What Is Brand Integrity: Why Is It Important to a Company? 5 Key Reasons

When you think of “branding,” what comes to mind? Most associate it with a brand’s website, logo, or story, but that’s far from the whole picture. A brand’s identity concerns the entire experience and the feelings a business evokes in its customers, partners, and employees. On the other hand, its integrity has to do with the ability to sustain this in the long run. When a brand’s identity loses its authenticity and integrity gets lost, end-user trust tends to go with it. And you know what tends to compromise brand integrity? Holes in your security.

Just one impostor breach can lead to significant financial loss and shatter a brand’s reputation. Recent examples show that brands striving to protect users’ personal information and provide them with a safe environment online get the highest marks among consumers. And if something goes wrong, simply apologizing isn’t enough.

Taking accountability for security prevents loss of trust and protects brand integrity, which is why marketing and security teams must work in synergy. This article further explains why brand integrity is important.

Key Points

Brand integrity measures how your customers perceive you. It encompasses how they view your products, services, reputation, and values.
The importance of brand integrity includes increasing customer loyalty, increasing sales, differentiating you from competitors, increasing trust, and promoting brand advocacy.
To boost brand integrity, you should consider these steps: being consistent and cohesive across channels, having a brand purpose, being authentic and human, and being agile.
Some examples of brands with integrity include Coca-Cola, Apple, Adidas, and Zoom.
To ensure brand integrity, consider following these guidelines to build and maintain your company’s brand integrity: choose the right products, make customers your top priority, be honest, employ realistic marketing strategies, and maintain a consistent moral code.

What Is Brand Integrity?

Brand integrity measures how your customers perceive you. It encompasses how they view your products, services, reputation, and values. Brand integrity measures how well a company lives up to its consumer promises.

Brands with integrity are characterized by their authentic tone, transparent messaging, and ability to take accountability when facing negative public opinion. In contrast, brands that do not demonstrate integrity may have a reputation for being unreliable, deceptive, or confusing. That is why companies must uphold their core values and avoid sending mixed messages to consumers.

Why Is Brand Integrity Important?

Every brand makes promises to its customers. Some swear their products are the best, while others vow to provide exceptional service. Some promise low prices, while others pledge to pursue sustainable business practices.

But today’s shoppers are skeptical. While all these promises may seem impressive, they don’t mean a thing unless you have the brand integrity to back them up. Here’s why brand integrity is so important.

#1. Increases Customer Loyalty

People do not become superfans of inconsistent brands —they can’t because they have nothing to advocate for. They need a message, brand values, and key positive selling points to share with anyone who will listen.

For example, think about a brand (it can be a personal brand) that you adore and find yourself returning to again and again. What would you say about them if you recommended them to a friend? You might say something like, “They’re genuine, their customer service is fast and friendly, they care, they advocate for human rights, and they go above and beyond to make sure you have success with their service.”

If you aren’t consistent, people won’t be able to latch onto these things because they don’t exist—if your customer service goes above and beyond one day and is unhelpful the next, people won’t know what to expect and so won’t want to recommend you to others.

#2. Brand Integrity Increases Sales

Consumers trust companies that have brand integrity. And with this increased trust comes increased sales.

Trusting a brand alleviates concerns about product quality or ethical matters. This, in turn, removes the barriers to conversion and means shoppers are much more likely to part with their hard-earned cash

According to Edelman’s research, 81% of consumers need to trust a brand to buy something from them. The more a product costs, the more essential this trust becomes. This attitude is significant across all markets, age groups, and income levels.

#3. Differentiates You From Competitors

What makes you different from your competitors? If you have strong brand integrity, no other brand will resonate with the same audience as you do. Your competitors will either have a unique brand that resonates with a different audience, or they’ll have so little brand integrity that you’ll immediately stand out. Focusing on maintaining your brand integrity is the only way to ensure your ideal customer only wants to do business with you. After all, if you deliver everything they want and speak directly to them, why would they choose anyone else?

If you’ve worked hard to create your brand identity, don’t forget to maintain it. Creating and maintaining your brand is hard when you’re juggling so many other balls, making sure your business is operating smoothly and delivering on its promises, but the added effort can be easily built into S.O.P.s and will pay dividends over time.

#4. Increases Trust

Your brand integrity measures how much your customers trust you. Brands with high integrity are honest and know how to create a replicable customer experience that aligns with their brand values. Their content and language are consistent across all touchpoints, showing customers that they can expect more of the same from them.

When you make mistakes and forget to enforce your brand voice, values, and so on, the relationship between you and your customers will suffer. In the same way that we find it difficult to interact with unpredictable people, we mistrust brands that feel unpredictable.

#5. Brand Integrity Promotes Brand Advocacy

Brands with integrity consistently deliver on their promises. Customers can confidently recommend its products to friends and family when this happens.

This is particularly true for brands with ambitious or admirable values. When customers really believe in what a brand represents, they’re more likely to advocate for it.

These advocates can be incredibly valuable. In addition to providing word-of-mouth marketing, they also contribute review ratings and user-generated content, which can drive online sales. Just 4% of modern consumers trust advertising, and this kind of content can be a game changer for brands.

What Are Ways to Boost Brand Integrity?

The benefits and importance of brand integrity are clear. But how do you actually get there? And which things do you need to implement to ensure you gain and maintain solid brand integrity?

Many leading marketers say that brand integrity is a marathon, not a sprint – and they’re right – but there are many things you can do to get going in the right direction. I’ve narrowed it down to four top ways to boost brand integrity, which you can use to build a reputable brand that people rely on. They are:

#1. Being Consistent and Cohesive Across Channels

Consistency is hugely important when it comes to brand integrity. If a consumer gets one message when they head to your website and another entirely when they check out your social channels, it’s easy for their perception of your brand to slip. This might sound trivial, but cohesion across channels shows alignment on core values across the brand. Knowing that people will get a consistent experience with you makes you more reliable and trustworthy and contributes to overall integrity.

Take Apple, for example. They’ve built a cohesive, interconnected business ecosystem around real consumers. Their message is clear. Their brand is vital. They’re a brand with integrity, and their consistent messaging means they’re always adding value for users and driving growth.

And it’s about more than just being consistent for consistency’s sake. Inconsistent messaging can damage brand integrity, particularly when it isn’t aligned with the brand’s purpose and the beliefs and behaviors of its customers. CVS is an excellent example of this—after realizing that selling tobacco was not aligned with their purpose of improving people’s health, they stopped selling it. This, alongside their rebranding to CVS Health, has removed the inconsistency that would’ve slowly eaten away at their brand integrity.

So, how do you ensure consistency? The best approach is to ensure everyone across the brand is aligned with your core values. What’s your key message? Who is your brand helping? Aligning all pieces of the brand puzzle might sound tedious, but it’s essential for building a brand that provides consumers with consistent, valuable experiences.

#2. Having a Brand Purpose

What’s your brand’s reason for being? A brand purpose is something that consumers and employees alike can rally behind. Many people now expect brands to serve a social purpose and actively choose to buy from brands they align with on key social issues, even if it means spending more money. Serving a purpose is so central to growing a meaningful brand that it’s become almost synonymous with integrity. When your brand consistently affects positive social change, people notice – and in turn, they think it is more likely to care about consumers, what they’re selling, and be trustworthy.

Plenty of purpose-driven brands are killing it these days. Some brands are born with purpose at their core, and other big brands take a more purposeful approach as the times change. With brands upping the ante on purpose-driven marketing, staying on top of what connects your brand to the world around you is important. Check out this practical advice for building purposeful brands to learn how brands boost their integrity by incorporating purpose at their core.

#3. Being Authentic and Human

Consumers are cynical. Delivering a heavily edited, corporate message just won’t cut it anymore – to be seen as a brand with integrity, you also need to be seen as authentic.

A human tone of voice can go a long way toward establishing brand trust. Many brands are taking to social media and communicating with their customers using more authentic language, injecting humor, emojis, and colloquial tones to establish better connections. Avoiding one-sided conversations is a must—the brands with the most integrity engage with people, offer genuine responses, and seek out that crucial interaction. Owning up to mistakes is also a powerful way to be seen as trustworthy.

The key to being an authentic brand is (shock!) actual authenticity – the genuine will to be an authentic brand. Wendy’s is a prime example of a brand that uses human language, tongue-in-cheek wit, and colloquialism within their brand voice to establish integrity. And a lot of the time, it works. Where Wendy’s falls, though, is in the inconsistency between their brand purpose and their jovial, people-focused interactions on social media. Their sourcing of produce from forced labour farms and refusal to join the Fair Food Program don’t marry with their brand voice, and that lack of cohesion is enough for even the least cynical consumers to recognize inauthenticity.

#4. Being Agile

Building brand integrity is one thing, but maintaining it is quite another. Sometimes, it only takes one faux pas, one comment, or one action that deviates from your core values, and that integrity is no more. The best way to maintain a consistent brand experience is to ensure your brand is agile.

With time, things change, and so do people’s needs. What’s important now might not be so important in a year’s time. The ability to be flexible and adapt is invaluable for maintaining a strong brand. In the same way, you’ll need to be agile to protect brand integrity when facing a global market. A slight change in direction to match consumer needs shows that you’re built to be open to change – as long as you’re not doing a u-turn on your brand’s core values.

What Are Examples of Brands With Integrity?

Whether it’s a stellar social media campaign, a snappy tagline, a simple blurb, or a multi-media journey through a brand story, we’ve pulled together some examples of brands that showcase their integrity with clarity and creativity.

Brand values and integrity are among the most powerful ways to connect with your target audience. While your brand’s logo, slogan, or social media presence might catch customers’ attention, your brand integrity will nurture long-lasting relationships, distinguish you from the competition, and help you rise above the rest.

#1. Coca Cola

No matter where you are, Coca-Cola promises the same principles: happiness, sharing, and family. These motifs are consistently, universally, and passionately embedded into their core values:

Leadership: The courage to shape a better future.
Collaboration: Leverage collective genius.
Integrity: Be real.
Accountability: If it is to be, it’s up to me.
Passion: Committed in heart and mind.
Diversity: As inclusive as our brands.
Quality: What we do, we do well.

Kicking things off with one of the most iconic Coca-Cola campaigns of all time, the Hilltop advertisement 1971 depicts people on a hilltop, singing together – backed by The New Seekers’ track ‘I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing.

Over thirty years later, the company’s values remain the same. They have been unmalted across campaigns such as ‘share a coke with,’ which enabled the brand to create more personalized customer experiences for their target audience and beyond.

#2. Apple

Apple – iPod + iTunes (Jet – Are you Gonna Be My Girl) Ad.

Here are Apple’s seven core values, which form its corporate culture and have held the company together over the years.

We believe that we’re on the face of the Earth to make great products that will change the world.
We believe in the simple, not the complex.
We believe we need to own and control the primary technologies behind our products.
We participate only in markets where we can make a significant contribution.
We believe in saying no to thousands of projects so that we can focus on the few that are truly important and meaningful to us.
We believe in deep collaboration and cross-pollination of our groups, which allow us to innovate in a way that others cannot.
We don’t settle for anything less than excellence in every group in the company, and we have the self-honesty to admit when we’re wrong and the courage to change.

Apple’s branding is sleek, savvy, and tech-smart. It consistently embodies its brand values, promising innovation, quality, and technological prowess.

Apple’s Silhouettes campaign features people letting loose to their favorite songs on their iPods. Silhouettes put Apple on the map in multiple ways, asserting it as a global technology leader and bold, brave, and advancing creatives.

Grabbing attention with bold, simple graphics soundtracked by U2 and Black-Eyed Peas, the campaign epitomizes Apple’s ability to collaborate, create, and challenge the status quo.

#3. Adidas

Adidas’ Impossible is Nothing campaign ad.

Framing its core brand values in competition and challenging the status quo, Adidas asserts that it plays to win. It’s all about improving their competitive position, achieving peak performance, and continuously moving forward by improving. This sense of determination and competition perfectly matches the values of their target audience. In as much, Adidas’ core values are:

Purpose: Through sport, we have the power to change lives
Mission: To be the best sports company in the world
Diversity: We know it takes people with different ideas, strengths, interests, and cultural backgrounds to make our company succeed. We encourage healthy debate and differences of opinion.

Their ‘impossible is nothing’ campaign is a blueprint for diverse and authentic representation. Customers from all walks of life see themselves reflected in Adidas’ visual imagery and brand message, which prompts brand loyalty.

The campaign features athletes from all over the world – from different sports, genders, ethnicities, and nationalities – in intimate documentary-style footage, sharing their stories of achieving greatness. A diverse range of stories are told, paired with photos showcasing a diverse group of people – meaning everyone can connect with someone in the campaign. This campaign intentionally and proactively reflects Adidas’ brand values and testifies to its commitment to building a diverse, pioneering brand and a force for positive change.

#4. Zoom

Zoom Powers the Anywhere Workforce campaign ad.

It has only one core value: care—for its community, customers, company, teammates, and itself.

This deceptively simple value encompasses a great deal. Internally focussed, Zoom addresses and speaks to its employees, fostering an internal sense of continuity and connection. The simplicity of its values makes it easy to learn, remember, and emulate, solidifying brand awareness, both internally and externally.

Adapting to meet employees’ changing needs post-pandemic, Zoom’s ‘Zoom Powers the Anywhere Workforce’ emphasizes employees’ needs and champions a more flexible, employee-oriented work approach, demonstrating a willingness to learn, grow, and adapt.

With a focus on driving B2B growth, Zoom seeks to enable other businesses to adapt their models, kickstarting a wider attitude shift and change in practices. It helps organizations empower and connect teams, modernize workspaces, and enable efficient collaboration.

How Do You Ensure Brand Integrity?

Customer loyalty separates historically successful brands from the rest. Why do people consistently drink Coca-Cola or wear Nike sneakers? The answer is simple: Those brands have earned the trust of their customers. Their products are of high quality, and their brand messaging has remained consistent, making cultivating brand integrity with customers easy.

Building integrity through your brand requires following the correct blueprint. You can’t build an entire house by following instructions on how to assemble a new sofa. Similarly, building and maintaining brand integrity starts with strategies that help you stay on message and foster loyalty and recognition.

If you’re looking for the right blueprint, consider following these guidelines to build and maintain your company’s brand integrity.

#1. Choose the Right Products

One misstep can create a long-lasting negative impression for a brand. IHOP drove this lesson home when the company changed its name and logo to IHOB to announce new burger offerings on its menu. Customers and critics alike lampooned the decision, stating that the company had strayed from its breakfast roots. IHOP reverted to its old name and logo, claiming the move was only a temporary promotional stunt. Even if that’s true, it didn’t undo the negative publicity the brand endured.

The lesson here is simple: Choose the right products to maintain consistency in your brand message. Trying to go “off the menu” to deliver what you think is a better product could confuse customers, employees, vendors, and other parties. Products should always feel cohesive and congruent with your overall brand identity. That consistency lays the foundation for brand trust.

#2. Make Customers Your Top Priority

Customer engagement forms the backbone of any successful business. Your company gains strength by offering high-quality products and reliable services to its customers time and time again. It’s the cornerstone for building relationships of trust with those customers.

Dropping the ball can be a disaster. Customers notice when your company makes mistakes, such as producing inferior products or offering poor customer service. Such slip-ups can convince them to leave, hurting your brand reputation and negatively impacting your bottom line.

One of the best things your business can do is to fulfill what your brand promises by putting your customers first. Start by

Identifying their needs.
Create solutions tailored to meet their needs.
Keep communication open by hiring a dedicated customer support team and maintaining an active presence on social media.
Because when your business is approachable, customers are more likely to trust your brand to find solutions for their problems as they arise.

#3. Be Honest

Chances are, when you see an infomercial pop up on TV, you quickly change the channel. Why is that such a common reaction? The simple answer is that no one likes feeling manipulated.

Infomercials have a lousy reputation partly because the products featured are often long on promises and short on results. From cookware guaranteed to never wear out to miracle cures for various ailments, these products are often too good to be true. No customers enjoy feeling misled, and the brands associated with “As Seen on TV,” products often suffer the results of negative perception.

Your business should be wary of falling into the same trap. Always be truthful in advertising and other forms of communication with customers — respect their intelligence. Be honest about what your products and services can do, and play to their natural strengths.

Fostering integrity with your brand starts with honesty. If a customer can’t trust your brand messaging, how can you expect them to trust your business?

#4. Employ Realistic Marketing Strategies

Reckless marketing campaigns give the wrong impression about your brand to customers and employees alike. It’s tempting to kick the hype machine into overdrive whenever you roll out a new product or service. But bigger isn’t always better. If your marketing veers into uncharted territory by making promises your business can’t keep, the road back to restoring brand integrity can be long and treacherous.

How do you feel when a product works as advertised? It’s amazing! You want to give that same feeling to your customers and employees. Give them a reason to feel excited, but make sure you’re still colouring within the lines. Focus on your product’s real benefits and results rather than allowing your creative energy to devise claims that aren’t achievable.

#5. Maintain a Consistent Moral Code

Doing the right thing for the right reasons is not an antiquated virtue. Businesses that play dirty often look dirty in the eyes of the customers they want to attract.

Understanding which values your customers cherish is essential. Take enough time to learn those values while conducting market research. Then, take it a step further and weave those values into the fabric of your brand.

If your brand has core values that define your company’s culture, stick to those values. Doing so fosters an authentic and favourable brand image. Betraying those values can do more to undermine your brand’s integrity than just about anything else. The last thing you need to do in a crowded marketplace gives customers and employees a reason to turn away and march into the arms of a competitor.

What Is Brand Integrity vs Equity?

While brand equity and integrity may seem identical at first glance, they play very different roles in an organization’s overall brand health. Simply put, the difference between brand equity and brand awareness comes from a customer’s ability to answer one of two questions.

When brand integrity is measured, the consumer’s question should be, “How well and authentically do you know this brand?”
For measuring brand equity, the question would be, “Based on what you’ve heard about this brand, how valuable or useful would you say this brand is?”

Brand integrity refers to a brand’s consistency and reliability in upholding its values, promises, and reputation. On the other hand, brand equity is about knowing the brand’s reputation and value to the market, which can measure either positive or negative stature.

What Are the 5 Pillars of Brand Identity?

The five brand pillars include purpose, positioning, personality, perception, and promotion. Understanding these pillars helps you build a clear identity and see a path to future marketplace success.

#1. Brand Purpose

Your brand’s purpose is the vision that led you to create the company. It defines your company’s mission beyond earning profits. Brand purposes include aspirations, values, marketplace relevance, long-term goals, and unique commitments.

#2. Brand Perception

Perception runs both ways. It refers to how your brand is viewed from the outside and internally.

You can build brand trust by adjusting your customer’s brand perception. However, brand trust is also influenced by the internal work environment. The people you’ve hired have a perception of your brand as well, so you want to work towards creating a positive image of your brand both internally and externally.

#3. Brand Personality

How do you build a brand voice? Your voice is your brand’s personality, making you identifiable in a crowded marketplace and distinguishing you from competing brands.

It’s also sometimes called the brand identity pillar, which includes mood, tone, opinions, and approach in your communications. This also covers visual identity, such as well-known logos and viral marketing campaigns.

#4. Brand Positioning

The brand positioning pillar examines where your brand is positioned within the market.

Who does your company appeal to now? What slice of the market would you like to attract? How will you bridge this gap? What competition do you have, and what are they doing that you aren’t?

You should answer these questions to determine what your brand offers that others do not.

#5. Brand Promotion

How you promote your brand says a lot about your identity and values. You’ll want to develop an advertising campaign or social media strategy to promote your brand effectively. The promotion pillar may include:

Building awareness of your services or products
Attracting new customers
Cultivating brand loyalty
Cross-selling products from your other lines
Competing in new markets

You can check out our brand tracking template below:

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Lamphills Brand Tracking Template

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Bottom Line

In conclusion, building and maintaining brand integrity is a long-term strategy for success, but the results are well worth the investment. By choosing the right products, putting customers first, making promises your brand can keep, and sticking to your company’s values, you build a long-lasting brand that customers and employees are proud to support.