So it’s time to brand. Nervous? Don’t sweat it. Just keep your eyes open and take a moment to join us as we revisit the biggest Brand Scams – the things you most definitely do not want to do when you brand.
1. Don’t buy too little
Branding is a very important moment in the growth of your company. It’s not something to sweep into your list of all your other to-dos. Branding is not merely a necessary step on the way to your website design, and you can’t leave it to your web designer.
To get a successful brand, you need the complete package – analysis, strategy, and both verbal and visual systems. After all, if you’re crossing the street, making it safely across 90% of the way is still 100% bad news.
2. Don’t buy too much
If the street crossing image was a little too disturbing for you, you should know that you can also go too far in the other direction. While amateur branders can leave the job half done, brand “experts” can sometimes sell you a load of expensive stuff that you don’t really need.
We’ve made it easy for you. We’ve gone over all the things you actually do need in a branding project. Anything beyond this you should take a long hard look at lest you waste your time and money.
3. Don’t get dazzled by proprietary models.
Some brand experts like to invent things and give them shiny names. Distility 1day1brand is our own special method, but the brand model you get at the end of the day is accessible to anybody – your staff and your consultants. But if the output is mysterious or opaque and you can’t figure out what the model is, then chances are nobody else can either. You may be stuck with an essentially useless bit of work that your other consultants and your own people can’t make head nor tail of.
4. Don’t chase a bargain
An authentic, enduring brand requires time, work, and resources, and these cost money. Branding costs money. Sometimes a branding agency, hungry for work, will offer a very appealing price. But what are you getting? Is the intern working on this? Are they putting a hard limit on the time they’re willing to put into the project? When a new project arrives with more money attached to it, won’t your project drop to the bottom of the priority list?
5. Don’t brand before you’re ready
Do you know your target market very clearly? Do you know your value proposition explicitly? Do you know who the competition is and what they promise? You’ve got to ask yourself the question, “Am I ready to brand?.” We’ve explored all these trouble spots in our branding e-book. Download it and give it a read. It’s fun, free, and very useful.