Maintaining Brand Consistency in a New Market

Andrea Engstrom, President
Bajillion Agency

Opening up a new location is an incredible thing.

Exploring new markets can mean continued growth for your organization. When you expand into new territories it means new and different things, but how do you make sure that your brand doesn’t change when your location does?

Here is a simple checklist to help you keep your brand equity intact as you expand your reach:

1. Create a brand rooted in your values

This is not only applicable when it comes to expansion. Your brand should always reflect the values your organization adheres to. Values don’t change and neither will your brand. Showing the world your values helps attract the right customers, but it can also serve to attract the right employees.

2. Do an inventory of marketing items

Identify all of the collateral materials that need to be updated or created before the new location opens. Prioritize the list according to ease of completion and impact on marketing efforts. Create a plan to change every item on that list in a timely fashion. Brand consistency leads to brand trust and garnering that trust is essential in a new market.

3. Have brand standards

All brands should have a style guide that outlines appropriate usage. Make these guidelines accessible to all vendors and employees tasked with creating branded items. Having these standards in place removes all subjectivity from the process. Create templates for commonly used items like letterhead or memos so that office staff can help keep the brand consistent without the need for a graphic design degree.

4. Create an approval process

Find an internal champion for brand consistency. This employee or department should be most familiar with your brand standards and responsible for the creation of an approval process for all branded material. Adhering strictly to the process will prevent mishaps that can damage your brand reputation and image. The process should be fairly simple and timely. Implementing a process that is cumbersome and creates backlog will more often than not lead to your team circumventing the approval all together. Covert marketing efforts are hazardous for brand consistency.

5. Flex when you can

All of the items above are essential to creating brand consistency and should be taken into consideration when making a move. But it is also important to remember that your brand should be flexible. New markets will be immediately skeptical of an outsider brand so find opportunities to inject local flair into your image whenever you can. Commitment to customer service should never change as you cross into a new market, but your brand can flex to reflect the uniqueness of your new office. Your purple lobby looks great in your original location, but it means something very different in your new Lawrence office.

Consistency in branding can be more important than creativity in branding (ideally, you should have both).

Having a uniform experience, even across city boundaries helps your customers know what to expect and drives loyalty, which is the ultimate goal for branding. We love creating strategic brands that are rooted in Simple Truth about an organization and that can grow as you grow. If you need help creating a brand that consistently tells the world who you are, hit us up.