3 Scary Branding Mistakes That Are Costing You

Whether you have a startup or an established business, if you’re hoping to compete with the status quo, you need to be focused on branding. Your products might be the best thing since sliced bread, but a poor brand image could be devastating for your sales. Are you making any of these mistakes?

1. Ignoring it. While it’s not listed in terms of a figure, one of the most valuable assets on a company’s balance sheet is its brand. Maybe the Powers that Be are under the impression that saving money in the short term doesn’t really affect the long-term brand, but it can be risky to view your marketing budget as a superficial expense instead of an important investment. Having a strong brand story can assure consistent sales from year to year; if you ignore your brand, it will decline exponentially faster than you can rebuild it. Once you start cutting corners, you may not be able to tape it back together.
2. Inconsistency. Your company should be using the same name, logo, slogan, etc. for everything internally or externally. The uniform your staff wears and the sign painted on the front of your business need to match your business cards and your website, and all the fonts and colors should be the same. Because consistency in branding is difficult to achieve if you only use one or two avenues to get the word out, you need to market yourself far and wide (maybe with the exception of “brandalism,” of which the effects aren’t quantifiable, strictly from a business analyst point of view—best to avoid it). Customers need to be hearing your jingles and tag lines, and seeing your name and logo over and over, in a variety of ways, before they recognize your brand—and everything they see should be identical for this to happen sooner.
3. Not revisiting it when it’s time. As people grow, so do businesses. This means that every 5 years or so, you should take a look at how your brand story has worked to prop you up for success. Assess whether it’s time to change things up; revisit the direction and tone you want to portray. Does it seem outdated or stale? Are you reaching your target audience? What kind of feedback both internally and externally have you gotten over the years, and are you ready to take action as a result? If you’re not willing to evolve with your market, you may feel like you’re being left behind while others are keeping up with the Kardashians.

Remember, your brand is a representation of you and your company, so make sure you’re doing everything you can to cultivate and support it.