The Learning Center

“You don’t understand! I could’ve had class. I could’ve been a contender. I could’ve been somebody, instead of a bum who branded his business” -Terry Malloy

Your business’s brand is your customers’ perception of you. A brand includes a logo, color scheme, tagline, font, voice, imagery, and more. A brand is what makes people choose to buy a higher priced item from a popular brand over a cheaper item from a lesser known brand. They are paying for that name. Having a good brand seems pretty beneficial, right? That’s what people might have you to believe. Here are four disadvantages of branding we believe are plaguing well-branded businesses and will plague you too.

“Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a brand.” -Rhett Butler

Branding Disadvantage #1: People Trust Your Business

“Every time a Brand is made, an angel loses its wings.” -Zuzu Bailey

With an established brand, you’ll immediately find that people trust you. They assume that since you look reputable and established, your business must be one they can trust. They don’t even question your credibility. They just look at you and call you up.

Our Solution:

Look visually untrustworthy with bad visuals. Your brand is people’s first impression of you. Having bad visuals is equal to showing up to a meeting with a potential customer while you have a stain on your shirt and food in your teeth. If you look low quality, people will assume your business is low quality and finally leave you alone!

Branding Disadvantage #2: Customers are Too Loyal

“Toto, I’ve a feeling we shouldn’t have branded our business.” – Dorothy Gale

An established brand will mean you have a good name associated to your business. And a good name creates loyalty. We consider these customers “clingy.” They love you, think you are the best business around, and believe you are the only one for them.

Our Solution:

Get a bad name. The second you do something wrong, they’ll realize you weren’t perfect to begin with and “play hard to get” to win back. All it takes is one betrayal, and you’ll be free from all those clingy customers as they try out other similar brands.

Branding Disadvantage #3: The Emotional Connection

“Branding? Where we’re going we don’t need branding.” – Doc

People like to connect emotionally over things like values and moods. So when you make people feel good about themselves, support things they support, or make them feel proud to be a part of your brand, you create an emotional connection. This means they are invested in you. And they choose you over other brands, because of that connection. Do you really want to be people’s go-to choice?

Our Solution:

Don’t uphold your values. If you say you believe in customer satisfaction, don’t care about anything your customers say or want. Once word gets out that your brand is a lie, people will stop trusting you!

Branding Disadvantage #4: Everyone Recognizes You

“With great branding, comes great responsibility to your customers. Do you really want that? – Uncle Ben

Good branding will have a branding guide that keeps all aspects of your branding consistent. That means your logo, color scheme, and everything else will be the same across all platforms and mediums. It also means that everyone will recognize your business the second they see your combination of coloring or an icon you consistently use.

Our Solution:

Be inconsistent with your branding. If you don’t have a clear branding guide, your brand will be so unorganized and messy that people won’t even recognize you when they see you. It’s just like how celebrities step away from their typical fashion when they go to the grocery store. No one likes that much attention!

“You either die a successful unbranded small business or you live long enough to see yourself become an evil, big name brand.” -Harvey Dent

What’s the Next Step?

First off, we have to say: April Fools!

Obviously, these “disadvantages” of branding are actually advantages unless you really don’t want to succeed as a business. A brand should make people trust your business, create customer loyalty, establish an emotional connection with your target audience, and be easily recognizable with its consistency.

If you don’t already have an established brand or need to update yours to be effective in these ways, contact our team at Titan Web Marketing Solutions to help you establish your business’s brand.