Are you creating an identity crisis?

One of the biggest mistakes I see a young brand make is changing things too often, or unnecessarily, making it appear to your audience like you're going through an identity crisis. As the owner of an agency that specializes in rebranding and messaging, I benefit from frequent changes in direction. But until you're well-established and confident in who you are as a company, I urge you to be consistent and see your original marketing plan through.

What is the impact of your identity crisis?

• It's confusing: Frequent changes can confuse customers, leading to a lack of trust and loyalty as they struggle to recognize and relate to the brand.
• Diluted brand equity: Constant rebranding can weaken a brand’s identity and dilute the equity built over time, making it harder to establish a strong, consistent presence in the market.
• It's costly: Rebranding is an expensive process, involving changes in marketing materials, packaging, and possibly even company operations. Frequent rebranding can lead to significant costs without guaranteed returns.

Consistency signals reliability and quality to potential clients and partners.

Consider the impact*

• Companies with consistent branding experience up to a 23% increase in revenue (LucidPress, now Marc)
• Conflicting brand usage can lead to a 56% decrease in brand recognition (Active Prospect)
• It takes an average of 5-7 brand interactions for consumers to recall a brand (Pam Moore)

I get it. Board members, new leaders, the voice of the customer, competitive threats...these all impact a team's impetus to shift strategies or scattershot their approach to appeal to many different audiences.  And there are smart, data-driven, strategic reasons to pivot or course correct:

• The tone and image does not align with your core audience
• Your marketing lacks the level of innovation and value of your offering
• You took the safe path, missing an opportunity to differentiate from your competitors

That underscores the need to ensure you're being intentional about your brand in the first place. Taking the time, effort, and—yes, money—to get crystal clear about who you want to be, for whom, what you look like, and what you sound like, will pay off in the long run. You can either pay now, or pay later. I'd argue that paying now will help your entire team make decisions with clarity throughout your business. It will help your investors and partners know why they are proceeding with confidence. And obviously, when opportunity strikes early or you are ready to commercialize, you can move full steam ahead.

If you haven't already, it's time to make sure you have a solid foundation for your brand:

• Vision, Mission, and Purpose
• Value Proposition
• Brand Position
• Brand Personality
• Messaging Framework
• Visual Identity
• Brand Guidelines

It usually takes a couple of months to work through this with a marketing partner. You should involve your key stakeholders in the process along the way to ensure alignment. Once you've arrived at your Brand Guidelines, you should have a solid playbook to roll out consistent branding and messaging for your audience.

And then. Stick. With. It.

Yes, you should absolutely allow for creativity and flexibility as you execute across presentations, web, social, email, events, and sales support. Consistency doesn't mean cookie-cutter. It just means you are checking back in frequently with the north star of your brand to keep yourselves accountable.

Here are some of the Heroes of Consistency on our client roster:

• Intuitive Surgical: Obviously, a $150B company knows how to brand. But the lessons are free. Be crystal clear about your brand, communicate it widely, and keep it going.
• Shape Memory Medical: Proving you don't need a big budget to reap the benefits of consistency, this team was one of our most committed to establishing a strong messaging framework, and then working that plan beautifully for the past three years.
• Endospan: We launched a new brand for this team four years ago. We've certainly tweaked things along the way, and are currently refreshing and modernizing their web presence. But the core messaging and visual identity have been sustained over time.

*Credit to Stefan Maritz for culling the statistics

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At Alluvia Studio, we partner with medtech executives and companies to produce compelling marketing strategies, stories, and visuals that clearly define the immense value of their patient care innovations. Our experience and knowledge in healthcare and medtech allow us to deliver critical and timely marketing solutions that free our clients up to relentlessly pursue their goals.

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