Brand consistency: why it can make or break your brand

Let’s begin by unpicking the jargon a little…what is brand consistency and why is it so important for maintaining a strong brand..?

What is brand consistency?

By ‘brand consistency’, I mean the practice of maintaining uniformity in how a brand communicates and presents itself across all touch points.

Being consistent with your brand is tough, as it's not just about making your fonts the same across your website. It’s about everything – from your purpose, to your culture, values and products. Often brands have no uniform guidelines, so when working with multiple teams and freelancers it can be a struggle to get everyone aligned. 

Take a moment to think of a brand that instantly comes to mind when you think about brand consistency.

…

Who did you think of?

If, like me, you though of Apple, I wouldn’t be surprised. Apple are notorious for building an ecosystem of products that all look, feel, and sound distinctively “Apple”.

And they rarely make a misstep with their brand.  

Everybody respects Apple and the brand they have built, and rightly so; they are consistent from product to brand to marketing and rarely make a misstep. But with a massive workforce across those departments – and the budgets to match – you would hope so.

Why does consistency matter?

If it’s still not acutely obvious why brand consistency is so important, let’s just rewind a bit.

Because brands are established in the mind over over time. Our brains like consistency and patterns. It creates recognition and trust. So the more repetition and reinforcement a brand creates, the more recognisable the brand.

It’s therefore one of the most important tools for brand building.

But when you have a large company (like Apple) consistency gets harder and harder to achieve. Especially if you push out a lot of content each year or work with a lot of different content writers – that’s a lot of messaging to manage. Or have a host of different products, each managed by a different product manager, that go through hundreds of small changes each month.

The IKEA brand has been consistently centred around “affordable, well-designed, and functional home furnishings for the many” since 2019. This message of creating a better everyday life for people through accessible and stylish home solutions has been unwavering. Every IKEA store, product, message, and story reinforces this idea of practical design at an affordable price. From their flat-pack furniture to their in-store experience, everything aligns with making home furnishing easy, stylish, and cost-effective for a broad audience This consistency has helped IKEA maintain a clear, dependable brand identity globally for decades.

Apple is about the beauty of simplicity. IKEA is about everyday functionality. Airbnb is about belonging. You have to be completely clear on exactly the message you want to own – what’s your big idea, and how can you reinforce it through everything that you do?

What does consistency look like?

Brand consistency spans multiple areas—visual elements, tone of voice, the product or service...etc. But the true magic happens when all these aspects align seamlessly. Creating a cohesive brand that conveys a clear message or feeling across every touch point is the key.

So how can you create more consistency? Well, it all (mostly) starts with a brand audit.

Whenever I am working on a new brand, I like to go in and audit the brand from top to bottom. Granted, this can be a bit of work (especially if the brand is pretty established), but it’s 100% worth the effort.

And the best way to assess your brand consistency is to take a user-centric perspective. After all, users are the ones that are experiencing your brand.

So step into their shoes and document what you find. Assess their journey from start to finish, from the moment they interact with your brand, to the messages they receive, to the things they see.

Here are some questions I like to ask at each touch point:

• How aligned is the concept or idea behind the brand?

• How many different ideas or concepts are there? (Ideally you want a single one)

• Are the visual assets (icons, colour, graphics, typography etc) all communicating the same thing about your brand?

• Are there any visual elements that are conflicting or creating tension?

• How joined up are the brand assets and how they are being used across the customer journey?

• Does the messaging sound like the same person is saying it?

• Find examples of messaging on different channels. Is the idea focused and clear?

• How consistent is the tone of voice and language?

• When looking at your content, how consistent is the overall voice and tone of each piece?

• How are the sales, customer service, and other teams using the brand? How aligned are the different teams?

Creating brand consistency isn't about rigidly following rules; it's about establishing a clear, cohesive identity that resonates with your audience at every touch point. From visuals to voice, every element of your brand should work together to reinforce a single, compelling idea.

This takes discipline and dedication, but it’s one of the most powerful tools you have for building trust, recognition, and loyalty. When everything aligns seamlessly—when your message is clear, your visuals are recognisable, and your tone feels authentic—you create a brand that stands out in the minds of your audience.

So as you audit your brand and look for ways to improve consistency, remember that it’s not about perfection. It’s about creating a brand that’s unmistakably yours, one that feels cohesive and reliable, whether your customer sees an ad, browses your website, or interacts with your team. Consistency is what turns a brand into something bigger—a lasting relationship between you and your audience.

Keep refining, keep aligning, and over time, you’ll build a brand that people trust, recognise, and love.