Brand integrity is founded on the consistency of the brand through several different touch points, including marketing, public relations, and formal communications, such as press releases. In today’s environment, however, brand identity is also formed through informal methods like marketing assets, social media, and customer service interactions.
Inconsistencies in any of these areas can result in a loss of brand integrity, weakening the brand in the eyes of the consumer. Consistent interactions, however, drive improvements in the customer experience, company revenues, and future growth.
The brand is the face of the company to the customer, the way that a company is perceived in the marketplace through its products, reputation, and image. Quantifying brand equity is difficult because it is an intangible asset that exists only in the mind of the customer.
However, a strong, consistent, reliable brand can have a significant positive effect on an enterprise. Brand integrity can be used for differentiation in a crowded marketplace, building customer trust and loyalty, and improving sales and revenue.
Brand integrity is critical for a number of reasons including:
1. Customer Loyalty
Giving consumers a sense of transparency through brand integrity can improve loyalty toward businesses. In one survey, nearly all consumers (94%) said that they would be loyal to a company that offered complete transparency.
In another study, 90% of consumers reported that they would boycott a company if they learned of irresponsible behavior. Negative actions, a lack of transparency, or a poor experience with your brand can impact customer loyalty, hurt brand integrity and result in a loss of customers.
2. Increased Revenue
According to Forbes, consistent brand interactions across all platforms can increase total revenues by 23%. Consistency and repetition are foundational to brand integrity, building and reinforcing a specific message in the mind of the consumer.
Customers are willing to pay more for a better experience as well. Salesforce found that 55% of customers were willing to pay a higher price for a product if they expected a better customer experience, while Price Waterhouse Coopers found that a strong brand could charge 16% more, on average, for a better experience. And the expectation of a good customer experience is founded on the premise of a strong brand identity.
Learn More: 4 Ways Leaders Gain ROI with a Brand Compliance System
3. Future Growth
77% of B2B marketing executives said that branding is critical to the future growth of their companies. Strong brand equity can make your product the ‘safe choice’ in the eyes of the customer, helping to drive sales by reinforcing your good reputation in comparison to your competitors.
Maintaining brand integrity is a complex issue. It is important to ensure that all aspects of a company, including products, services, employees, promotional materials, community activities, even its supply chain, are aligned with the core values and brand message of the company.
For franchise and enterprise marketing efforts across numerous operating locations, it can be difficult to ensure all marketing assets are aligned to reinforce brand integrity. As a solution, distributed marketing platforms, like CampaignDrive, allow corporate marketers to disseminate customizable branded assets across business chains for faster, smarter marketing that facilitates brand integrity.
CampaignDrive is a distributed marketing solution for multi-location brands needing to streamline marketing efforts across local teams for consistency and faster content production.
Request a demo of CampaignDrive to learn how you can strengthen brand integrity and streamline marketing efforts across business locations.
