A couple of years ago, frustrated with the overwhelming short term obsession and knee jerkism in the marketing world, I set about creating a set of Principles based on what isn't likely to change soon, or ever, for brands and advertisers.
By speaking to the marketers running the most successful businesses in the country like Yorkshire Tea and Nestle, to the disrupters in eye-watering growth like Astonish and Olly’s, then going on to look at a longer list of the most successful brands in the world, and finally comparing to the emerging weight evidence in effectiveness from the likes of WARC, the IPA and System1, I was able to land on a set of four brand communications Principles that I believe have the biggest impact on lasting brand growth.
Principle #4: Consistency (the twin-axes idea multiplier)
Either Einstein, Ben Franklin, or Mark Twain supposedly said that ‘insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.’
Regardless of who actually said it, it’s a smart axiom loved by leadership gurus and life coaches the world over.
We marketers love this idea too. As an industry built on the new, the next, the fresh, and the innovative, it’s comforting to believe that all our problems can be solved by coming up with something new, something different… by playing with the instruments.
The problem is… it’s not true.
Of course nothing is ever just black-and-white. You can’t stand still forever and expect to move forward. But brands that commit dogmatically to consistency almost always outperform the magpies that can’t resist the glint of the next shiny thing. Obviously creative consistency saves a brand money (by definition), but more significantly recent research from System1 and IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising) has shown, without doubt, that consistency increases advertising effectiveness.
So whilst it’s not unreasonable to suggest that consistency may be the most powerful principle of brand growth, it is wild to suggest it’s easy to do well.
Firstly, consistency itself isn’t effective, it just compounds the effect of what you’re doing. If what you’re doing is rubbish, consistency won’t fix it. If you make a brew with oat milk, no amount of repetition will change the fact that it tastes utterly dreadful. That’s why consistency is the fourth Principle of Unforgettable Brands, not the first. You must determine what makes you distinctive, create a platform to entertain, and make your brand visible before committing to consistency.
Secondly, as a marketer, you might get bored with your own campaign, but your customers don’t.
You’re exposed to your campaign every single day, and you’re paying active attention to it long before the public sees it. Remember: you are not the customer. The customer rarely thinks about your brand, and they certainly don’t care about your advertising. And while assets can wear out (although much more slowly than you think), there’s no evidence anywhere of a campaign wearing out. They’re more likely to wear in.
Finally, and most importantly, consistency exists across two axes, not one. You have to master both time (continuity) and place (cohesion).
Imagine if ‘should’ve gone to Specsavers’ was ditched after just a year. On the other hand, imagine they ran it on TV for 20 years while out-of-home used “See Different” and social used some benign drivel like “Your vision, reimagined.”
The good news is that there’s a simple answer to all of this. The bad news is that it’s incredibly difficult to do well. For every Marmite, Specsavers, or Yorkshire Tea, there are dozens of Crestas, Trios, and Um Bongos who, to quote Mark Ritson, took their cakes out of the oven too early.
To reap the benefits of consistency, brands must introduce (and/or maintain) a creative platform strong enough to inspire infinite execution across any channel.
A great ad idea, a strong strapline, a colour, a character, a tone of voice… all of these are useful tools for executing consistently. But the most successful brands take a step back and create an idea big and simple enough to sit behind all future activity.
The best brand owners take their strategic position and create a platform bigger than any individual execution; a brand-level idea that can inspire and influence consistency across every one of the 4 Ps, then, with every ounce of their inner strength, they resist their natural urge to mess with it.