The Impact of Brand Consistency

Introduction

A fundamental principle of growing a brand’s influence is to ensure that it is consistently presented in all the ways and places that it appears. For this reason, many organizations zealously guard their brand and its image, developing precise standards for rendering it, restricting how it is used and even taking legal action against abuse of the brand. When brand standards aren’t enforced, damage to the brand can occur, causing a loss of brand equity. It is very wise, therefore, to take such precautions when managing the brand.

Demand Metric, in partnership with Lucidpress, wanted to take the beliefs about the impact and value of brand consistency and explore them more deeply. Using a survey, organizations were asked to rate their consistency of their brand in all the places it appears. A number of other brand characteristics were also measured with a goal of understanding the current state of brand consistency, and to measure the impact when that consistency is poor. This report shares the data and analysis from this research effort, providing insights how important maintaining brand consistency really is.
 

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Executive Summary
3. Brand Status
4. Role and Use (Abuse) of the Brand
5. Branding Guidelines
6. The Impact of Inconsistent Brand Presentation
7. Analyst Bottom Line
8. Acknowledgements

9. Appendix - Survey Background

Research Methodology

This 2016 Brand Consistency Impact Study survey was administered online during the period of August 8th through September 28th, 2016. During this period, 247 responses were collected, 234 of which were qualified and complete enough for inclusion in the analysis. Only valid or correlated findings are shared in this report.