3 Critical Branding Mistakes to Avoid in 2018
Written by Mel // March 12, 2018 // Creative // Comments Off on 3 Critical Branding Mistakes to Avoid in 2018
Your branding strategy can make or break your business. Having a great brand is one of the best ways to make your business Stand Out, but at the same time, making mistakes when creating a brand image can lead to disastrous consequences. A lot of well-established companies have found themselves in hot water after committing branding mistakes.
If you want to avoid alienating your customers, you need to ensure a unified branding message that resonates with the customers. To help you in creating a successful branding strategy, here we have listed three critical mistakes that you should avoid at all costs.
1. Thinking that the Logo is the Brand
Many businesses make the mistake of thinking that their logo solely defines their brand image. The fact of the matter is, a brand is not just a logo. A brand is largely intangible – a consistent image that you create in the mind of the customers to create a full on corporate identity. The visible part of the brand – logo, symbol, image – are just a small portion of the entire brand image.
In this context, creating and building a brand requires an investment of time, effort, and money. Successful brands are not created overnight. It takes months and sometimes years to create a brand.
2. Not Having a Story
Storytelling is an essential part of building a brand. By not telling a story, you will not be able to build the trust factor with your customers. Every business has a story to tell. From a small startup to a large company, there is always some inspiring, amazing, outstanding, and unique to tell. Telling these intimate stories to customers and clients can help in building rapport with them.
Take the example of Nike. The company tells stories of successful athletes. Consumers have come to associate the brand with the characteristics that define successful athletes – confidence, endurance, hard work, and the ‘just do it’ mentality. Coca-Cola is another company that tells great stories. Just visit the Coca-Cola home page and you will find countless stories that tie in with the branding message of the company. Telling stories will make people connect with your company, which is what branding is all about.
3. Ignoring the Digital World
The digital world has taken over this real world of ours by storm. Many people call the 21st century the digital age. This is for good reason. Consider the following facts.
- Nearly 4 billion individuals – or 53 percent of the world population – use the internet
- The internet penetration rate in North America is 95 percent, with 345 million users
- Facebook alone has nearly 2 billion active users
- Mobile phones, including tablets and smartphones, are used by 66 percent of individuals to connect to the world wide web.
The above figures mean that you simply cannot ignore the digital world. Not creating a strong digital footprint is a serious mistake that will hurt your business. Including digital media in your branding strategy is not optional, it’s absolutely essential.
The above are the major mistakes that you should definitely avoid when creating a branding strategy. In addition, you need to create a unified branding message across different channels. Consistency in the brand message is important in both internal and external communication. Whether its corporate presentation, emails, and sales messages, they need conform to a unified branding theme. Otherwise, you won’t be able to connect with customers and will have a forgettable brand identity, which will make it much harder to grow as a company.
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