by When looking for ways to market your business, it’s essential to start by considering your company’s branding. Branding helps consumers to understand what your company stands for, the products that it sells, and what it hopes to do. As such, having good branding is essential in being able to reach potential consumers and convince them to partake in the goods and services that your company offers. However, coming up with the proper branding for your company is no small feat, and there are a number of do’s and don’t do look out for when you’re developing a brand for your business. Luckily, we’re here to help with a list of common branding mistakes and how to avoid them, so you can ensure that your company gets the recognition that it deserves.
KEY POINTS
Having a Logo That Doesn’t Match Your Company
A logo is a visual representation of a company that helps to convey its name, brand, and the products and services that it offers. When creating a logo for your own company, you want to make sure that it aligns with your business. For instance, if you’re starting a cookie company, you wouldn’t necessarily want to put a rocket ship on your logo. A logo should be able to immediately convey to consumers the type of business that you are and what you stand for, just through the use of images and lettering. While the task of creating a unique and effective logo might seem overwhelming, there are a number of things that you can do to ensure that you’ve got a logo that will serve your company well.
Consider Your Brand Identity
When crafting your business’ logo, it’s smart to start out by considering your brand identity. What does your business offer? Who do you offer it to? What are your values as a company? Once you begin to hone in on your identity as a brand, you’ll be able to tie specific words and visual imagery to the concepts that best represent your business and incorporate them into your logo.
Use a Logo Maker
If graphic design isn’t your forte, there’s no shame in using a logo maker in order to create a logo for your company. Online logo makers utilize artificial intelligence software to generate unique logos that fit your business. Simply enter your business’ name into a logo maker, which will prompt you with different choices pertaining to font and color to help you narrow down logo options that suit your brand.
In addition to generating logos for you, logo making sites often also provide users with templates geared toward specific industries that they can utilize to create a logo that directly caters to the field that their business is in. For instance, if you ran a business that dealt with video games, you might use a logo maker template that included the pre-created image of a video game controller or console.
Inconsistent Branding
One of the easiest ways to lose an audience of consumers is through inconsistent branding. The most common way that inconsistent branding occurs is by showcasing imagery or written copy that doesn’t align with the logos or branded content that you’ve established. One way that you can improve your branding consistency is by the use of the same color scheme and fonts across all your business materials. For instance, we recognize that a fast food meal is from McDonald’s due to the bold yellow “M” stamped on the takeout bag. However, were McDonald’s to suddenly start placing meals in bags with a thin blue “M” on them, consumers would be confused – this product isn’t consistent with McDonald’s recognizable branding. By creating a set color scheme and font portfolio for your marketing materials, you ensure that your branding comes off consistently, and therefore appears more trustworthy to consumers.
Using the right color scheme in promoting your brand has several benefits, one of which is attracting customers. Colors that attract customers can create an instant visual appeal and capture their attention. Additionally, these colors can specific emotions and associations, helping to build a positive brand image and encourage customer engagement.
Poor Customer Relations
A company’s relationship with its customers is a huge part of its overall branding. In order to create a positive brand identity, you want to make sure that consumers have positive experiences when interacting with your business. This means having social media accounts that respond to customer inquiries in a timely manner, kind and helpful employees on staff, and easy to navigate websites and inviting brick and mortar store locations. When consumers have a negative experience when interacting with a brand, they are more likely to remember it and actively avoid interacting with that brand again. By having a good relationship with consumers, your business can cultivate a positive brand identity and maintain a consistent customer base.
In Conclusion
Cultivating a solid brand is essential for the success of your business. By having a brand that consumers can recognize, they are more likely to trust your business and engage with the products and services that you offer. What do you think is the most helpful thing that you can do in order to cultivate a recognizable and trustworthy brand?
