Building a strong brand identity doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. By avoiding these 5 common branding mistakes and following a few simple steps, you can create a memorable brand that helps you stand out from the competition.
When you think about great branding, Coca Cola’s distinctive red and white lettering, Nike’s swoosh and Adidas’s three stripes likely come to mind. But as a small business, imagining the level of investment that’s gone into these iconic images can make the thought of undertaking your own branding initiative seem overwhelming. ate a memorable brand that helps you stand out from the competition.
It’s actually easier to do than most imagine. Just make sure to avoid some common branding mistakes along the way.
1. Not understanding how to create a strong brand identity.
One of the most common branding mistakes is not investing in your brand. A strong brand identity has so much more impact than you could ever imagine. Everyone recognises the famous nike tick, the golden arches and the big apple right? So make sure you avoid making this mistake and invest in creating a brand that tells your story and brings your customers closer to you. We can show you how to create a strong brand identity through innovative design and in-depth brand guidelines.
2. Overcomplicating your brand.
Take a look at how Coca Cola’s classic script logo has changed since its first usage in 1887. While the fonts used have varied slightly, the original look is still largely intact after more than 127 years of service.
Small businesses can learn a lesson from this beverage industry giant. When initiating the branding process, it can be tempting to add more variables than you truly need. But your logo doesn’t need to involve six different colours, and it doesn’t need to have six individual graphic elements to represent the different arms of your company. Clean, simple elements are more likely to be recognised and remembered by consumers, so steer clear of the common branding mistake of overcomplicating your company’s branded elements.
3. Common branding mistake 101 “Cheating” on your brand guidelines.
So you’ve understood how to create a strong brand identity, crafted in-depth brand guidelines and begun implementing them across all of your company’s marketing materials and online properties. But two months down the road, you need to create a new ad for a product line you’re launching, and it’d be really great if you could use a few colours outside of the palette you specified out in your branding documentation.
Can you do it? Of course you can. But keep in mind, every time you deviate from your stated brand guidelines, you dilute their power by some small amount. By doing so, you’re essentially introducing a new brand image to your customers, diminishing the strength of the association they’d have to a more unified branding campaign.
4. The common branding mistake of not policing your brand’s usage.
Developing and implementing your small business’s brand guidelines is only half the battle. In addition, you’ve got to be proactive about monitoring where and how others are using your branded elements on your behalf. If not, you could have competitors creating a logo that looks similar, a review website using your logo and not linking back or a partner publishing an ad featuring your logo but with the wrong colours.
Some of these issues may be minor, but in other situations, it may be necessary to pursue legal action if you feel your branded elements are being infringed upon.
5. Rolling out brand changes poorly.
There’s nothing wrong with rebranding. That is, unless you approach it poorly. Bear in mind any changes you make to your established brand reduces the connection you’ve built with your customers. Therefore, it’s important to only make changes when the benefits truly outweigh the risks of losing business. If you do decide to make an alteration, you need to clearly educate your followers on the changes you’re making.
While branding is certainly a marketing discipline in its own right, it doesn’t need to be overcomplicated. Good intentions — and avoidance of the mistakes described above — will go a long way towards helping your small business form vital connections with your target customers and avoid our top 5 common branding mistakes.
If you’re not sure how to create a strong brand identity, get in touch with our team of brand design experts for more information on how we can help your business to stand out in a crowded market and drive business growth with our branding design services.
