Branding 101: Avoid These 6 Pitfalls When Building a Brand

Foundation holds everything to the ground, from a small cabin in the woods of Cambodia to the eccentric Burj Khalifa in Dubai. A tiny mistake in building the right foundation can lead to the whole structure collapsing.

A business too rests on a similar foundation.

Laying a good foundation for your business starts at the early stages of building a brand. This foundation not only ensures your brand’s success but helps you stay in trend and in the customers’ minds for a long, long time.

Building a brand from square one is not easy and therefore, even the best of us can make mistakes. Fortunately, these mistakes are avoidable.

Here are the 6 pitfalls you can avoid while building or rebuilding your brand.

Fake Brands Don’t Last:

All that glitters is not gold is solid advise. It teaches you what you shouldn’t do when it comes to building a lasting brand. Overselling or making false claims will never take you far.

Don’ts:

• Don’t build a brand because you saw someone else doing it. Do it because you love it.
• Don’t buy fake followers on social media platforms. They don’t last and you won’t gain real audiences when you have a fake brand.
• Don’t brag about something you don’t know or have.

Building a brand takes everything you’ve got to give and some more. But you will be willing to give it all only when you are passionate and determined to see it through.

Cadbury Dairy Milk is a brand that touches the hearts of adults and children alike. They do not just promote the sweetness of the chocolate but the goodness that one feels while devouring chocolate. They show how passionate they are about the chocolates and how they care about what their customers feel while they have it

No Brand Name, No Future:

Brand Name is what defines your company. It is what gets you more customers and sets you apart from the competition. This is also what attracts your customers first. Afterwords, your quality, and attitude makes sure that they stay.

Dont’s:

• Don’t be boring.
• Don’t copy the brand names of others
• Don’t use names that are hard to pronounce
• Don’t use foreign names that make no sense to the potential customers

‘PepsiCo’ the famous beverage company that made its mark throughout the world was first established as ‘Brad’s Cola’ in 1893.

Don’t Lose Focus:

Though no brand wants to do it intentionally, a loss of focus may happen when you dip your fingers in all the pickles at once.

Your brand loses focus when the values of your brand change, the complexity is increased, and the target customers change frequently.

Dont’s:

• Don’t enter into markets that are unknown to you.
• Don’t manufacture products that are similar
• Don’t bombard your employees or customers with too many choices.
• Don’t promote outdated values and messaging.

Eastman Kodak, the once-famous camera brand, taught the world about cameras — from moving cameras to Instamatic cameras. But their downfall began when the company didn’t enter the modern world of digital photography, software sharing, and others.

Not Marketing your brand right:

Big and well-established companies make the mistake of not marketing themselves enough. On the other hand, small companies tend to make the mistake of overly promoting their brand.

Dont’s:

• Don’t market your brand without doing thorough research in the market.
• Don’t show the sparkly stuff. Show what’s real.
• Don’t talk gibberish. Be clear about your message.
• Don’t spend too much money on just promoting your brand
• Don’t make false promises to the customers
• Don’t always speak about your company.
• Don’t be unapproachable

Marketing a brand is crucial for any brand that has just entered a market and wants to sustain. Hiring a good marketing agency could make a lot of difference.

Assuming that you have the best idea that will sell come hell or high water:

Assumptions will take you nowhere. It will destroy your brand even before it enters the market. Being optimistic about an idea is okay but when you are convinced that it will succeed, you are preparing yourself for disappointments.

Marketing is a risky gamble. Although there are tricks and techniques about how to go about creating a brand or marketing it, it always involves uncertainty. What works and what doesn’t revolves around the audience’s reaction and that can only happen after the brand is launched.

You still want to do in ‘The Old School Style’:

It is important that you grow along with your brand. Going to the old school way may help you when you are manufacturing a product and you want to keep the process intact to retain authenticity. But when you are marketing a product, staying with an older messaging could actually do more harm than good.

Following the trends in marketing and sometimes changing the product, based on customer reviews, is key to your brand’s success.

If you are starting a new business or rebranding your old business avoid the above pitfalls and strengthen your brand. We at The Go-To Guy! are here to help you build or rebuild a brand that is foolproof and goes a long way in ensuring your business stays in business for eternity. Contact our experts today.

Originally published at https://www.thegotoguy.co on July 6, 2020.