Run Easy!
October 2nd, 2013 • COMM464, EMarketing
Do you recognize the above slogan? If not, try this: There are two people in everyone. Do you recognize that? No? Finally, what about this: Just Do It. Yes, you are right, the third slogan has been Nike’s tagline for the past 15 years! The first two slogans, belong to Nike’s chief competitor Reebok who has changed its slogans 14 times since 1987! Little wonder then that you couldn’t recognize this!
How does this translate to profits? According to this article Nike successfully increased this brand share from 18% to 43% in the 10 years ending in 1998. This is just one small example of how brand consistency whether it be in the form of slogans or website design can increase a brand’s awareness and market share.
Brand consistency wasn’t a challenge before in companies who had one store front and one radio advertisement per week. However, with today’s multi channel marketing tools available at one’s disposal, it is easy to be inconsistent in messaging or interface when juggling these various tools. The picture below is a classic example of how the vast differences between an email picture and the website can rob the business of its credibility and potential sales. The traditional funnel mentions that prior to purchase, it is important that people can credibly evaluate their options and inconsistencies in the brand can only harm the brand.
The article however cautions that consistent messaging doesn’t mean identical messaging because then you are not exploiting the social media tool’s ability to give flavour to the brand. Instead standards should be put in place to ensure that key messaging is stressed in the same way in all the channels.