They say mistakes, obviously, show us what needs improving. Without mistakes, how would we know what we had to work on? But sometimes while committing blunders we often fail to recognize our very own silly doing.
This dents our very own respective image that we are striving hard to establish in the market especially in the minds & the hearts of our desired audiences. And if you are starting a new venture one of the most important things you can do is make sure to get the correct branding.
Sometimes a company will invest an ample amount of time and money to get a brand established — they create a name and put a tag line on it that looks promising at least on paper.
They build the brand name awareness do all the possible right things to ensure it fits with their core mission & vision of their respective company.
They even squabble over the colors to make sure they are right and reinforce the name and tagline. At times, they even consult numerologists to get the right name for their brands.
They launch big branding announcements with extravagant advertising activities hoping to get established in the market with a speed of light which sometimes sadly turns out to be a branding blooper resulting in extreme mistakes to follow.
But the key is not to give up as even the most popular brands in the world can be killed all of a sudden. In today’s time being an on-trend, relevant, inspiring, purposeful, innovative and consumer-centric brand are the things that will make people pause, listen and pay attention.
Customers want to identify with a brand they can grow with, that earns their trust and makes them feel important & worthy. People want to evolve with a brand whose products and services help give their business or life meaning and significance.
End to end, a brand must become a consumer’s best friend. Below are the 10 most common mistakes that kill brands. Memorize them by heart & re-establish your glory with all flying colors.
Not Refreshing Your Brand On Regular Basis
STOP doing what everyone else is doing and be innovative & creative about your own brand.
Do your honest SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analyses and try to keep your branding simple, straightforward yet stylish. Remember that consumers are re-evaluating their needs more often than you might think.
Instead of being reactive to your audience needs, be pro-active in anticipating their changing habits and moods by guiding them as they reinvent themselves and do this by refreshing your brand on a regular basis before someone else does it before you.
People like surprises and want variety. Don’t be too boring & predictable. Play smart & handsomely. Every brand is vulnerable. Don’t take your audience for granted.
Not Establishing Relatable Identity
Too often brands complicate their unique value proposition (UVP) to get attention. A brand identity is most powerful when it evolves and its value proposition strengthens in alignment with the changing lifestyle demands of its audience.
Make things simple. People don’t have the time to figure out what your brand is trying to solve. Consumers want brands to be deliberate with their identity – straightforward, while at the same time forward-thinking.
A relatable identity of a brand arises only by developing a strong ‘brand-personality’. Keep this in mind; the purpose of positioning by brand personality is lost if we are unable to define a desired ‘personality’ for our brands. This should also be clearly distinct from the personalities of competing brands and sister brands in the very product line.
To sum up, the consumer should be able to identify with the product, thereby making the all-important judgment “This is my kind of product .”
Not Carrying Out Innovations & Up-gradation
Consumers want to have better options available for that company needs to innovate and upgrade their products at regular intervals so as to keep their loyal customers’ interest in.
That means your timing must be in perfect sync with your audience demands. Don’t launch a new product, service or packaging/logo strategy if your brand’s audience isn’t ready and/or you are not prepared to execute the requirements for sustainable success – all the way through to the end.
Once you have established your reputation for excellence, your innovation efforts become a public relations strategy that pre-sells your consumers well before any new product event.
Have you researched that your brand still demanded in your market.
Many small entrepreneurs selling products on the market like they’re pushing customers to buy. They have not enough funds to go in the market and find out whether the product is still required or not, they just not updating their product according to market.
They are just wasting money in creating an unwanted product. So what to waste money on such things. Get little creative and run out a survey to the selected candidates and see the result, this will help keep your brand’s image intact.
Not Using existing consumers, clients for Branding
The best marketing tool in your arsenal is WOM (word of mouth advertising).
Ask your customers, clients or patients if they will join you in getting the word out — ask for their opinion about your ads or seminars; ask them what they think your company’s greatest strength is — and ask if you can quote them in the brochure or ad.
Not making the difficult picks required to really target your marketing.
The higher your target audience, the higher your achievement, right? Well, that isn’t necessarily true. The statement is wrong. Your brand or business won’t be actually capable to reach your target audience unless you can convey a significant point of alteration.
So, clearly research your target audience. Get specific. Find out what will entreaty to your focused target audience, and advertise your product or service according to that.
Not being accurate about your opposition.
Some businesses make the mistake of believing their product has no competition. No..Not true! Even if there is no product or service that directly enters with yours, there is continually something different on the market that your consumers can choose to meet their needs over you.
So, get to know your direct and indirect competition well, and look at them all realistic. What will discriminate your product or service from your opponents and fill your market’s requirements? Then, focus your brand on those modifications.
Not choosing the right people to showcase your brand.
Because of their small company size, beginning entrepreneurs, sometimes believe they should be “grateful” because few people are working for him. Not true! As you are working hard same as your employees do.
Be sure the employees you hired have the same character as the one you want your trade to connect in the marketplace. That means finding the best probable employees to join your team, and spending a little more to work.
Forgetting that your brand image encompasses to your employees, not just your target audience.
Do you care about your staff as you care about your customers? Do you believe that misbehaving with your team members will work out to reach to your audience? NO! it will harm your brand.treat your employees as you want to treat yourself. It will raise their efficiency level and they tend to involve more in launching your brand.
Not making your business as you want to launch.
As an entrepreneur, you will be doing everything for your business for a long, long time. If you don’t completely love it, you will lose very soon.
So, don’t choose to do something just because it’s what you’ve always done. You’ll spend way too many hours of your life unhappy, and your heart won’t be in it.
Don’t be hard on yourself! Every businessperson makes a branding or marketing mistake now and then. If you have dropped prey to any of these errors, pick up yourself, and do whatever’s necessary to correct them and enjoy the success you deserve.
