Putting the Pieces Together
I used to build model airplanes by the squadron — the ones that came on big plastic “trees” and had to be glued together with model cement. I built and painted these planes with more enthusiasm than skill. When I took my time and followed all the instructions, the final result would look more or less like the illustration on the box. But sometimes I’d be in such a hurry to get the thing finished that somewhere along the line I would skip a step. (In my own defense, that old-school airplane glue didn’t exactly aid the thinking process in these situations.) Many times I found myself stuck with a model that didn’t resemble the original because some piece or other was missing, backwards, upside-down, you name it. I’ve had similar problems over the years with do-it-yourself furniture, including one TV stand currently serving light duty as a supply shelf because I don’t trust it to actually hold a TV. One peg out of place, one panel wrongly installed, weakens the entire structure.
Marketing campaigns are prone to the same trouble. If your print advertising conveys a different message than your website, and your website conveys a different message than your radio spot, and so on and so forth, you can’t possibly marshall the power that comes from a unified marketing effort.
The word I’m looking for here is congruence. Simply put, congruence is a state of agreement; behavioral scientists describe it as an internal or external consistency. Consistent behaviors, and actions allow you to make powerful statements. If, on the other hand, you speak with confidence but your handshake feels like a dead fish, that inconsistency weakens the impression you’re trying to make. The overall strategy may be intact, but some of the pieces are out of place or working at cross purposes.
That’s why you must aim for consistency of tone and message across all your marketing channels — website, blog, direct mail, social media, the works. Ideally, each piece of your marketing structure supports every other piece so that moving from one channel to the next feels natural and inevitable to the reader. Everything must work together to convey the same overall message, from the color of your business cards to the wording on your LinkedIn profile.
Think of your brand identity as a castle. Strong, consistent messaging builds your brand and inspires confidence in your company’s strength and unity of purpose. Little inconsistencies are like cracks in the facade, weakening and eroding your brand-castle until visitors hesitate to venture inside. In the worst case, your brand is so scattered as to be unrecognizable, and then you have to go back to the drawing board. So check to see if your marketing structure has a few pieces missing or out of place — and fix it now, before the glue sets!
