When it comes to creating the impression you want people to have of your business, development of branding is crucial. We’re going to take a quick look at some of the most damning mistakes you can make when it comes to branding.

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Underestimating it

If you are underestimating the power of branding, then you’re pretty much doomed to get it wrong going forward! You need to understand just how advantageous brilliant branding is. It improves everything from public perception of your company and what your competitors and allies think of you all the way down to the all-important consumer-business relationship.

Of course, if you’d prefer to think of things in hard numbers, then just look to SEO. While this isn’t exactly something that Google will admit officially, there’s absolutely no doubt that their search engine prefers branded businesses. And not just a little. We’re talking a lot.

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Unoriginal claims and messages

While it may sound really impressive in abstract, the average consumer’s ears really don’t prick up all that much when they hear a company claim that they are the best at what they do. You won’t actually be standing out from the crowd – most other businesses are doing the same thing!

Your branding shouldn’t be making claims to being the best, nor should it be making claims that your business is the cheapest. Something could always come around the knock these titles out of your hands, if you ever truly had them in the first place. Leave that sort of thing to indirect boasting via the advertisement of awards you’ve won in the past. Think of a unique message you want to pass along to consumers.

Public Domain Pictures

Underusing your branding

So you’ve invested a lot in the development and design of your branding. You’ve got the colours right, the text right, the message right. You integrate the branding to your web presence and… that’s it, right? Job done.

Wrong. If you’ve invested this much in your branding, then you need to figure out how to get it in the sights of as many people as possible. You should be considering shirts, business stationery, badges – anything that you can give people as gifts at business events, exchange in business meetings, or even sell on your website. Get the image out there!

Pixabay

Being inconsistent

If you really want to imprint a business image in the minds of the public, then you need to be consistent. Think about the bite-inflicted apple that adorns all of Apple’s products, or the golden arches that announce the presence of a McDonald’s. Without consistency in your image, you’re not going to reach the recognizability that most businesses, inspired by these items, aspire to.

Brand consistency is a must if you want your investment in the process to be worth it. I could probably fill up an entire article just about this subject; thankfully, someone else has already done just that. Of course, if serious mistakes have been made in your branding, then you might want to go back to the drawing board before you start thinking about consistency going forward!