requires a thorough assessment of the company, its values and its mission. Thus, it is necessary to organize your presentation to make this clear. This includes design choices (such as the logo, fonts and colors), tone of voice, topics covered, among other elements.
What are its advantages?
Below, we list the main benefits of brand compliance for marketers and companies in all sectors. Check them out!
Reputation and credibility
One of the advantages is the improvement of reputation and credibility. Developing your brand’s consistency is essential to optimize its image in the market in order to win the attention of those who do not know it and other businesses.
By working on a single message, highlighting the same differentials and exploring the identity, the organization is able to establish itself as unique.
An interesting example of this is Nubank, a Brazilian fintech that maintains a lot with aspects of its identity. The startup adopted the color purple and a friendly style of communication, which allows customers to always associate these characteristics with the company.
Better positioning
Brand compliance also helps to reinforce your positioning in your customers’ minds. In other words, it influences exactly how the brand places itself on the market and is known to competitors.
With more consistency, the company is able to work on a specific position and convey this to consumers. This includes the broadcast of company values, which makes people connect by sharing those values.
This is another aspect that makes the company memorable and associated with everyday elements. Consequently, it influences brand recognition and is related to consumer psychology and mental triggers.
If you work with an identity that combines certain colors with a specific message of solution to the persona’s problems, for example, they will always remember that and will be inclined to learn more about you and to eventually buy from your brand.
ROI
Likewise, it is possible to notice an increase in ROI (return on investment) in the strategies and campaigns of a company focused on brand compliance. Actions will be more accurate since they will contribute to what we have already explained: positioning and reputation.
This is the best way to bring better results to superiors, with increased profitability and conversions.
Communication
Imagine the situation of a company that is headquartered in one country and owns other offices in different locations. How to ensure that all these locations will achieve the best possible results in their actions? One of the solutions is to develop good brand compliance.
This strategy works as a communication standard to allow the parties to be aligned, even with the geographical distance. In this way, there will be fewer mistakes in the choice of language, in the use of the logo, colors and in the creation of graphic pieces.
Less time to market
With rules on how to use aspects of the brand, the company is able to get products to market in less time. After all, everything will be developed according to the original proposal and the established values. If there is a pattern, productivity increases.
This means that designers will know how to approach screens, what colors to use, how to develop UX writing etc. In the same way, the product marketing will be done according to the brand concepts, in order to complement the message already broadcast with other products.
Loyalty
Given all of the above, it is easy to conclude that customer loyalty to the brand also increases. After all, with the elements of branding well established and being respected in all channels, users will have something concrete to love.
It is much more natural for them to become loyal to a brand with defined characteristics, because, in this scenario, the company is almost like a person that they admire a lot.
If the company is positioned as a person, like a friend or someone trusted, it is easier to sell as well. After all, customers always count on friends’ choices and recommendations due to familiarity and trust.
This, therefore, influences ROI, customer retention, acquisition of new ones by recommendation, among other advantages.
What are the best strategies?
In this topic, we will address how to put into practice everything we have already explained for you to achieve the benefits of brand compliance.
1. Set standards
To ensure this consistency, rules and standards must be established. In this sense, it is worth carrying out an assessment of all relevant aspects of the brand, in order to generate an image of it.
Think of patterns on how to use your company logo in different contexts, standards of terms to reinforce your brand voice, colors that convey what you want, fonts, among other factors we have already mentioned.
Think of this standardization as a form of documentation. Thus, you can use technological tools to share it with employees, such as a web portal or an internal system.
Several companies develop manuals with general information about the brand to help employees. MailChimp is an interesting example. Rock Content also has one.
It is essential to emphasize that each specific action needs to be analyzed carefully. The rules for paid media advertising are unique, and so are the ones for email marketing.
Although the definitions share some global factors, each channel must be viewed differently, according to the specifics of each one.
2. Train your team
Spreading the values of brand compliance is essential. You must ensure the education and training of employees so that everyone knows these rules and standards. Thus, it is possible to really guarantee that these aspects are respected in your channels and points of interaction.
3. Create surveys
To develop consistency and identify the aspects that define your business, conducting surveys is valid. With this analysis, the company will come to a sense of the market, how to operate and position itself, as well as the expectations of customers.
Through this study, which is very similar to others you have already done, it is possible to arrive at the necessary answers and compose the puzzle that forms the brand image.
4. Monitor the results
After the strategy has been put together, it is necessary to monitor it. After all, we are talking about compliance. Management needs to monitor approaches and ensure that standards are being met and maintained. Monitoring raises information and metrics that allow for further adjustments and changes.
As we have seen, marketing management needs standards. Establishing and using brand compliance are essential actions to obtain the best results and to transmit a consolidated image to customers.
As a result, the company enjoys greater ROI, customer loyalty, sustainability, more conversions and sales. There are also fewer communication errors and fewer problems with branding.
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