How to waste your investment in your brand identity
Investing in branding is crucial for businesses looking to establish a strong identity, build trust with customers, and stand out in a crowded marketplace.
However, even with the best intentions, it's surprisingly easy to waste that investment through simple mistakes. Some businesses will invest in a new identity and then tick that item off the list and move onto other things - that is one example of wasted investment.
When you invest in a brand identity; you create a new standard for your business. And just like any standards, they need to be maintained, as well as development to raise them further (how to stay ahead of the competition and all that!). Here are some common mistakes I see businesses make, call this your ‘what not do to list’!
forget about the brand guidelines
Brand guidelines are like a roadmap for your brand's visual and tonal identity. They establish rules for logo usage, typography, colour palettes, tone of voice, and more.
Yet, many businesses invest in creating these guidelines only to let them collect dust on a shelf. When you don't follow your brand guidelines, you risk diluting your brand's identity and confusing your audience. For instance, if your logo is meant to be displayed in a specific colour scheme but you use different colours inconsistently, it can weaken brand recognition.
not using your branded templates
Branded templates for presentations, documents, social media posts, and other collateral are essential for maintaining consistency across all touchpoints.
This is important because customers/potential customers need to see your branded collateral multiple times before they start to recognise you - if you are always switching it up, you’re not building the recognition that you need. Some businesses overlook the importance of using their templates consistently and use generic designs or create new layouts from scratch, leading to inconsistency and a lack of professionalism, which is exactly the type of behaviour investing in your brand should stop you from doing - it’s all about maintaining the standard!
adding in random fonts and colours
Your brand's color palette and typography are fundamental elements of your visual identity.
They haven’t been chosen at random, they have been carefully selected to suit the tone of your brand and enable you to communicate with ease and of course, with consistency.
Consistency in using these elements helps reinforce brand recognition and build trust with your audience. However, some businesses fall into the trap of using random colours and fonts that don't align with their brand's personality or guidelines - this dilutes your brand identity, making your business appear very generic, and not memorable.
don’t make these mistakes if you want success in your business!
Investing in branding is only the start of your brand journey, it heavily relies on you effectively implementing and maintaining that investment. By following brand guidelines, using branded templates consistently, and using your carefully selected to your brand's colour and font choices, you can ensure that your investment in branding pays off in building a strong, memorable brand identity that resonates with your audience, since that’s the end goal right?
do you need some guidance on your new branding?
If you think you need some help in making sure that your brand assets aligns with your business and target audience, we can help!
Enquire with us to start your brand journey, or request a brand audit so you can start to understand where your brand identity is falling short. This brand audit gives you an instant action plan for filling the gaps and developing your brand further to success!
Found this blog engaging? Dive into more insights on the benefits of investing in your branding! Check out our related blog on why brand colours are important (and strategic) in your business Expand your branding knowledge and stay ahead of the competition.
