Building a brand is difficult – there are many mistakes you can make along the way. Whether your brand is a couple years old or a couple months old, everyone can make these five common branding mistakes:
1 It has no emotion
Emotional triggers bind customers into a long-term relationship with brands. When customers feel a personal tie to a brand, they find it harder to separate from it. Each brand has an emotional trigger associated with it. Your brand may make your customers feel smarter or slimmer. All of these emotional triggers can be expressed vividly when promoting your brand. Many brands focus too much on the rational and analytical portions of their business. If you hope to focus on creating a personal relationship with your customer, enhance the emotions associated with your brand to create that attachment.
2 It is always changing
A brand that is always changing is not really a brand. A brand is meant to be consistent and represent a company. A changing brand means a company is changing and is confused about its future. A confused company leads to confused customers who no longer know if they can rely on the brand. J.C. Penney is one such company that has changed its brand image over the past several years, especially in relation to the everyday low prices strategy that ultimately failed. Maintain consistency with your brand and do not force customers to leave because they do not understand what your company is about.
3 It associates with one sense
Most memories are associated with various senses. A spray of Chanel perfume, for example, reminds you of your mother, while chlorine reminds you of childhood days spent at the pool. Brands can also be associated with senses, but most only focus on one sense. In a saturated market, brands need to utilize every sense possible to stand out and be remembered. Many brands have colors associated with them, such as Coca-Cola, while others have jingles, like Progressive. Visually, it is easy to associate different brands, but many brands lack association with sound, smell and touch. To associate with sound, for example, play a certain tune on your website or at the end of every video if you do not have a retail space.
4 Its images are clashing
A brand cannot promote one thing yet act on another. If your brand is promoted as a local shop, it cannot also be a global company. Conflicting images can alter the core mission of a brand, leaving customers confused. A brand can evolve as long as the core values of the company remain intact. Maintaining this accordance with your brand image will show that it still has the same tenets, but is adapting to new competition.
5 It is not comprehensive
Brands need to be understood and expressed concisely in just a few sentences. If it takes several pages to define a brand, the brand is unclear. Your brand needs to be comprehensive and express the whole image of your company – values, mission statement and purpose. A developed brand does not need much space to be defined. If you’re having trouble developing a concise definition for your brand, you may need to conduct a brainstorming session on what your brand is. ?
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