Your brand represents your company. It informs your customers and potential customers about your identity and activities. It reflects your company's personality and should evoke a feeling or emotion. Your brand is what makes your business your business.
It's easy to make mistakes while developing your brand or communicating your unique business values, and these gaps can be challenging to identify. Here are six branding mistakes and solutions to address them.
Branding Mistake #1: An Undefined, Inconsistent, or Underdeveloped Brand Story
Customers connect with brands that tell a compelling story. If your brand lacks a strong narrative, you may struggle to build emotional connections with your audience.
Fix: Define your brand story by clarifying your mission, values, and unique selling proposition. Use storytelling in your website copy, social media posts, and marketing materials to engage and inspire your audience.
Get as clear as you can about your:
Mission and goals- What does your business do and how do you do it?
Value- What problem(s) are you solving or making easier with your products or services?
Differentiators- What makes your products or services stand apart from others?
Elevator pitch- How do you tell the story of what you do and why, in a conversational, authentic way?
Branding Mistake #2: Saying you’re the best
Ok, let’s be honest. You think your business is the best. After all the effort, time and attention you have put in, this business is basically your baby, and you are damn proud of it!
As you should be.
But wait a minute. Make sure you don’t present your personal beliefs above your business’ value proposition. Don’t make the mistake of claiming quality as your outstanding brand differentiator. After all, doesn’t everyone think they are the best?
Similarly, don’t brand your services as the “fastest” or your products as (gulp) the “cheapest”. This likely isn’t true, and even if it was, it wouldn’t stay that way for long.
Fix: Instead, build a brand that relies on something your competitors can’t ever have- whatever makes your brand unique. You need to build trust in your customers, they want to get what they expect from you because they believe you, not because you are more or less “something” compared to someone else.
Branding Mistake #3: Outdated visual identity
A brand with low-quality visuals can appear unprofessional and untrustworthy. If your design looks inconsistent or outdated, customers may hesitate to engage with your business.
A website is the digital storefront of your business and is the most important marketing investment most companies will make. Your website is the hub for your sales and lead generation. Making sure your website is functional and aesthetically pleasing to your customers is crucial to your success. Your website messaging needs to be set up to maximize the user experience and optimize search engine analytics.
Fix: Invest in our professional logo and website branding services
Branding Mistake #4: Ignoring the impact of social sustainability in your branding
A sustainable brand is one that has woven environmental, economic and/or social issues into their business operations. More and more customers want to support companies who are making a social impact and exercising ethical business standards, and prefer to connect and commit to companies who care about what they do.
Fix: Maximize the opportunity to build strong emotional connections and trust with customers around sustainability by being thoughtful and authentic when considering these aspects of your brand.
What social issues do you take a stand on?
How can you be creative about making your products environmentally sustainable?
What causes will you brand support?
Branding Mistake #5: Losing focus on your target audience
As your company gets up and running with more resources and opportunities, you are feeling good. You are booking more, consistent clients, reviewing metrics and even thinking of expanding your team. Then you start to feel the tug to expand your scope of services. You are doing well- so well that people are asking you for products or services that you don’t currently offer. You know you could offer them, but should you? You have also been asked by an acquaintance to collaborate, and even though you know your target audiences aren’t the same, you figure you aren’t competitors, so what could it hurt?
Wait a minute. It could hurt. Both activities would mean you lose focus of your target audience.
Fix: As a first check, review your company vision, mission, objectives, and goals. Does the opportunity truly align with these?
Next, develop a customer persona. Be as specific as possible about who your ideal customer is. Use this persona as a check to decide if what you plan to do is honoring your target audience.
Get in the habit of calling on your customer persona to keep your target audience in focus for all opportunities related to your business, including when considering committing to community events, offering in-kind donations and accepting board appointments.
Branding Mistake #6: Not getting feedback about your brand
You are likely spending many hours, head down in the day-to-day functions of your business, so deep into the details, that you may easily be blind to your business’ shortcomings.
Fix: Develop and implement a consistent process for internal and external feedback that includes:
Gathering feedback
Reviewing feedback
A process to implement needed changes
Internally, thoughtfully critique your product or services at a regular cadence. Externally, survey both your established customers and new customers, and offer them some sort of meaningful incentive for their honest input.
Strengthen Your Brand with Jali Creatives
Avoiding these branding mistakes can help you attract and retain loyal customers. At Jali Creatives, we specialize in branding, storytelling, and marketing strategies that elevate female-led businesses. If you need help refining your brand, let’s create something unforgettable together.
Ready to transform your brand? Let’s chat!
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