Unifying Brand Identity

The Importance of Design Consistency Across Company Websites

In modern marketing and sales, a company's online presence is a critical component of its brand identity. However, when a group of company websites exhibits a diverse array of designs, it can lead to a disjointed user experience. This lack of consistency not only undermines the brand's visual cohesion but also hinders the establishment of a unified corporate identity. As a Luxury company or Premium group strives to maintain a strong and recognisable brand in the minds of their audience, the need for a design update to bring disparate websites in line with the overall company look and feel becomes paramount.

In what situations would this information be useful?

This article came about from one of our clients that had expanded their business and purchased other companies around the world. This has given them a competitive advantage and opened up their international markets. Every company added to the group however has a different brand, website design, website platform, messaging and styling. They approached us to consult on how they could implement a strategy to align the brands. This type of situation could also affect retailers that expand into other areas, buy other shops or existing companies that operate a retail presence. Would there be a benefit to operating a single brand structure under one roof or continue with a variety of brand names and styles? There are several areas that can benefit from the approach.

✓ Brand Cohesion:

A harmonious visual language across all company websites reinforces brand recognition. A consistent design builds trust and familiarity, helping users associate various web properties with the overarching brand.

✓ Professionalism and Credibility:

A uniform design reflects a commitment to professionalism and attention to detail. Inconsistent website appearances may give the impression of disjointedness and lack of cohesion, potentially eroding the trust of visitors and stakeholders.

✓ User Experience Enhancement:

Consistent design elements streamline the user experience. Visitors navigating through different websites within the company portfolio will find it easier to understand and interact with the content and articles if there's a shared design language, leading to increased user satisfaction.

✓ Streamlined Marketing Efforts:

Unified design simplifies marketing efforts. Whether promoting products, services, or company values, having a balanced visual identity across all platforms ensures that marketing campaigns are reinforced consistently, making them more effective and memorable.

✓ Adaptation to Industry Trends:

Web design trends evolve over time. Updating the design of all company websites allows the business to stay current with industry trends, ensuring a modern and relevant online presence that resonates with the target audience.

✓ Cross-Promotion and Cross-Selling Opportunities:

A unified design facilitates cross-promotion and cross-selling between different aspects of the business. When users seamlessly transition between various websites, the company can strategically leverage this continuity to encourage exploration and engagement across its diverse offerings.

Are there negative impacts to this thinking though? 

While unifying brand identity across a group of company websites generally brings about the positive outcomes mentioned previously, it's important to acknowledge potential challenges that may arise. Addressing these with careful planning and stakeholder engagement is vital for a successful implementation. These can include:

❌ Loss of Individuality:

Unifying design may lead to a loss of individuality for each company within the group. If the distinct features and unique selling points of each entity are not carefully preserved, it could result in a generic online presence.

❌ Resistance from Stakeholders:

Employees, stakeholders, or individual companies within the group may resist the change, especially if they have strong attachments to their existing website designs. Resistance can lead to internal friction and hinder the smooth implementation of the unified design.

❌ Adaptation Challenges:

Some companies within the group might have vastly different products, services, or target audiences. Implementing a uniform design across such diverse entities may pose challenges in effectively communicating their unique value propositions.

❌ Transition Costs and Time:

Overhauling multiple websites to align with a unified design requires significant time and resources. The transition process may be disruptive and involve substantial costs, potentially impacting short-term productivity.

❌ SEO Implications:

A major redesign can affect search engine rankings. Companies must carefully plan and execute the transition to minimise any negative impact on SEO, ensuring that the unified design enhances, rather than diminishes, online visibility.

❌ User Familiarity Disruption:

Regular users of individual websites may find it disorienting if there is a sudden and drastic change in design. Striking a balance between consistency and retaining a sense of familiarity is crucial to prevent alienating existing user bases.

❌ Cultural and Regional Considerations:

If the group operates in diverse cultural or regional contexts, a one-size-fits-all design may not resonate equally across all markets. Sensitivity to local preferences and adapting the unified design accordingly is essential.

❌ Rigidity in Design:

A rigid adherence to a unified design may hinder adaptation to future design trends or technological advancements. Striking a balance between consistency and the ability to evolve with changing times is crucial for long-term success.

❌ Limited Customisation:

Companies with unique needs or specific functionalities may feel constrained by a standardised design. Striking a balance between uniformity and allowing for customisation may be a delicate challenge.

What can you do to update your websites?

Short Term Strategy - Quick wins!

If you have decided that keeping all company websites and names in place short to medium term, then there are a few recommendations that we would make to provide some simple improvements. These include:

1. Logo Updates: Tidy up and refine any old or low quality brands. Maybe add a line of text that they are part of a larger group.

2. Footer Update: Addition of text to suggest part of a larger group and link to head office website.

3. Company Group Page: List of all group companies, contact info, location and website link

4. Contact Page: Provide head office details and smaller list of other locations

5. SEO & Site Health Analysis: Check for issues before they turn into problems. Ensure each website is in optimal health.

A longer term strategy

This is a more long term strategy as the group develops and brings together a more cohesive brand and group structure.

1. Branding/logo updates 

This might not be suitable for all companies but a branding update to all group members may be worth considering to reflect the company group corporate style. This may be styling and colours or even the names.

2. Brand Guidelines 

This is a more in-depth project but useful aligning corporate guidelines for colours, placement, fonts and icons that can be used to improve the appearance of each website and keep those lacking design support a framework to work from. 

3. Company Photography and Imagery

• Align photography and graphic imagery to level and improve the quality.

• Website upgrade to bring all websites under the same platform. Allows ease of updates across all sites. 

• Create a pool of resources (like the media library) that all members can use and access to update their website with ease. 

• Head Office could provide regular updates, graphics, banners, news articles, imagery, photography that all members pay towards to keep everything fresh, up to date and consistent. 

4. Consistent Web Design

Consistent style of website design elements to align the site structure, navigation, products and services.  This would be far easier if you agreed on a platform that everyone has to work from so that consistent design elements can be easily achieved. Working across multiple platforms can be a little more challenging.

5. Company Messaging

Relatable messaging across the sites. Product information, service and terms of service. This can include updates and alignment to: 

• Website Terms and Conditions

• Cookies and Privacy Policies

• Sustainability Policies

• Modern Slavery Policies

• Returns 7 Delivery Policies

6. Technical SEO & Site Health

Aligning your technical SEO goes hand in hand with the company messaging above. This ensures that there is a considered strategy behind the wording and site messaging to make the websites more visible in google search. Some areas to consider include:

• Sitewide Meta Titles and Descriptions

• Sitewide Page structure such as H1, H2, H3 and Paragraph/body text to ensure pages are easily indexed and searchable by google. 

• Track site health through software such as SEMRUSH to ensure no broken internal links, warning and errors are fixed periodically, back link profile is clean and updated

• Competitor analysis to identify areas of improvement for your own website and content. With a view to outrank your competitors for search. 

7. Driving Traffic and Enquiries

Aside from the use of PPC advertising, a strategic content plan can be put in place to target important keywords and search terms to ensure you rank higher in google search. 

The aim is to write and publish target content in the form of blogs, articles, faq’s and new pages that provide engaging content for visitors. This is backed up with clear calls to action such as enquiry forms on key pages and blogs to capture emails, and enquiries before they leave the website. 

Head Office could be responsible for creating the primary content and this could then be modified and translated for each group website to enhance their SEO. 

8. Email Marketing

Sending targeted email campaigns to your customers is one of the oldest and most effective forms of online marketing with the purpose of promoting products, services, or building relationships with customers. Your email campaign strategy should include:

• 12 Month plan for key events, blog/news publications, sales and promotions

• Minimum  1 emailer per month

• Include links to new articles or education 

• Product of the month or featured product

• Any promo’s, deals or offers

• Customer events, exclusive events or opportunities.

Head office could be responsible for sensing out all group emails with info about each group member or could provide the information in advance to each group member to align and schedule the marketing.

Conclusion

In conclusion, unifying brand identity across a group of company websites is crucial for maintaining a strong and recognisable corporate image in the digital age. While the benefits, such as brand cohesion, professionalism, enhanced user experience, streamlined marketing efforts, and adaptation to industry trends, are significant, careful consideration of potential challenges is essential. Loss of individuality, resistance from stakeholders, adaptation challenges, transition costs, SEO implications, user familiarity disruption, cultural and regional considerations, rigidity in design, and limited customisation are factors that need careful planning and stakeholder engagement.

To update websites, a short-term strategy involves quick wins such as logo and footer updates, a company group page, contact page improvements, and SEO analysis. In the long term, a comprehensive strategy includes branding/logo updates, brand guidelines, consistent web design, aligned imagery, website upgrades, a shared pool of resources, and relatable messaging. Technical SEO and site health, driving traffic and inquiries through strategic content plans, and effective email marketing play key roles in the successful implementation of a unified brand identity. Balancing consistency with adaptability is crucial for long-term success in the ever-evolving online landscape.