As a specialist in creating brands it never fails to amaze me how fast they can explode.
How does this happen?
Usually from misunderstanding of what a brand is and how the misunderstanding arises from any number of incorrect assumptions and even outside pressure.
Here are a couple of examples.
- You get the branding done and then think: “Well, that’s done, now I can take over and save some money by doing this myself.” The problem here is you lack the understanding or time to make sure you have consistency of look, feel and message. Little by little, small elements that made the brand strong slip away until you are left with nothing that matters.
- Your staff thinks they have the expertise to do this in-house. The problem is that they were hired for other things and this just looks easy to them. They don’t have the first idea of how to do it and as a result end up exploding the brand in record time.
- You haven’t educated your staff on the values and elements your company stands for. This is possibly the most critical piece because they are your brand ambassadors. How they relate to customers, vendors, past clients, etc. is how you are represented to the public. It’s incredible how little attention is given to this from owners and CEO’s. They forget the connection between brand and people. Think about the last GREAT customer experience you had. How many people did you tell about it? Enough said.