5 branding myths everyone needs to know

Myth

Launching a business requires lots of marketing budget

Fact

Taking the time to establish a well-defined brand with a strong purpose/values/mission and a compelling visual identity can significantly extend the reach of your marketing efforts by ensuring you are creating memorable and relevant connections with your audience. Creating emotional resonance helps to foster customer engagement – and long-term loyalty – allowing you to get more ROI for your marketing investment. The more your brand resonates with audiences, the more likely they are to advocate for it, meaning organic growth is greater through the likes of word of mouth, reducing the need for expensive marketing campaigns.

Myth

Effective branding can be bought off the shelf

Fact

When you purchase an off-the-shelf brand solution, the likelihood is that all it will include is a logo and a selection of generic assets. As aesthetically satisfactory as those may appear, they won’t give your audience anything to engage with beyond a trendy new logo. Deeper emotional connections are established with audiences by firstly taking the time to truly understand what makes them tick. Following that, you need to develop a brand strategy built upon a strong core purpose, with a relatable set of values and a clear mission that you know will resonate with your audience. A unique and ownable visual identity that brings that strategy to life, is then what helps to create differentiation within the marketplace. It also gives your audience something to identify with, relate to and ultimately build a loyalty to. Generic, cookie-cutter design just can’t create those connections for you.

Myth

Logo = brand

Fact

Logos are visual symbols that represent a company, but a brand is so much more than just a symbol. A brand is the distinct and unique way in which your company demonstrates its value and difference to the world. It’s the perception, emotional connection and reputation of your company. Your brand includes your core purpose, your company values, vision and mission along with your company’s tone of voice, font, colours, imagery styles, and of course, your logo.

In short, a logo is one of the most important tools used to help audiences identify your brand, but it’s not the brand itself.

Myth

Branding automatically creates influence

Fact

To influence audiences, organisations need to not only establish trust and credibility via a strong brand that resonates with audiences, but also by engaging with and activating audiences. In this digital age, user-generated content/storytelling and social proof, can significantly amplify a brand’s profile and impact. In addition to this, the ability for a brand to tap into and align with cultural values whilst maintaining a consistent presence across the most relevant channels helps to establish crucial brand familiarity and loyalty.

So, in order to create influence, the brand needs to focus on:

• Audience resonance
• Amplification
• Cultural alignment

These elements combined all contribute to a brand being able to carve out an influencer role.

Myth

Once established, your branding shouldn’t change

Fact

Brand consistency builds trust and recognition, making audiences feel comfortable that they know where they stand with the brand. However, in a rapidly evolving world, brands need to also evolve to remain relevant.

Sticking too rigidly to a consistent image can make a brand appear outdated or out of touch. By being able to adapt to emerging trends, audience needs and advancements in tech, brands can stay fresh and competitive. This doesn’t have to be at the expense of existing brand equity however. By maintaining the brand’s core purpose and values, you can balance consistency with evolution in such a way as to enable the brand to grow where it needs to, without sacrificing what’s made it a success to date.

When you’re looking to build or grow a brand, it’s important to understand what’s going to help make the difference you need to make. Working with someone you trust, that can help bust the myths, is a great place to start.

If you’d like to chat about your brand and how to get it to where you want it to be get in touch to see how we can help.