6 branding mistakes that may harm your company’s image

Branding is much more than a great logo and advertising. A successful brand name is the asset of any company. Your brand messaging plays a crucial part in making a new product hit or may be flop.

Let me give you an example here. We all know Colgate as a toothpaste brand. But in 1982, it decided to launch a ready-to-eat meal product under the same brand name and logo. They thought as they are well-known, the newly launched one would be a hit. But it didn’t work at all. Customers somehow could relate the new product with Colgate because may be the messaging was not clear.

To help you in building a sustainable brand image for your company, I have listed down the 6 most common branding mistakes to avoid. Make sure your company is not making any of these blunders.

1. Your brand message is not communicating effectively

This is one of the most common branding mistakes to avoid. Many companies are so desperate in selling their products and meeting deadlines that they forget to create the effective message and define the target audience. It’s very important if you actually want the returns of your efforts and investments.

Tips for you:

• Segregate your target audience properly and based on that create the right message which they can relate with.

• If your target audience is the young generation, make sure you have mobile app and mobile optimized website as most of them will browse from their smart phones.

• Before launching any product or service, first decide whom you want to target and keeping that in mind design the website with attractive copy, images for providing better engagement and the best online experience.

2. Inconsistency across all the platforms and channels

Always be consistent. It’s really important in winning the trust of your customers. Showing an inconsistent identity will make your brand unprofessional and less credible to the audience.

Tips for you:

• Your brand’s visual assets like logo, colour, font style, font size, and theme should be same across all the channels where you present your company like website, social media channels, advertisements, printed collaterals etc.

• Create a brand style guide with specific format in terms of colour, image, written elements etc which you will follow everywhere.

3. Don’t mix branding with Public Relations (PR)

This is one of the most common mistakes many companies do. They equate branding with PR but they need to understand that branding is not only about reputation management. Branding has two sides- one is of course proper communication with the target audience and the second one is providing excellent customer experience.

You may keep communicating with the customers but until you deliver what you have promised, you are not going to get any result. 

4. Launching new products under a new brand name may not be a good idea

If people love and trust your brand and you are planning to launch some new products, the best idea would be to launch those under your existing brand name. You already worked hard and invested huge amount in brand building and again if you start a new brand, you need to repeat the same for that also.

Companies who try to do something new under a different name may end up ruining the existing brand image also. Apple, Samsung, LG are some of the examples who are quite popular among people and launch different products under their existing brand names.

5. Not understanding how your brand message will be perceived globally

While creating the brand message, also think that how will it be received globally because what works well in some places may not work in the same way or may be disastrous in other places. 

Currently your company may not operate internationally, but in future if you want to hit the global market, you have to understand that your brand message should not hurt the sentiments of other countries otherwise you will be in big trouble.

Let me give you one example. When Pepsi was launched in China it used a slogan called, “Pepsi Brings You Back to Life.” It translated the slogan in Chinese and run the campaign. But due to improper translation, the actual slogan became, “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave.” So, in a country where worshiping ancestors is an important part of the culture, running such campaigns was not appreciated by the Chinese people at all. So, always localize your brand message as per different countries and religions.

6. Not taking customer feedback regularly

Customers are always important. They are the ones who will use your products or services. So it’s also important to know what they think about your products. This help you for further improvements.

So whenever you launch a new product or service, get feedback from customers on how they like those, what improvements they need etc. It will make your service better and customers will also understand that they are important for you. Overall it will help to strengthen your brand image. Adding live chat software on your website allows you to take instant customer feedback during and after each support sessions.