5 Ways To Maintain Brand Consistency As You Grow Your Business

If you're like many leaders, the early stages of your business required a lot of decision-making, from fundamental decisions like your core services or products all the way to decisions about design. Whether you put a ton of time into each and every choice or quickly call the shots to move on to the next one, it's safe to say that your business evolves — and as it does, the look and feel of your brand can change, too.

If you could get your hands on it, you probably wouldn't even recognize Influence & Co.'s first logo. Graphics, colors, fonts, logos, and messaging change over time, and that's normal. But after a while, the customers who stay with your business year after year expect a certain look and feel. With 90 percent of buying decisions made subconsciously, that consistency is key to quickly and emotionally connecting with customers as your business grows.

Brands like Coca-Cola and Nike have managed to maintain consistency over decades in business. Even with subtle changes in design over the years, there is a basic look that remains consistent.

But your brand is more than a logo. It's everything that represents your company, from your personal branding and the content you create to your mission, the employees that humanize your brand, and everything in between. As you grow your company, maintaining your brand's consistency can be a challenge. Here are six tips that can help:

1. Understand your mission.

From the start, your brand image should be tied to your core values, which often relate specifically to what you want your venture to do for your audience and become over time. Even if you already have a logo and have designed your company website, you can make small tweaks to ensure your branding sends the right messages to your audience members about what you do and what they can expect if they engage with you further.

You might even be able to drastically change your logo once, but if it happens much more than that, you’ll risk appearing flaky. Put your mission statement and core values on paper, and conduct an audit to make sure your visual materials align with them.