Whether you recently launched a brand or your company has been around for a while, continually monitoring your strategy will ensure that your messaging consistently aligns with your mission and values. Your brand strategy might evolve, but it is critical to develop it with a clear intention. Bad branding can negatively impact customer experiences and retention, and your company’s reputation. As you evaluate your identity and strategy, here are 9 branding mistakes to avoid.
1. Not Understanding the Power of a Brand
Many business owners understand what a brand is but not its power to gain recognition, increase engagement, and provide a competitive edge in the marketplace. A clear brand that can build an emotional connection and trust with your audience is more likely to gain customer loyalty. A well-curated brand that is recognizable can also improve its perception of quality.
Customers are compelled to pay more for products from a specific brand. As a result, you can leverage this to sell products at a higher price point to increase overall revenue. Additionally, when people are loyal to a brand, they are more likely to recommend it to others. This can reduce your customer acquisition and advertising costs and avoid common branding mistakes.
2. Not Knowing Why Your Company Exists
Understanding what you do, why you do it, and how you do it is the foundation of your brand. If you do not understand why your company exists, you won’t be able to develop a compelling brand that represents your core mission and values. Ensuring you understand why your company exists will help inform all of your brand decisions.
3. Not Living By Your Brand Promise
If your brand’s actions do not align with its mission and values, it will negatively impact your reputation and customer acquisition. A successful brand will inspire people to feel connected to your business. When you follow through with your brand promise, you will retain customer loyalty. People want to invest in brands they can trust and whose words with their actions.
4. Not Defining Your Brand Strategy
Developing a brand is more than just creating its visual elements. You need to build a strategy that defines your brand and your customers and evaluates the competitive landscape. The primary goal of a brand strategy is to align your business objectives with the customer experience.
5. Not Connecting With the Right Audience
Connecting with the right audience is critical to your brand’s success. To understand your target audience, you should develop a few buyer personas that outline where they are, what they do, age, average income, and specific needs and pain points. Personalizing your brand to reach the right customers is essential to achieving results.
6. Not Having a Clear Brand Voice
Developing a unique brand voice is critical to building an authentic brand. It is best to shy away from creating a brand identity that follows the latest trends. Creating a simple brand voice with clear and concise messaging will solidify that you know who your brand is and influence the right visual direction.
7. Inconsistent Identity
A critical component of any brand is consistency. If your marketing materials, website, or tone and messaging do not align, you run the risk of confusing customers. Creating a brand guide is essential because it is a document that details a company’s visual identity. This guide sets forth rules for brand logos, color schemes, font typography, tone, and messaging, along with your brand’s mission statement, positioning, identity, and values. Having clear guidelines allows your brand to remain recognizable and consistent across all channels.
8. Not Providing a Great Brand Experience
Brand experience is not limited to how the brand makes your audience feel. It also includes staff interactions and every other touchpoint where your customers engage with your brand. Many customers attribute lack of understanding, poor staff interactions, and non-relevant products or services to bad brand experiences. Understanding the power of a brand and leveraging that to provide positive experiences will help you retain customer loyalty.
9. Ignoring the Signs of Brand Aging
It is not uncommon that most companies will go through at least one rebrand in their lifespan. You might need to rebrand if your products or services change, your mission no longer aligns with your business objectives, or your brand is visually outdated. Knowing how to spot the signs will help your brand remain relevant and consistent.
The Takeaway
A poorly maintained brand will negatively impact the results you are trying to achieve. Developing a brand strategy with clear intention will help you remain authentic, relevant, and consistent to provide positive brand experiences and build customer loyalty. Continually monitoring your identity and strategy will ensure you avoid these common branding mistakes.