Seven Branding Mistakes

Time and time again we see entrepreneurs making mistakes around building their brand. We identified the top seven mistakes we see business owners and entrepreneurs making all the time when they think about their brand and branding. So I thought I’d share them with you…

1) They think their logo *is* their brand

Your brand is not your logo. Brand is your whole customer experience. A set of values, emotions, promises that resonate with your ideal client. Your branding is a visual representation of your brand, using type, colour,  imagery and messaging to catch their eye, stop the scroll and start to make that emotional connection.

2) we don’t neeD to invest in brandING

In this increasingly visual world of Facebook Lives, Youtube and Insta feeds it pays for you to have a visual identity and consistency around everything you put out.

Brands are based on values and emotional connections, but consistent branding helps your customers easily identify your content in the noise of other competitors.

As you scale and grow your team, a cohesive brand represents your company when you’re not in the room. Your brand values, ethos and personality (apart from the more tangible brand assets) will help everyone in the organisation stay on track, make fewer mistakes and save money and time throughout every aspect of the business.

It pays dividends to nail this stuff as it will bring immense clarity to everything else you generate from thereon in.

3) WE GET OUR business on REFERRAL/REPUTATION, that is enough

But if your competition is out there is looking better, their marketing will be working more effectively and they will be attracting more new business.

Designer Raymond Loewy said, “Between two products equal in price, function and quality the one with the most attractive exterior will win.”

Just as in the dating game, we are hot-wired to seek out that which is attractive to us. There obviously needs to also be depth too, to keep our attention, interest, trust and loyalty, but if your brand looks great, you will have better a chance of catching your target market’s attention in the first place.

4) Branding is a cost or a nice-to-have

With the right branding and clearer messaging, your investment will pay for itself sooner than you think. It will open doors and opportunities. It will give you more confidence to get out there. It will make you more visible! The right branding will attract not just more clients but the right kind of clients.

Lorna Reeves of MyOhMy Weddings sold her highest-value package on her first-ever sale, making her ROI on her branding pretty quickly. Despite being a start-up, she presented herself and her company professionally. Her elegant brand (with metallic rose-gold printed business cards) allowed her to subtly yet confidently communicate her premium positioning in the market.

5) I can’t afford to (RE)brand right now

Your branding (done correctly) should be seen as an investment, not a cost. How much business is already going to your better-looking competitors who are communicating their brand more clearly than you are? How much business and how many opportunities might you have already lost, losing credibility by not looking the part? How many clients could you win with a new look?

6) bootstrapping your branding with amateur help

Your mate/mum/dog may be able to use a computer programme or wield a pencil, but that does NOT mean they know about design or branding! Firstly, building a brand is about more than just a logo. You have to consider your brand values, personality, voice and vision before you move into type, colour and imagery… and that’s before the creative and technical know-how of producing your brand assets for print or online and brand guidelines.

One of our clients had got their mum to update their logo before they came to us. Another client, iSchool, who help with safeguarding of children at school had their techies design theirs. As you can see below, it wasn’t pretty.

Before

After

The second version creates a more emotional connection with the audience and tells a story tying back to the company values of safeguarding schoolchildren so much more powerfully.

7) Branding can wait till later

Our #DoSaySee model shows you the three pillars of building a brand.

Your ‘DO’ is your product or service i.e. your business and how you fulfil it.

Your ‘SAY’ is how you communicate about your business in words, spoken or written.

Your ‘SEE’ is anything visual about the business – including you and, of course, your branding.

Like a three-legged stool, you need all three to build a successful brand. The red ‘danger zones’ are what can happen if you only have two out of three of these pillars.

So if you provide a quality service (DO), and SAY you have a great service but then people go online and find an awful, dated, clunky website (SEE) then it throws doubt on the quality of the rest of your business. See includes your branding, but really it’s all about the first impression.

Making sure all these elements are in sync is essential to growing your business and this shows that your brand should sit right at the heart of everything you Do, Say and See.

Sapna Pieroux’s book Let’s Get Visible! shows you how to get brand clarity, stand out in your industry and supercharge your business growth. Get a copy here

If you need help with your branding,book a free Brand Clarity call with her and let’s see what we can do…