Where Your Business Is Going Wrong with Branding

There is little denying the importance of having a strong, memorable, and striking brand in the current day and age. However, achieving this can be a lot easier said than done. If your brand is struggling to make an impression, read on to discover some of the common mistakes you could be making.

• Failing to police brand usage – First and foremost, you need to continually police brand usage. You need to be proactive about monitoring how and where others are using elements of your brand. Failure to do this could result in an advert with your logo but the wrong colours, a review that does not link back to your website, or your competitors developing a logo that looks similar.
• You ignore the ‘small’ stuff – One of the biggest mistakes business owners make when it comes to branding is only considering the likes of their website and their printed marketing materials, for example, leaflets and brochures. However, your brand needs to be considered with any activity you partake in online and each and every document you use. Do your employee paychecks represent your brand well? If not, look at the paycheck stub template options available online, and find one that is in keeping with your brand image. All of these ‘small’ things add up to create your true brand identity.
• Falling into the vague branding trap – No doubt, you have seen this before. There are so many businesses that use marketing language that is repetitive and generic logos. If you do this, how do you expect to set your business apart from the competition? Clear imagery, logos, and language are imperative. Don’t use catch-all, vague nonsense, which has been repeated so many times that it has now lost all meaning.
• Overcomplicating your brand – You only need to look at Coca-Cola to see an example of a brand that keeps things simple and does things well. Over the past 127 years or so, they have made a number of changes to their brand, but these have only been slight changes. They have ensured that the original look has remained intact so that their brand image remains strong. All companies can learn a valuable lesson from this beverage industry giant. Stick to a limited colour palette and don’t overcomplicate elements of your brand.
• Forgetting to establish brand guidelines – You need to create brand guidelines that cover the correct use of your brand. These guidelines should cover topics such as imagery, the voice used in your branded materials, typography and fonts, taglines, brand colours, your logo, and mascots and spokespeople.
• Not using existing clients or consumers for branding – Last but not least, word of mouth advertising has long been the most effective form of marketing, and that is still very much the case today. If you want to projective a powerful and effective brand image, you need to ask your clients and customers to get the word out about your business. Ask for their opinions and quote them on your website or in a brochure.