A great brand builds a strong foundation for your business while also allowing you to be easily recognized by your customers. If you see a swoosh/checkmark on clothes you instantly know where it’s from, a snarky Tweet about a competitor will have you recognizing one of the popular fast food restaurants, and commercials with a little gecko instantly have you repeating a well-known slogan.

There are many more brands that can be easily recognized by their logo, slogan, sound/music, and voice. Building a solid, recognizable, and engaging brand should be at the core of your business. A strong brand strategy allows you to create more effective marketing and sales campaigns, solidify customer relationships, and increase brand awareness and loyalty. The right brand strategy will also help you to understand your target audiences, improve your marketing return on investment and save time when it comes to asset creation and messaging.

The branding experts at DAE & Company can help you to understand the process and how to successfully implement a strong branding strategy that will lead you on your way to success.

Can your brand hurt your business?

If you don’t have the proper branding in place, yes, your brand can hurt your business. Many don’t fully understand what a brand is and how it helps lead your business. It’s not uncommon to see businesses that have a logo in place and think their branding is done. Or they have a few guidelines established, but aren’t consistent in executing on them. Some businesses aren’t sure what their brand strategy should be, so they ignore it or try various different directions without a clear understanding of where they are going.

Your brand is how people recognize and perceive your business. It is the feelings that are provoked based on either personal experience, word of mouth, or perception. Each of us as individuals have our own unique brand/style and we will seek out products that match our personality. And, of course, our brand shifts as we age, gain experience, and evolve as individuals. It is similar in a business. If you aren’t establishing the consistency that you want to have throughout your business, you’re going to struggle going forward with creating brand content and/or creative that will benefit your business by attracting the right audience at the right time.

As we’ve said, creating a brand for your business is foundational. Without a brand in place, you’re likely to struggle in all marketing aspects including content, packaging, messaging, and connecting and building your audience.

7 ways bad branding can hurt your business:

1. Not attracting enough customers
2. Not attracting the right customers
3. No foundation to build your products or services
4. Inaccurate representation of your business
5. Unaddressed negative perception of your business
6. Lack of brand loyal customers
7. Not establishing long-term trust between you and your customers

Wasting time on marketing assets.

Exactly what are you trying to accomplish for your business and who do you hope to reach? These questions are important in the process of building out the branding for your business. Here are some common issues that we’ve seen as businesses design their brand:

1. Poor logo design
2. Inconsistent brand voice
3. No overall vision
4. Lack of strategy
5. Undeveloped and/or inconsistent creative

These issues often halt the growth of your business and don’t allow customers to create a relationship with you. It also impedes the creation of marketing assets which include everything that you’ll use to promote your product, service, or brand. In fact, you could have great marketing assets implemented for your business, but if they aren’t cohesive or reflect the brand, your results will be less than what you want.

Not targeting the right audience.

This also correlates with wasting time on marketing assets. If you don’t have a clear understanding of who your brand is and how you help others, you won’t be targeting or reaching the right audience for your business. You could be wasting time and budget sending the wrong campaigns to the wrong people, instead of dialing in your branding to really speak to the people you want to reach. Your audiences turn into customers, which then turn into a loyal relationship where they’ll keep coming back for your services or products. As mentioned before with the most popular brand voices in the industry, you want your audience to recognize and connect with you and recall the information that they have heard before!

If you aren’t sure where to start in creating your brand, or are struggling to get the results that you’ve set for your business, we’re here to help! We have the strategies and experience to help you create a brand that is right for your business. Don’t waste time trying to figure out what will work best for you and struggling to understand where to start. Contact us today to get started!