A strong brand takes consistency and ownership. Ending up with an ‘itsy-bitsy’ brand is a common problem we see often when connecting with new clients: it looks like everyone has had their hand in it.

We often see itsy-bitsy brands being formed when marketing collateral is inconsistent, several styles are used across communications and there are conflicting messages and poor visual guidelines.

Brand inconsistency can can naturally occur in both small businesses through to large organisations with dedicated marketing departments- brand guidelines are stored away and forgotten about. Consequently, new styles and treatments emerge throughout communications which are outside of the original brand rules. Whether it’s a new designer being onboarded, new shiny design templates or simply apathy; an itsy bitsy brand starts to develop.

To determine whether you have an ‘itsy bitsy’ brand, ask yourself:

1. Do you have multiple pieces of marketing which all look a little bit different?
2. Are your images consistent in their subject matter, their origin and their treatment/style?
3. Does your copy sound like it's coming from the same place with a consistent tone of voice? Or do you have different styles and messages that makes things feel disconnected?
4. Is your logo being displayed correctly? Is it pixelated in any of your communications or online?
5. Do you know your brand font and your web safe font? Or are multiple fonts being used throughout your communications?
6. Do you have a defined brand colour palette, or are you using whatever colours you think look nice for that communication piece?
7. Do you currently have any design templates which you stick to or have been provided by a designer/agency?
8. How are you storing your marketing and design collateral? Are these neatly filed into a system or are your marketing communications spread between cloud storage, your hard-drives and folders from 2015?

If you answered no! to two or more of these questions, theres a likelihood you’re dealing with an itsy bitsy brand.

The solution? Work with brand custodians!

Fortunately, it is fairly easily fixed, with an alignment of the key messages, followed by a visual style treatment that can be applied to all of your communications from website to advertising to staff engagement.

If you’re wanting help to consolidate your brand; contact us for a free one hour brand review. We’d love to take a look at your marketing communications to see how we can help.