Many businesses make mistakes that can destroy their brand and hinder progress. Often, branding is overlooked in the early stages as owners are too focused on getting the final product to market. Even large businesses that are well established and have huge budgets make mistakes in their branding that ends up costing them millions in revenue. It is surprising how many startup owners don’t understand the power of good branding and the potential it brings. Branding is not only a logo, but a lifestyle, it needs to communicate to the right people and involves every method of communication, not just visuals as many first think about branding.
Failing to differentiate your brand
Can you remember the last day that you weren’t bombarded with marketing messages, display advertising or any other form of marketing? No, because it’s impossible! Each and every one of us are constantly being marketed to from brands telling us what’s different about them compared to their competitors. In order to have your message reach someone and cut through the rest, you must not just look great, but be unique so that you stand out and for people to remember you. If They don’t see anything different, what’s making them buy you over your competitors? Hiring a design agency Sheffield based can help you to differentiate from your competitors with world class knowledge.
At the end of the day, differentiating doesn’t mean that you have a completely new product. Just message it differently and be bold about it. By researching your customers and your competitors, you will understand more about what your customers want, and what your competitors are doing badly.
Not connecting to the correct audience
Understanding your audience has many benefits, and if you connect to the wrong audience, you could be wasting a lot of money and time on audiences that are not suitable for your product or service. Just because you like something, doesn’t mean your audience will, so it pays to do your research thoroughly. What you like may not even work at all and hinder progress, so understand what your audience does want.
Starting the process can be broken into these sections:
- Where are they?
- What do they do?
- What is their age range?
- What is their income level?
- What are their needs?
By understanding these personal features, you can get personal with your audience which will in turn improve your progress. If you can’t find something to get personal with, your audience will go to someone who can.
Not being consistent with your branding
One of the most consistent mistakes businesses make when it comes to branding is that they don’t remain consistent across their platforms and channels. This mostly include the visual branding for the most. Brands often swap and choose different colours, fonts or even logos constantly which can significantly hinder your progress and cause distrust with your audience. Each time you look different to your customers, that trust is broken and needs to be built back up. To help with this, hiring a design agency Leeds based can help you to build brand guidelines to remain consistent.