Brand Mistakes

Are You Guilty Of Making These Typical Branding Mistakes?

Branding can be a tricky thing to get right, and unfortunately, there’s no magic formula or recipe that will ensure a brand ‘win’. Mistakes are bound to happen when you’re experimenting and trying to find your branding ‘sweet spot’ – let’s take a look at some of the most common branding mistakes, and how you can avoid them.

Lack of consistency

One of the main things your brand should be is consistent. Having a consistent and recognisable brand is what instils trust in your target audience, as well as helping show consumers what you stand for. If your imagery, key messages and colour palettes are all over the place, chopping and changing between platforms, your target audience will certainly feel that you can’t be trusted, and you could be losing out on their business. Work with a branding expert early on, to come up with a definite visual identity and key messages for your brand. Then stick with them at all costs!

Getting sucked into using buzzwords

Your brand guidelines should prioritise concise language and clear imagery. There’s no need to complicate things with buzzwords or vague, catch-all terms. You don’t want to make things too hard for your customers – they need to be able to see exactly what your brand is all about at a glance. Overcomplicating things with generic terms like ‘award-winning’, ‘dynamic’ and ‘best-selling’ is unnecessary.

Your brand isn’t unique enough

If you’ve never created a brand before, it can be tempting to use a brand you like as a ‘template’. But this can hurt your business – you’ll come across as completely unoriginal, and depending on how closely you’ve imitated the other brand, you could even leave yourself open to a copyright infringement claim. Creating your own brand is a great opportunity to build something totally unique – use this opportunity wisely, and don’t be tempted to piggyback on the success of others.

Not having a focus point

In your industry, you’re likely to have a few competitors who are vying for the same demographics as you. Your brand needs a focus point to explain to these consumers why they should choose you over your rivals. Let’s take a look at the world of takeaway pizza for some great examples. Pizza Hut is the market leader – it offers home delivery to complement its chain of restaurants, and is by far the most recognisable name in the pizza industry. Domino’s Pizza has chosen to prioritise delivery above all else, with promises regarding delivery times (delivery within a certain time or the pizza is free). Papa John’s prefers to focus on quality ingredients, with the slogan ‘Better Ingredients. Better Pizza.’ Each of these three businesses has a unique focus point that helps make the decision easier for consumers. Make sure your brand has one too!

Diluting your brand

It starts out with a few font tweaks one day. Then you introduce a new colour when you launch an advertising campaign. Then you alter the logo slightly on one of your social networking sites. Before you know it, your brand has been diluted beyond all recognition and its strength has waned. A brand only reaches its full potential when the guidelines remain set in stone.