Brand Essay - July 2026
Coherence is not consistency.
Coherence is not consistency.
Coherence is not consistency.
On sameness, change and what allows a brand to remain itself.
We all know someone who is unmistakably themselves.
They may change jobs, move to another city, cut their hair or suddenly wear something you would never have expected. They may become quieter over the years, more confident, more selective. They may even change their mind about things they once believed.
And still, none of it feels like a reinvention.
You recognise them in the way they welcome people into their home. In what they find funny. In how they respond when something goes wrong. In the things they care about and the things they quietly refuse.
We tend to call people like this authentic.
Not because they always behave in the same way. Not because they are predictable. But because, however different their decisions may be, they somehow still belong to the same person.
Brands often try to create this sense of recognition through consistency.
They repeat the same visual codes, the same language, the same gestures and, eventually, the same answers. What begins as recognition slowly becomes preservation: a way of protecting the brand from change.
But sameness is not what makes a person feel authentic.
And it is not what makes a brand feel whole.
That quality has another name.
Coherence.
We all know someone who is unmistakably themselves.
They may change jobs, move to another city, cut their hair or suddenly wear something you would never have expected. They may become quieter over the years, more confident, more selective. They may even change their mind about things they once believed.
And still, none of it feels like a reinvention.
You recognise them in the way they welcome people into their home. In what they find funny. In how they respond when something goes wrong. In the things they care about and the things they quietly refuse.
We tend to call people like this authentic.
Not because they always behave in the same way. Not because they are predictable. But because, however different their decisions may be, they somehow still belong to the same person.
Brands often try to create this sense of recognition through consistency.
They repeat the same visual codes, the same language, the same gestures and, eventually, the same answers. What begins as recognition slowly becomes preservation: a way of protecting the brand from change.
But sameness is not what makes a person feel authentic.
And it is not what makes a brand feel whole.
That quality has another name.
Coherence.
Beyond
consistency
Beyond
consistency
Beyond
consistency
Consistency has long been one of branding's most trusted ambitions.
It allows an organisation to show up recognisably across products, markets and moments. It gives many different people a shared visual and verbal language. At its best, it creates clarity where there would otherwise be noise.
There is real value in that.
But a system designed to create consistency can gradually become a system designed to prevent intelligent change.
A brand can be consistent and still be incoherent.
Its advertising may use the right typeface while making a promise the product cannot keep. Its service may speak in the approved tone of voice while making customers feel like an inconvenience. Its teams may follow every guideline and still make decisions that pull the brand in opposing directions.
Everything looks correct.
But the decisions no longer belong together.
Coherence is the point of view beneath a brand's decisions: the reason different expressions can still feel unmistakably connected.
Strong brands do not repeat themselves. They make different decisions from the same point of view.
Consistency has long been one of branding's most trusted ambitions.
It allows an organisation to show up recognisably across products, markets and moments. It gives many different people a shared visual and verbal language. At its best, it creates clarity where there would otherwise be noise.
There is real value in that.
But a system designed to create consistency can gradually become a system designed to prevent intelligent change.
A brand can be consistent and still be incoherent.
Its advertising may use the right typeface while making a promise the product cannot keep. Its service may speak in the approved tone of voice while making customers feel like an inconvenience. Its teams may follow every guideline and still make decisions that pull the brand in opposing directions.
Everything looks correct.
But the decisions no longer belong together.
Coherence is the point of view beneath a brand's decisions: the reason different expressions can still feel unmistakably connected.
Strong brands do not repeat themselves. They make different decisions from the same point of view.
Consistency has long been one of branding's most trusted ambitions.
It allows an organisation to show up recognisably across products, markets and moments. It gives many different people a shared visual and verbal language. At its best, it creates clarity where there would otherwise be noise.
There is real value in that.
But a system designed to create consistency can gradually become a system designed to prevent intelligent change.
A brand can be consistent and still be incoherent.
Its advertising may use the right typeface while making a promise the product cannot keep. Its service may speak in the approved tone of voice while making customers feel like an inconvenience. Its teams may follow every guideline and still make decisions that pull the brand in opposing directions.
Everything looks correct.
But the decisions no longer belong together.
Coherence is the point of view beneath a brand's decisions: the reason different expressions can still feel unmistakably connected.
Strong brands do not repeat themselves. They make different decisions from the same point of view.
What AI cannot replicate
What AI cannot replicate
Brands now have to exist in more places, at more speed and through more voices than most traditional brand systems were designed to handle.
Campaign teams, product teams, local markets, customer service, creators and AI tools are all producing expressions of the same brand. The natural response is to create more rules: more templates, more examples, more detailed instructions for what every output should look and sound like.
AI can reproduce a visual grammar, imitate a tone of voice and generate endless variations of an approved message. It can make consistency almost infinite.
But consistency at scale is not distinction.
What AI cannot supply on its own is the point of view behind a decision: knowing what the brand would choose, refuse, protect or change when no precedent exists.
In a world where everyone can generate more, coherence may become one of the few meaningful sources of differentiation. It reveals whether a brand has a distinct logic or simply a recognisable set of assets.
Consistency asks whether something matches what came before.
Coherence asks whether it comes from the same place.
One protects the surface. The other protects the logic beneath it.
The goal is not to make every expression the same. It is to make different expressions belong together.
That is what we recognise in people who feel authentic. Not sameness. Not predictability. A clear sense that their choices come from somewhere.
Perhaps brands should ask for the same.
Brands now have to exist in more places, at more speed and through more voices than most traditional brand systems were designed to handle.
Campaign teams, product teams, local markets, customer service, creators and AI tools are all producing expressions of the same brand. The natural response is to create more rules: more templates, more examples, more detailed instructions for what every output should look and sound like.
AI can reproduce a visual grammar, imitate a tone of voice and generate endless variations of an approved message. It can make consistency almost infinite.
But consistency at scale is not distinction.
What AI cannot supply on its own is the point of view behind a decision: knowing what the brand would choose, refuse, protect or change when no precedent exists.
In a world where everyone can generate more, coherence may become one of the few meaningful sources of differentiation. It reveals whether a brand has a distinct logic or simply a recognisable set of assets.
Consistency asks whether something matches what came before.
Coherence asks whether it comes from the same place.
One protects the surface. The other protects the logic beneath it.
The goal is not to make every expression the same. It is to make different expressions belong together.
That is what we recognise in people who feel authentic. Not sameness. Not predictability. A clear sense that their choices come from somewhere.
Perhaps brands should ask for the same.