Pepsi and Coca-Cola have been rivals in the carbonated soft drink market for almost a century now. One could say that they’re the rivals of the 21st-century, thanks to their unending advertising battles and campaigns.
Both brands are trying to gain market domination, but what if we told you that there’s a method to the seemingly never-ending ad battles?
Coke (the bigger of the two brands) could easily undermine Pepsi’s existence and Pepsi could focus on smaller, more beatable brands for more mass market reach.
But clearly, that’s not the case.
With Coca-Cola enjoying this much brand value to this day, Pepsi figured they could get in on the action. The Plan? Make Coca-Cola its biggest competitor and try to one-up them every time with advertisements.
Their brand color is red? Ours is red and white and blue
Customers are buying their soda four times more than ours? That’s because they prefer to pay four times more to get to ours – this was Pepsi’s most iconic jibe at Coca-Cola ever, by the way.
Pepsi built brand consistency around being Coca-Cola’s #1 Biggest Troll, and it paid off in a big way.
But why was brand consistency a crucial component for Pepsi’s customer loyalty? How can it be for your brand as well? In this post, we give an exposition on the topic.
What is Brand Consistency?
Brand consistency involves ensuring that the story and identity you’ve built are cohesive across all channels. What this approach does is help you present a unified image, creating a strong and memorable impression on your audience.
Going back to our Pepsi vs Coca-Cola case study, it’s clear to see that both brands have keyed into brand consistency. For Pepsi, it’s taken a story (trolling Coca-Cola every chance it gets) and an identity (Coca-Cola’s “biggest” competitor) and consistently shared it in its marketing.
It’s done this long enough to much success: Pepsi is now so much of an alternative to Coca-Cola that you’d hardly notice that Coca-Cola is more than three times bigger in value.
But not all businesses sell soda. If you’re going to take a cue from these soda giants about brand consistency, it’s got to be the right fit.
Goals of Brand Consistency
To that end, you must first understand the goals of brand consistency. Simply put, why bother at all about brand consistency, when you can just put your products out and wait for the next person who actually needs it to come and buy? We’ll give you three reasons:
It’s For the Bottom-Line
68 percent of businesses in the US say brand consistency has contributed over 10 percent revenue growth, per a 2021 report. For these folks, brand consistency came from having a brand guideline and religiously following it.
We’ll have you know that there’s no sitting on the fence on this. If you’re not fully enforcing a guideline for your brand, you’re likely missing out on brand consistency and the revenue benefits it brings.
Times are Changing…
Even if you’re thinking about the money, you still need brand consistency. The cold truth is that the digital world has moved from just putting products out and waiting for the next person who actually needs it to come and buy.
That is because products alone can get you one-time buyers (if you market it well enough). Everyone else, including your competitors, are now on the hunt for loyal, repeat customers.
With other brands offering everything-as-a-service these days, brand consistency helps you keep up with the times.
A decade ago, brand consistency might have been a nice suggestion for you, but it’s firmly in the “must-consider” category today.
Customers Do Know What They Want – and It’s Not the Just the Product
It might sound a tad self-evident to tell brands that customers are acutely aware of their needs. Why else would businesses exist in the first place, right?
But here’s the kicker: for the average customer, the product is only a means to an end.
Don’t believe it? Wait till you learn that folks will pay more for a product if it comes from a preferred brand, regardless of if other outlets sell the same thing for less.
It’s all about brand trust – always has been – and it can only come from demonstrating that you can fix their unique and specific problems with your product over and over again.
The Crucial Brand-Customer Connection
We’ve been able to establish what the goals of brand consistency could be, but we still need to make the crucial connection that ties this piece together. If we now know what brand consistency is and why it’s important, then, to whom should brand consistency be directed to?
There are clues here and there, but we’ll be plain with it – it’s the customer.
The customers keep the brand in business, and it’s their loyalty that ultimately makes you win. To acquire and keep that loyalty, you must first understand how they think about and react to your product’s existence.
It bears repeating that the main reason customers buy from a brand is that they recognize and trust the brand entirely.
That explains why some people swear by Pepsi while others are for Coca-Cola – they’re just soda, aren’t they?
It’s this principle that brand consistency embodies. If a prospect keeps seeing the same visuals, tone, and messaging from your brand, they can’t help but feel a sense of familiarity to it.
With a consistent use of certain colors, fonts, and taglines, this same prospect can easily identify it, even in crowded spaces or on busy social media feeds. Over time, this familiarity evolves into trust; the individual will then feel that they “know” the brand, making them more likely to choose it over a less familiar competitor.
Here’s where the recall part comes in: when the customer knows a brand, they can easily recall the brand and are more likely to turn to it when they need a particular product or service. We know a certain brand name pops in your mind when you see the word, “Soda”.
It’s the same thing for online bookstores, smartphones, cloud storage and whatever sector your brand is.
Closing Thoughts
Here’s our takeaway: the path to cultivating an unwavering customer loyalty is paved with brand consistency.
The goal is no longer to put products on shelves and hope they sell. There are far better results in forging an emotional connection with your audience.
Beyond that, the digital ecosystem has developed to the point that brand consistency isn’t merely a choice, it’s a necessity for sustainable growth and success.
Your brand will do well to incorporate brand consistency in a robust brand strategy and guidelines, as that allows it to unlock its true potential.