Back to Top
What do you do? It’s a simple question. Yet, the answer is often complex and may not be obvious. Many businesses do more than one thing. And the more you have to say, the more difficult it is to say it. A wide variety of products and services can easily lead brands to make the mistake of creating conflicting or disconnected messages. In fact, less than 10% of B2B brands have consistent messaging, according to a poll of B2B brands. While different products and services require different explanations, consistency in message, tone and voice, is critical to achieving marketing objectives.
A wealth of historical data and research studies prove the value behind cohesive brands with singular messages:
- 63% of employees consider a consistent branding experience to be the deciding factor on whether deals close.
- 70% of marketers believe consistent branding should be the top priority for existing customer communications.
- 87% of consumers say brands should place additional efforts into delivering consistent experiences.
People trust those they know.
The reason behind these statistics is deeper than the fact that simplicity sells. The proven approach is rooted in consumer psychology principles. When multiple services are connected to one another through shared themes, it increases brand memorability. That brand awareness drives credibility in the minds of prospective customers and clients. Individuals and organizations alike are more likely to buy from established brands than lesser-known entities.
One service sells another, and the connections between your services differentiate them from competitors. People remember what you repeat, and customers trust what they know. Recognition leads to new customer acquisition as well as existing customer retention and increases overall revenue.
Organizations change. Foundations don’t.
Crafting the proper message for a host of brand niches is a delicate balance between the need for consistency in tone and difference in specifics. The details need to change when the unique functions of products and services differ, but a brand’s foundation — the purpose behind the organization, the values in which the organization believes, and the brand’s story — should remain the same.
Each of a brand’s many products or services should be:
- Connected to a higher organization purpose to which each product or service contributes
- Aligned with the shared values in which the organization’s leadership, teams, and consumer base believes
- Described through common themes and frameworks which are shared across by the brand’s story and across all brand communications
Mission statements, taglines, and brand messages highlight these connections to bring different offerings together and create cohesive brands.
Consistent brands connect.
Our case studies are evidence saying one thing to sell many works. Business leaders often first approach our marketing and branding agency, Advantages, because they lack clear, consistent communications to connect a multitude of services. Through a brand discovery process, our team has helped others such as Starboard Yacht Group and Talson Solutions uncover their brand identities, and the singular messages that tie together the seemingly disparate parts of their brands in the same vein as Amazon.com:
- Experience Extraordinary. Amid an identity crisis between numerous different yacht maintenance services and yacht upgrade services, Starboard Yacht Group uncovered that everything they do ties back to extraordinary experiences on the water. Anchored in the tagline, “Experience Extraordinary,” their new brand led to 320K increase in pipeline per month.
- Analyze risks. Personalize solutions. Between audit, compliance, and project management services, Talson Solutions’ messages and services would seem completely disconnected from one another without a brand foundation to tie it all together. Through a brand discovery process, Talson uncovered the connection between its areas of focus: Talson always embeds its team in its clients to customize support and mitigate risks. With this clarified mission in mind, a new tagline and successful email campaign were born.
- Earth’s most customer-centric company. It’s difficult to remember today but Amazon.com began by selling books. Now, Amazon Web Services accounts for 47% of the company’s annual operating income, but as we all know too well, the billion-dollar business develops and sells everything from household items to robotics to films. Yet, they are connected by a single mission statement each Amazon employee knows well: “to build earth’s most customer-centric company.” These words pertain to all amazon does, and with this singular focus, the brand has become one of the world’s largest companies.
Conclusion
When asked what you do, consider what one thing connects everything before you answer. Think back to your brand foundation. Why do you do all that you do? What do you believe in? Who is your organization? Your core brand message should be broad enough to encompass all of your products and services, but differentiated enough to be unique to your brand.
Be consistent in theme, tone, and concept across your communications and channels. Your brand’s performance will prove the value of the practice — just as the statistics and case stories described above already have. Saying one thing to sell many is a time-tested strategy to increase brand awareness, loyalty, and ultimately, revenue.
