How to Identify and Stop Erratic Branding

Customer journey mapping is a powerful tool for understanding a customer’s path from awareness to purchase and loyalty. However, despite their potential, these journeys often fail to deliver the expected ROI and customer loyalty.

In this six-part series, we explore why category journeys aren’t delivering and how a branded journey can solve this. In this segment, we address the problem of inconsistent branding.

The Problem with Inconsistent Branding

Customers avoid erratic brands just like they avoid erratic people. Inconsistent branding can result in losing up to 20% of annual revenue as it fails to provide positive and relevant experiences. Unpredictability confuses customers and can make them actively dislike a brand.

Symptoms of Inconsistent Branding

Inconsistent branding appears when a brand's strategy isn't uniformly applied across all touchpoints. For instance, Roxy faced backlash in 2013 for a teaser ad that failed to show a surfer’s face but instead featured hypersexualized clips, contradicting its brand advocacy for female athletes.

Causes of Inconsistent Branding

The root cause is often a lack of intradepartmental alignment, known as “The Silo Effect.” When departments work in isolation, it leads to inconsistent brand experiences. Breaking these silos and integrating teams is crucial for maintaining brand consistency.

Sephora’s Consistent Brand Journey

Despite the retail industry’s struggles, Sephora thrives by aligning its marketing, product, operations, sales, and culture around a singular brand idea: Inspiring Fearlessness. Sephora creates seamless, empowering customer experiences across all touchpoints, from retail locations to digital platforms.

Building a Consistent Brand Experience

To achieve a consistent brand experience:

1. Define your brand’s singular idea.
2. Determine the experience you want to deliver.
3. Break down silos and integrate this idea throughout your organization.

Mapping customer journeys is only the first step. Companies must understand their target audience's unique needs and behaviors to create a branded customer experience that stands out from competitors and fosters loyalty.

Learn more and partner with a NYC branding agency, Starfish Branding Agency, today!