Branding attracts two types of attention to a company: good and bad. Every brand is in the pursuit of finding the perfect combination in order to succeed and get the desired attention, but the lack of research leads them into adopting some bad branding practices.
Hence, this article, where you can learn how to adapt, overcome, and more importantly avoid those bad branding practices.
What is “Bad Branding”?
Before diving any deep into how to avoid bad branding, let us uncover what bad branding actually is. Bad reputation is worse than no reputation at all.
Similarly, bad branding can be worse than no branding at all, in some cases. Customers would simply never avail services from a brand which has a negative reputation.
They will seek your competition and grow their brand while your market share gets hit.
Specially in this online era, the internet never forgets a bad branding example. Turning a mistake into mockery and memes is very easy for the internet which ultimately ruins the future of a company.
Bad branding can be in the form of carelessly designed logos, advertisements and in some cases, even an unintentional hidden message.
Decoding why a company’s branding is not working out for them can be challenging at sometimes, however, worry not.
We will cover majority of the topics related with bad branding so that you can determine what your brand is doing wrong.
COMMON BRANDING MISTAKES
- Cold E-mail campaigns
If your emails are ending up in the spam folder, there is something wrong with your email marketing strategy.
Hence, you should switch things up in order to avoid writing generic and basic emails. Receiving cold emails is not welcome by the audience and it just gives a negative first impression of the company.
Hence, try to avoid cold email campaigns at all costs, switch things up, make something eye-catchy and unique so that people can start interacting more with the brand via emails.
- Ignoring SEO
One of the most important elements involved in the online success of your brand is SEO. It makes your brand easy to find on the internet and increases overall website traffic. Afterall, more traffic = better business.
Now a days, almost every brand is utilizing digital marketing to its benefit, anything which improves your business even by a percent is essential in this highly competitive world.
And if you are falling behind on something which contributes to around 70% of your online business, your brand is doomed. SEO is all about the ranking of your website on the internet, the more optimized your SEO, the higher your website ranks.
Hence, in order to avoid bad branding, consider SEO as a high priority.
- Poor web design
Your website is just like an online company profile. And in order to provide a fantastic first impression, a company’s website should be remarkable and unique. However, a website which is not designed properly can turn out to be a disaster for the brand.
Nothing can be worse than having a poorly designed website which alters the first impression of your potential clients. Thus, this bad branding factor should be avoided at all costs.
If you are unable to make a strong online brand identity using the website design, consider getting professional help. Investing in website design is an excellent step for any business out there (big or small) as it increases your reach exponentially.
- Inconsistency
Not being consistent with your themes and schemes gives the wrong idea to your clients. It gives them an impression that you yourself are not sure about what the brand stands for. Which ultimately leads to dipping sales and negative brand impression.
Having inconsistency can also lead to affecting brand loyalty and brand recognition which alters the overall brand identity. Hindering your progress and success by ignoring this bad branding factor is not a smart move.
Hence, make sure that whatever step you take regarding to your company’s image, is well calculated. The best method of implementing consistency in a brand is by following a brand style guide.
- Not connecting with the audience
Having a working brand identity is all about making a connection with your clients. The success of your brand depends completely on how well people resonate with its identity elements.
Hence, forming that bond is necessary. The ideal method of achieving that connectivity is by conducting proper research regarding your customers ideology and purchase behavior.
Try to keep them involved with the brand in some way or the other. E.g. conducting Q&A’s/ surveys about your services on social media.
- Not being original
There are hundreds and thousands of knockoffs available in the market today and a majority of them never succeed because of being fake and common.
These brands took the safe approach and got lost in the competition because everyone was doing the exact same thing.
Being unique and having a completely different idea from the competition might be tough to implement at first but it will definitely be fruitful in the long run.
People appreciate originality and uniqueness. Try to make your brand different from others to set it apart from the competition.
Merely copying someone will not translate their success to your brand. Hence, be yourself and work on your ideas.
We just discussed some common bad branding blunders which a majority of brands are making these days. Now let us discuss how you can save your precious brand from falling into these bad branding traps.
CONSIDER HIRING PROFESSIONALS
We call them professionals for a reason, they have been working in the field for a very long time and their knowledge about the work incredible.
These professionals are not just excellent for completing projects, but their experience can help you in propelling the brand to the top.
Be it designers or artists, their advice and experience as important as their work. Hence, in order to avoid bad branding blunders, consider taking advice from your team of professionals.
They will be able to guide you in the right direction with their creativity. Having an experienced mind behind the identity elements is a great head start for the company.
Hence, it is recommended that you hire professionals in whatever field you think is a bottleneck for the brand.
By doing this, you will not only streamline all the brand identity elements, but you will also get better functioning ideas from the experts for avoiding any bad branding mistakes.
INVOLVE YOUR TEAM
Don’t just stick with what you think works best for the brand, take ideas from those who work with you to make the company a huge success.
Adding on to what we discussed above, different people have different experiences in the field. Hence, someone from your team might have some essential knowledge from past experiences which might correct you from making the same bad branding mistake.
Moreover, anyone who has even the tiniest contribution to a project, deserves a say in the final decision especially when it is related to any brand identity element.
Graphics and designing are a very subjective topic in general. Everything is based on perspective when it comes to illustrations. What looks good to you might look average to someone else.
Hence, taking a collective decision before a big step is a must if you want to avoid any bad branding blunders.
Who knows, it might even save you from making any expensive decisions which you might regret in the future.
CUSTOMER FEEDBACK
Just like we discussed earlier, a successful brand always has a great connection with its clients and customers. We recommend you start working on making that connection better and stronger because after all, your success depends on them.
Taking feedback from customers is a great idea, as it will indirectly tell you what they want from the brand. Information regarding new ideas, new products, new services, or anything essential for the brand’s success will come directly to you.
Moreover, their perspective might help you in avoiding any sort of bad branding at all. It is possible that you or even the professionals can overlook a slight mistake which might take a bigger form in the future.
But having considered the perspective of thousands of customers will help in neglecting that issue completely.
You could also get suggestions on email marketing campaigns, web design, etc. from your loyal customers.
Some ideal methods of capturing customer feedback are by conducting surveys and polls. This makes the suggestions easy to filter which makes implementing them even easier.
Hence, it is safe to say that customer reviews are the best method of avoiding bad branding as it basically tells you everything they are expecting from the brand.
FACTOR IN YOUR HISTORY
Everyone has a different story. Just like everyone, every brand has a different story which sets it apart from others.
A brand’s backstory is an essential part of its heritage as it tells how the company struggled through the years to set its position on the pedestal. As it is famously said, “Your past plays an important role in shaping your future”.
Incorporating your brand’s history in the brand identity elements will not only help in a better back story but it will also make the client-company connection stronger. Talk about hitting two birds with a stone.
Avoiding bad branding mistakes will become easier as the brand’s history will essentially set a benchmark which will bring consistency to the company’s identity.
Moreover, making a brand style guide will become easier for you as the backstory will show you the way.
Hence, in order to avoid any bad branding blunders, consider using the brand’s history to your advantage.
LEARN FROM THE COMPETITION
This is the most important point from what we have discussed yet. The best learning comes from watching what others are doing right.
Appreciating what the competition does better than you and implementing it to your brand is not a weakness at all.
It is called adapting to the situation and implementing necessary changes in order to avoid mistakes. Especially bad branding blunders.
Another mistake is underestimating your opponent or having very less or no research on them at all. As competitors, you should always have a rough idea of their next step.
This ensures healthy growth and helps you to avoid bad branding mistakes. As studying your competitors might highlight some flaws in your brand and which you will be able to fix without any hassles.
However, copying the competitor is not a smart move at all. This will not only make your brand a fake but can also bring legal trouble.
Remember to take the good bits and implement them smartly to your company.
In conclusion, identifying bad branding mistakes is not easy at all, however, it is necessary for shaping a bright future of your brand. Be it an issue with the designs, website or even any brand identity element. Fixing them on time is essential.
Talking about brand identity elements, crowdsourcing is the most hyped phenomenon in the design world right now. Logo design contests should be your go to, if you want to save time and money while designing any brand identity elements for your brand.
Designfier can assist you with organizing these logo design contests at an astonishing price for the services they provide. For a revolutionary price of just $99, you can ideally design a bright future for your brand. The company caters with designing needs for all brand identity elements. Hence, avoid bad branding mistakes by choosing Designfier and let the professionals do the heavy lifting for you.
