7 Keys to Marketing Genius: Congruency Provides Synergy
The following is an excerpt from The 7 Keys to Marketing Genius by Michael Daehn
Linking the various tools together into a cohesive, collaborative package provides synergy. Each tool must provide a consistent look and feel. If printed advertisements use a dog and the color orange with an Arial font, then the brochures, coupons, letterhead, website and every other marketing communications tool must have the same elements. This repetition and consistency help people to remember and identify your brand.
Have you ever noticed that the color of traffic signs is significant? Warning signs are usually yellow or orange, street signs are usually green and stop signs are red. Imagine if traffic signs were all different colors. Some warning signs were blue, some streets signs were yellow, and some stop signs were green. What if every city picked its own color of stop sign? Depending on the city you were in, the sign might be purple, blue or pink. You might recognize the octagon shape, but in this alternate universe, the shapes are all different too. The signs would be more difficult to identify quickly.
Thankfully, for safety’s sake this is not the case. But what happens when people are marketing their brands? Sometimes their logo is blue, sometimes green. Sometimes it has a circle around it, sometimes a square. All of these factors make it more difficult for consumers to identify the brand and, unlike in traffic, most people do not have much motivation to care. Companies should ask if there is consistency in the look of their website, in their print material and on television. Inconsistency confuses and distracts people.
Colors and shapes are rather simple things to keep consistent, but what about the message? Are different claims being made on the radio than in newspaper ads? Are you touting your product as a high-end commodity that is hard to obtain and then printing coupons in the Sunday circular? Do you feature all men in some advertising and all women in other ads? Pick a look and feel, and implement it consistently across all marketing communications.
No matter what style you choose, always make sure you are promoting your competitive advantage (Key 1). While that advantage is likely to stay the same over time, individual campaigns promoting the advantage can and should change over time lest they become stale. Keep the same message of promoting the advantage, but you need to present fresh perspectives and rephrase the message in modern contexts over time. When you update various campaigns, make sure to update them over all the platforms you are utilizing.