The 4 Most Common Branding Mistakes You Have To Avoid

Branding is nowadays very important for every single business in all industries. People naturally gravitate towards the brands they recognize and respect. And respect is very hard to gain. It is also really easy to lose. You can end up throwing away all your hard work by making some very simple mistakes that could easily be avoided. This is exactly what we will focus on by highlighting very common branding mistakes way too many businesses make.

We should also highlight that if at any point in time you feel that you are losing control of brand image or you do not know what you are doing, the best thing to do is work with a specialist branding agency like What Media Marketing. The experience of the specialists is always valuable when you can afford their services.

Lack Of A Brand Strategy

Brand strategy defines the brand’s mission, vision, positioning, differentiation, personality, and values. It will guide all the actions and decisions you will take when it comes to communication and much more. If you do not have a good brand strategy, one that is clear, you quickly become confusing, irrelevant, and inconsistent in front of your audience.

Branding does not mean creating some graphics, as some people unfortunately believe. It involves a strategy. You have to develop a coherent and comprehensive strategy for your brand, one that completely aligns with customer needs and business goals. Also, this strategy has to be regularly adapted and updated based on customer expectations and market conditions.

Lack Of Target Audience Research

Simply put, the target audience is made out of the people with the higher possibility of being interested in what your brand offers. These are the people you sell your products or services to. If you do not know who your business’ target audience is, you are not able to deliver engaging, valuable, and relevant experiences or messages. You basically lose resources, time, and money since you reach people who are not interested in your offerings.

You want to learn as much as you can about your target audience, not just properly identify it. Also, your market research should be repeated so you can identify potential changes in the audience, together with identifying audience segments that would influence your strategy.

Lack Of Consistency

By consistency, we mean consistency across the channels you use. It means always using the exact same brand colors, tone, fonts, style, voice, name, and logo, along other important things. The channels that you use include social media, packaging, email, the website, customer service department, advertising campaigns, and practically anything connected to the brand.

When you are not consistent, customers are alienated and/or confused. The brand reputation and image are instantly negatively affected. Avoid this damaging error by creating a highly detailed and clear brand guideline. It needs to specify how brand elements are used and how they are applied across all platforms and channels used. Also, you have to be sure that all your employees respect the guideline.

Lack Of Differentiation

The last very common branding mistake you have to avoid is a lack of differentiation when looking at your competitors. You always need to set the brand apart. Through differentiation, you retain and even attract customers. When you are practically the same as the competition, your potential clients are going to be confused. Also, your brand will be forgotten very fast.

Identify the innovations, benefits, and strengths of your brand. Then, leverage that information. Also, make sure to analyze the performance and strategies of your competition so you find opportunities you might miss out without even realizing it.