Partner Article

4 Ways You Are Getting Your Branding Wrong

The creation and development process of your brand is one that is exciting and inspirational – whilst often seen as a somewhat frivolous activity, its not one that should not be taken lightly.

If you look to legacy iconic brands that have stood the test of time, it’s critical that you keep in mind the considerable amount that has been invested. At the heart of the brand should be a quality offering, and the brand itself should reflect this quality. By failing to invest the required amount of money, time and effort a strong brand needs you will only devalue it.

It’s time to reconsider your branding strategy if you relate to any of the points below.

Overcomplicating the Brand

Keep it simple (stupid).

If you look at some of the most well-known household brands, their branding strategy showcases an unwavering level of integrity and they rarely stray far from their origins. They may have implemented some variations in font or colour; but they never opt for drastic changes.

Take a look at some of the most iconic household brands, very few of them have experienced much change over the years. They may have slight variations in the font, colour or images but it’s likely that you would still instantly recognise their previous logos – Coca Cola is a classic example of this – take a look at this case study byCanny Creative.

While it can be a real temptation to keep playing with a logo, tagline or website design, you run the risk of diluting the brand. The role of a logo is to be recognised by your audience; our brains use the same pathways to relate to brands as it uses to remember faces – meaning that we genuinely build relationships with brands. By overcomplicating the visual elements of your brand, you can prevent this from happening.

Not Policing the Brand

There is no denying that creating an engaging brand that has longevity in a fiercely competitive world takes blood, sweat and tears – and many, many hours.

And once you have undertaken this mammoth task, you must continue your quest! This entails monitoring both where and how the brand it being used; including competitors. If you have developed a great logo or tagline, it’s not uncommon for the competition to want to emulate it – causing confusion for consumers.

Take the proactive approach and take the time to set up Google alerts so that you are notified every time your brand is mentioned. This tactic means that you can monitor the context, placement and ensure that the mention adheres to your brand guidelines.

If you do encounter issues, most of them will be minor fixes, and the majority of journalists, staff writers and editors will be helpful in resolving issues; while others may need to be dealt with in the legal realm.

Not Recognising the Power of a Brand

There are many advantages to having a strong brand because it’s a well-known fact that customer opinion is an influential factor. Every one us will be able to recall a brand we love and are a loyal advocate of and one that we have an incredibly low opinion of. Businesses can shape these opinions, and this is done through branding; by choosing to ignore the strength that your branding can and should have means that you are failing to take control.

In order to shape customer perception, consider 3 things;

• What service are you providing?

This creates a one-dimensional perception – you have an offering. This needs to be underpinned with;

• ‘How’

How are you delivering this service and what are the words that you want it to be associated with?

The 3rd point for consideration is;

• What associated feeling do you want people to experience with your brand?

I mean, along with invoking feels of positivity of course!

Richard LeCount from USB4Photographers gives his view, “First impressions are everything and ultimately if something isn’t presented well it’s unlikely your target audience will pursue it further and find out more. Yes, I’m talking about your branding. It needs to peak interest and communicate your brand values. Keeping your business on brand is essential and without doubt, it needs to extend to all areas of your business”

Failing to Establish Definitive Brand Guidelines

When the time comes to establishing your brands identity, it’s imperative that guidelines are drafted up; this will ensure that a level of consistency is achieved through all the versatile business activities and processes, and preserve the time and effort that has gone into the process of creation.

These brand guidelines ensure an accurate representation; without them, it becomes easy for the attention to detail to be lost and suddenly logos become pixelated or out of proportion with a tagline, the wrong shade of green is used, the wrong font….and these issues snowball! Create a set of guidelines for your brand that detail the following;

• The Logo

• Brand Colours in both CMYK and RGB (for off and online marketing)

• Fonts/Typography

• Images

• Taglines

This list is not exhaustive; you may consider other elements that are necessary to define your brand, they should be added to the document. If you overlook this part of the branding process and fail to create these documents, your brand will lack direction and consistency.

Your brand doesn’t become defined purely by these static elements; every time a person has an interaction with your business, their thoughts and feelings will shape a brand and the way that it is perceived. The tone in your communications, whether verbal or written, social media activity, the way staff conduct themselves and the quality of basic items such as business cards and stationary. Brand guidelines should cover every way that customers come into contact with you and ensure that they receive a consistent level of service and interaction each time.

Building a brand is a deliberate and skilled effort; before starting out there should be much research that goes into the prospective audience and the elements that they engage with when it comes to colour, shapes and fonts to allow you to pick the ones that also represent your business offering, values, and the way you want it to be perceived. There is a lot of psychology behind these elements, all the logos we know and love have been chosen for very specific reasons.

Keep in mind that branding is not one dimensional; all aspects of a business should be able to live and breathe the brand to enable a positive holistic brand perception.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Rebecca Moore .