Walk down any suburban shopping street in Australia and you'll see a microcosm of the branding problem. Some of the shops will be a local branch of a national or even multi-national company. If they're a bank, fast-food outlet or supermarket you'll immediately identify them by their name, colour scheme and 'brand consistency'.
Inside the shop, the counters, signs, wall colour and floor covering will all conform to the 'look' of that particular brand.
If you're lucky, the service you'll receive will also conform to the national identity.
Then there are other shops which are locally owned which don't have the luxury of a head office detailing how their shop should look. This can be an advantage as they can bring a truly local look and feel to their signage, colour scheme, etc
Then there are other shops or businesses that have no consistency in signage, colour schemes or service.
Yes they have signs and they've painted the inside of the shop and there's floor coverings, but nothing works together. Often the sign will have a different font for each line of text with each sign being a different colour.
Nothing is consistent about their visual identity. My point is, this is not hard to do.
More and more we are a visual society - the growth of digital communications and portable screens of all sizes means we learn by what we see, rather than what we read.
Every local business has some form of signage, branding or visual identity. The key thing is to make sure each of these looks the same and presents a consistent visual identity.
That's the start of brand consistency.
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