3 Mistakes You're Making With Your Brand Strategy

There are 2 types of businesses out there. Those who understand the power of brand and those who don’t. The businesses that can tell their story, vocalize what they are about and visually appeal to their audience, are the businesses that flourish.

Businesses that don’t wield the power of brand are the ones that get lost in the sea of unoriginal and unremarkable.

If you want to avoid from being just another business, then avoid making these 3 mistakes with your brand strategy:

1) You Don’t Even Have a Brand

Because you have a business, you already have a brand regardless, but that is not what we mean. We mean a brand that is remarkable; a brand that stands out and tells the story and principles that you believe in. A brand that your audience can get behind and what makes you unique.

Having a logo, nice fonts, and a shade of colour or two is not a “brand”; it is just branding. A brand is the story you tell, the emotions you give off, the way you communicate your message, etc. All the visual stuff just communicates it. It isn’t your brand itself.

When you start branding with emotion and storytelling, that’s when you begin making an impact.

2) Your Work is Not Your Brand

Here at mediaUP this has to be one our biggest pet peeves when it comes to branding. So many times when looking at a business’ website, we always see front and center the portfolio of their work before anything else.

Don’t get me wrong, showing your audience the work that you have done is important. That is what builds trust and credibility with your leads. But, putting this at the forefront of your brand is killing your brand strategy.

When you put your portfolio in front of your actual brand, your brand starts to become the amalgamation of all these businesses’ brands that you have done work for. In turn, it makes a weak brand for yourself because you are not telling your story; you are telling little pieces of other people's brands.

Obviously you don’t want to hide and bury work in your website, but make sure you are communicating your brand, and telling your story and principles before showing your work. That way your brand sticks to your business.

3) You are Visually Unremarkable

Now let’s talk about visual branding. Many times we see a business’ visual identity look very generic and unoriginal. We understand that depending on your business, there are only so many unique and creative expressions that you can push into your brand. But when your business has that option of creative freedom and you don’t utilize it, that is where a business can fall short.

When you step out of your comfort zone in terms of branding, as well as stick out farther in a sea of similar looking businesses, you will shine that much brighter.

We always love giving the example of “the wine shelf”. If you have ever looked at a shelf-full of wine bottles, you will quickly notice that they all relatively look the same. The labeling, the colours and the aesthetics as a whole. But in the sea of unoriginal, there will be a bottle that sticks out so much more because of how different it is. The colours are different, the fonts used and the overall aesthetic is completely unique amongst all the wine bottles around it! The wine probably isn’t any much better than the others, but it is so unique that it catches your attention instantly!

This is exactly what you need to do with your brand visually. You don’t have to change your story, you just need to visually stick out in the sea of unremarkable to become remarkable.

So what kind of business are you or what kind of business do you want to be? The forgettable and unoriginal or the unique and remarkable?

To brand or not to brand? That is the question.