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Not understanding the importance of branding:
Branding
builds loyalty.
Branding can add great value to your
small business.
Customers will pay a higher price to buy
a product from a business that they feel loyalty
to rather than pay less at another organization
that they don’t feel anyloyalty to.
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No establishing a Brand Identity:
Don’t set out to brand without first identifying
a brand identity.
Your brand identity is more than just
your product.
It is how you represent your business to
your customers and the impression they form of
your business.
You create a brand identity by having a
Logo, Colors, Taglines, Fonts, Voice (if used),
mascots (if used), spokesperson (if used), etc.
that are used consistently across all marketing
platforms.
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Vagueness:
Your brand identity should not be vague.
It should be clear, concise and
consistent.
Clarity will help consumers to remember
what you stand for.
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Not Doing Brand Maintenance:
Once you’ve establish the brand you have to do
what is necessary to maintian it.
You have to continue to make sure that no
one is infringing on your brand and distorting
the message.
You have to continue to promote the brand
and be current in social media so that consumers
know that you still care. |
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Not Establishing Brand Guidelines:
If you don’t have brand guidelines, you’re not
branding.
Written guidelines lets everyone in the
organization know what is required to brand your
small business.
It provides direction and consistency.
These guidelines should address your
overarching strategy, the tactics that you will
use to implement the strategy and the standard
use of things such as logo, brand colors,
taglines, fonts & typography, imagery,
spokesperson, etc.
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Targeting everyone:
If you have a product that is targeted to a
specific group of people you should not be
targeting everyone.
Targeting everyone is a mis-use of
resoruces that will not give you the best bang
for your buck.
Identify the specific demographic that is
the ideal candidate for your product and focus
your resources on targeting those individuals.
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Not Enlisting Employees:
The use of employees is an often overlooked
resoruce when it comes to branding.
Your employees are socially connected.
They have multiple social media accounts.
You can use this to your advantage.
Enlist them to use their personal
accounts to help spread the word in social media
and create a positive image of your brand. |
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Not Having A Web Presence:
In a connected world you can’t brand without
having a website for your small business.
The bottom line is, if you have a small
business, you should have a website for your
business. Having
a website provides a level of trust to your
consumers. Most
of your customers will go to your website to
learn about your products and services.
It is a way for them to reach your
business 24/7. |
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Not Enough Focus on Public Relations (PR):
Most small businesses make the mistake of
focusing on advertising their businesses rather
than getting 3rd party PR.
It is much better to have a profiled
article in a magazine about your business than
it is to run an ad in that magazine.
When others are talking and writing about
your business that creates inexpensive and
effective branding.
PR is what your branding efforts should
be focused on.
One way to do this is to partner with
other established brands in your industry.
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Not Trademarking the Brand Name:
Not trademarking your brand name is a common and
costly mistake.
Imagine, you picked a great name for your
small business or product and you created
promotional materials with that name and paid to
use those materials in your marketing campaign
only to find out that another company already
have legal ownership of that name.
Now you have to pick another name and
start all over again.
What a waste of precious resources.
Avoid this by trademarking your logo,
business name, product names, and slogans.
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