In this blog, we’ve collected common errors and best practices advertisers should keep in mind when practicing brand marketing.
Brands are recognizable because they are consistent. The same front. The same color. The same voice. Every. Single. Time.
"As a Brit, I know that no brand understands its audience better than Marmite. They’re not trying to convince people who hate their product to have another go. They’re connecting with the people who love their stuff. They’re only talking to them." -Jason, Creative Director
Your brand doesn’t have to appeal to everybody. In fact, it shouldn’t. Your brand should appeal to the people who buy it, use it, interact with it.
What makes your brand different from the competition? What sets Nike apart from Adidas? Values. Nike’s tagline lives in every part of their brand. One tiny checkmark is all it takes to make Nike sneakers different.
"If you’re a 90s baby like me, you probably remember when Denny’s became one of the first mainstream brands to create original (and sometimes cringey) memes. They didn’t write about new restaurants opening. Instead, they wrote things like this. But it worked. And today, an entire generation still remembers that Denny’s was one of the first pioneers of “brand memes” on social." -Mallory, Copywriter
People want to do business with other people. They want to feel like they are understood, heard, and well taken care of. Your brand should give them those feelings.
"This picture here is a recreation of my favorite ad. It lives up to the age-old idiom: “A picture is worth one thousand words.”
This billboard tells a story. David Beckham, one of the best soccer players in the world, is renowned for his ability to get the ball in the top corner of the net every time. This billboard implies how he did it: by wearing Adidas shoes.
In this billboard, there is the story of every soccer fan who dreamt of one day playing like Beckham. That story connects the audience to Adidas with dreams and emotions. Brands that make you feel something will stay with you forever." -Jason, Creative Director
This may be the most common misuse of branding. Email signatures are not the place to explore your creativity. Different fonts, colors and messages muddy the brand. It creates inconsistency when people outside your organization contact your employees.
Consistency is essential if you want people to be able to recognize and recall your brand. Distorting the logo in any way subtracts from that consistency, meaning fewer people will remember you.
As important as a logo is, that is not the end-all-be-all of branding. As we discussed in our other blog, there are many elements that make up a brand. Don’t stop thinking about it once you’ve got a logo.
Marketing’s little sister is Public Relations. The best brand in the world can’t repair a scandal or a mistake. Once the trust is broken between a brand and its audience, it’s often gone forever. Staying transparent, owning up to mistakes, embracing your flaws and being truthful from the get-go goes a long way to building trust.
It’s time to face reality. No matter what you sell or how good you are at selling it, you will meet many people who are just not interested. The worst thing you can do is laser-focus on people who have no interest in your product and attempt to drag them through the long and arduous buyer’s journey. Focus on people who are desperate for your product, who are actively searching for it, whose lives are worse off without it. Targeting anyone else is a waste of time and money.
Presh Marketing Solutions is a cohort of marketing experts who understand branding; we create strategic marketing campaigns for IT solution providers. Learn more about how we can help you develop an effective brand marketing strategy.