Mistakes Too Many Companies Make in Their Branding & What to Do 

What’s your company’s brand? Does it feel like your brand hasn’t taken off? Branding is crucial for any business, yes. But, all too often, branding is misunderstood. Branding isn’t synonymous with “advertising.” They have important differences. As a content creator at a Los Angeles branding agency, I’ve helped many brands grow. And, through doing that work, I’ve seen plenty of mistakes that brands make. 

What can make these mistakes particularly challenging is that many don’t realize their “mistakes.” Instead, it can just seem like “the way that things are done.” If you can avoid the mistakes below, then you have a better chance of building a brand that your potential customers are going to respond to. 

Branding Is About Your Business Values Not Trends or Competitors 

Your brand and your advertising are not the same. Your brand is what your company stands for, your values. Advertising, then, is how you get that message out. You can’t know what your brand is until you know your business values. Mission statements, core principles, no matter what you call them, that’s what makes up your brand. Marketing and advertising, then, are how you communicate your brand to your potential audience. 

So, with that in mind, the very last thing you want to do with your branding is to chase what’s “trendy.” By their nature, trends are ephemeral. They change. In fact, they change quite often. Your business values should not. Your core values, mission statements, and the like, should be eternal, seemingly carved in stone. If you change your brand to chase trends then you don’t really have a brand. At least, at the bare minimum, not a strong one. 

By that same token, then, you don’t want to define your brand by doing what your competition does. Chasing their brand doesn’t strengthen yours. It weakens yours. That’s true for many reasons, not the least of which is: you’ll seem less unique. Why should someone do business with you if they can get something similar from someone else? 

Your values. What makes your company different? That’s what should define your brand. 

Thinking “This is Good Enough” 

With as many different tools as there are for creating websites, content, and the like, it’s easy to fall into the trap of “Good Enough. You’ve got AI, so you can make something that’s good enough. Maybe a freelancer is “good enough.” Posting something online just to post something online is definitely “good enough.” Obviously, “good enough” is not enough for your brand, not if you’re serious about growing your business. 

Your brand should be clear in all aspects of your marketing. It can be something as seemingly small and granular as word choice. Look at the text on your website. Does it showcase your company how you want to be seen? Do those words convey everything that you want to be known about your business? If not, then you’re going to want to change them as quickly as possible. 

The same goes for logos, pictures, videos, and everything else that relates to your business.  You never want to settle. If any picture or logo doesn’t perfectly fit how you want your business to be seen, don’t use it. It’s almost invariably worth it to take another pass than it is to put something that’s either mediocre or off-brand.  

Lack of Consistency (and Posting the Same Thing All of the Time) 

“Stretching” your brand, making it more inclusive, is a good thing. That can showcase how your brand can help as many of your potential customers/clients as possible. This is a fantastic way to demonstrate how your goods/services solve your potential customers’ pain points. That said, don’t stretch it too far. By trying to make your brand encompass more, you can make it too much. Thus, you could dilute your brand. 

How to avoid this? By defining your brand as much as possible for you and your employees. While this may seem counterintuitive, the more defined your brand is the easier it is to stay on brand. The more you define your brand, the more you become aware of both its limits as well as what it includes. That way, it’s easier to stay on brand because you know, 100% know, what is and is not on brand at all times. 

However, you don’t want to just post the same thing, over and over again, all the time, just to stay on brand. That’s not a good idea, either. That can turn away potential customers, too. Know your brand and you’ll be in a much, much better position to be able to strengthen it. 

A Los Angeles Branding Company to Help 

Those are just a few of the ways that we help our clients to stay on brand. As a Los Angeles branding agency, we can help with just about all aspects of branding more or less all at once. That’s due to many reasons, primarily because we have an entire team of professionals. So, while some of our experts are building your brand our content creators and social media team make sure that it gets in front of your potential customers. 

To see how we can help, schedule a free consultation.