#9 - The Wild Wild West of Branding (Micro-Podcast)

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In this episode, we venture into the chaotic frontier of modern branding—where Canva templates, color mismatches, and inconsistent visuals run rampant. It’s the wild wild west out there, and without a clear brand standard, your message can get lost in the dust.

Ken breaks down why consistency matters more than ever, how quick-reference style guides can save a project from creative drift, and why working with a professional isn’t just about polish—it’s about control.

You’ll also hear a colorful analogy: sure, a great artist can make magic with an 8-pack of crayons—but why limit yourself when professional tools and a cohesive vision can elevate your brand far beyond the basics?

Branding isn’t just about logos. It’s about delivering a consistent, recognizable experience—everywhere your audience meets you.

Over The Bull is brought to you by IntegrisDesign.com. All rights reserved.

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
You're listening to Over the Bull, where we cut
through marketing noise.
Here's your host, Ken Carroll.

SPEAKER_01 (00:10):
Welcome to the Wild Wild West on this episode of
Over the Bull.
My goodness, the games are beingplayed in the world of marketing
and design today.
And the last episode, I sharedwith you an example of an agency
that's claiming to do a lot ofwork.
And in reality, they're justreselling a product and marking

(00:30):
it up.
I don't know if I shared thiswith you, but that particular
company, they don't even work onFridays because they claim that
they're working on the mentalhealth of their staff.
I'm all about mental health, andour company is very concentrated
on our clients too, but we doreal work, and we work long
hours to provide a qualityservice for our customers to

(00:52):
give them the best possibleopportunity.
Now, one thing I want to talk toyou about today is branding
consistency.
Brand inconsistency isincredibly important because
every time that your image, yourbrand, comes in contact with
someone else, if it changes, youbreak that chain of command.
Now, it doesn't matter if you'redoing a flyer or a website or

(01:16):
business cards or whatever.
If you break your brand, you'rebreaking that train of thought.
Think about if you were to drivedown the road to that famous
fast food restaurant and you seegreen arches and not golden
arches.
You're going to wonder what'sdifferent about that.
St.
Patrick's Day, what's going on?

(01:36):
But if it were to change atevery stop you go to at every
location, you would begin towonder about the consistency.
Now, it doesn't matter if you'rea company of one or a company of
one million.
Branding consistency isextremely important, and that's
one thing that has been focusedon basically since the
beginnings of marketing.

(01:57):
You could go back to the,obviously, probably well before
the early 1900s.
So branding consistency, let'stalk about that for a second.
It's not just your logo.
It's not just generally pickingthe right colors.
It's not picking a prettytemplate from a do-it-yourself
program and throwing your logoon it.

(02:19):
That's not what brandingconsistency is.
Branding consistency, of course,it's your logo.
Of course, it's consistentcolors.
Of course, it's consistentfonts.
But it's also about a consistentlook.
You don't want to go fromrounded images in one location
to square images in another andcompletely break the brand

(02:42):
trend.
You want to make sure thatyou're using consistent
methodologies throughout.
And when you do these things,the sad truth and the hard
truth, sad, but the hard truthis.
You need a professional thatunderstands it, that can stand
back and look at your brand andthen say, okay, this is what
your brand should look like.
And no, don't use thisparticular flower layout.

(03:05):
It doesn't matter.
And make sure your fonts areconsistent and do those things.
In ways, we're kind of likegatekeepers of your branding
when you work with agencies.
Now, the problem is thedo-it-yourself stuff's
attractive, right?
Because you want to take thosedo-it-yourself programs and save
money, and you think, well, it'sjust for this one little

(03:27):
project, or it's just for this.
Well, in reality, it is a bigdeal, and you are breaking those
particular trends.
So keeping it consistent isimportant.
Working with someone thatunderstands branding and how to
keep it consistent and wherethose parameters are is just as
important.
Also, just general layout andpractices and everything are

(03:49):
critical as well, but I won't gothere.
But the other thing that'sreally important when it comes
to your branding and your layoutis to understand that there are
a lot of people out there in theworld.
Just like in the last episode,there's a lot of people out
there who are claiming that theyhave a skill set, who claim
they're doing things, and inreality they're not.

(04:10):
What they're doing is they'reusing tools, they're using clip
art, they're usingdo-it-yourself builders.
They're doing things that aremaking their life easier, but
making your brand insufficient.
And so it's important to notonly make sure that you're
following those brand standards,but you're working with someone
who understands that.

(04:31):
So you want to make sure youqualify your designer.
I can't tell you how many timesI work with people and I've seen
the products that were producedand they were straight out of a
do-it-yourselfer.
You want to be careful.
Yes, it's attractive.
Yes, it sounds good.
Yes to all those things.
Now, a real good artist can workwith an eight-pack box of
crayons and make it look good.

(04:52):
But the question is, is...
Why would an artist use aneight-pack box of crayons when
he has much more elaborate toolsto use, such as Adobe Creative
Suite?
And so one of the flags that youcan look for are people that are
using these do-it-yourselfprograms, especially for like
these little one-off deals andthings like that.

(05:12):
Make sure that that is not thecase and make sure that your
brand is consistent.
Stand back.
Look at your product.
Close your eyes.
Look at the shape.
Look at the sizes.
Look at how images are beingused.
Look at the fonts.
Look at everything.
Fonts, by the way, is just theshape of the characters of text.
Make sure that all that stuff isconsistent.
And if it's not, if it doesn'tlook like the same thing on each

(05:34):
one of those pieces, then youbroke your brand consistency.
And it's important not to dothat.
I had a One guy I worked withyears ago, he got bored with his
brand and just wanted to changeit randomly.
Not the colors, but the layouts.
And, you know, we would alwayskind of like say, well, hold on
a minute.
You know, you may be tired ofyour brand.

(05:55):
However, the people that areusing your brand are not tired
of it.
And you want to be consistent.
So you just wanted to dosomething just to do something.

UNKNOWN (06:04):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (06:04):
So the take home for today's podcast is your branding
is extremely important.
It goes well beyond juststicking your logo on a product.
It's making sure your fonts,your layouts, and all those
things do mesh in order tocreate a consistent presentation
that resonates with yourclients.
And the more it resonates, themore they see you, the more

(06:26):
they're going to trust you.
So don't break those brandingstandards and make sure you have
somebody that you know is doinga good job for you.
Thanks again for listening toOver the Bull.

SPEAKER_00 (06:37):
Thanks for tuning in to Over the Bull, brought to you
by Integris Design, afull-service design and
marketing agency out ofAsheville, North Carolina.
Until next time.