When you design your company’s branding, you want it to reflect the product that you’re selling. After all, from your logo to your advertisements, you want potential customers to realize what it is that you’re trying to sell! All too many people, however, fall into the trap of designing their brand to look just like their competitors’.
After all, it’s working for them. You’re convinced that it ought to work for you, too! When it comes to branding, however, don’t try to fit in! Being bland is very bad for your branding.
5 Reasons Why Being Bland is Bad for Your Branding
1. It’s not memorable.
As you drive down the highway, which billboards stand out to you? Chances are, they’re the ones that are memorable in some way: the ones that do something different from the others. If you want people to remember not just the product you’re selling but your specific brand, you want your brand to stand out from the crowd.
2. Bland branding is no longer “safe.”
For years, marketers preached staying within the safe zone. As long as you continued to do things the way they were always done, there was a good chance that you would be successful. “Safe and boring,” however, is no longer a safe bet. In a market flooded with choices, people simply aren’t going to remember your brand unless it stands out in some way.
3. You aren’t identifiable.
If customers can’t identify your brand from the crowd of other options in your field, they can’t choose you, either! Imagine a customer standing in front of a shelf of chips. There are two primary factors that are going to determine the bag that they grab: the price of the chips and their ability to recognize the brand. If budget isn’t an issue, then most customers will choose the recognizable chips every time.
4. Brand ambassadors might not be as successful as you think.
If your brand is a little too close to others in your industry, you might think that choosing the right brand ambassador can be enough to set you apart. There’s just one problem: plenty of consumers couldn’t care less about the specific star who represents a given brand. Unless you’re trying to sell sports equipment or fan memorabilia, there’s only so much that star can do for your brand.
5. Standing out gets you attention.
From magazines to highways to the internet, there are ads everywhere. Many people now look over them completely, ignoring the presence of advertisements as they struggle to get on with their day-to-day business. If they take note of an advertisement, it’s because there’s something different about it.
Your brand needs to have some element that makes people stop and think for a moment–something that distracts them from their To Do list and makes them think about your business for a moment. Whether it’s a colourful advertisement, a tag line that gets a giggle, or an outrageous statement that has to be taken in context to make sense, give your brand something to catch the attention of potential customers.
Your brand is the first interaction that many people have with your business. It helps determine the way your customers view you and tells new customers what to expect from your business. While your brand can’t do all of the work, it is one of the most critical pieces of the story. As you can see, being bland is bad for your branding, and for your business,
Choose to set your brand apart so that when customers see your logo, hear your motto, or see an advertisement for your brand, they remember what it is that they’re seeing. Looking for help developing your brand and making it stand apart from the crowd? Contact us for more information.
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