Avoid These 7 Brand Traps Like the Plague

In today’s modern marketplace, branding is more important than ever before.

The world is noisy, distracting, digital, crowded and complex. Buyers are presented with choices everywhere they look and are bombarded with thousands of messages each day.  

In this age of information overload, the question we’re all asking is: 

How can we capture attention, turn heads, and STAND OUT? 

Branding is the key.

Branding is one of the most powerful ingredients when building a stand-out, sustainable and thriving business. It is how you share your story, form a meaningful connection with your audience, and convert them into buyers.

Branding may seem like a daunting task, but you have everything you need to create an irresistible brand within YOU right now! The kicker is that it takes hard work to build a strong and lasting one. Powerful brands are not created in a one-size-fits-all template and definitely not built overnight. 

Taking your time to build a brand that is clear, authentic, and true to you is so important because today’s customer is savvy. 

They know what they are looking for, and they know how to spot a fake. Instead of being intimidated by this fact, let it serve as motivation. Keeping your savvy potential clients in mind, I challenge you to thoughtfully develop the elements of your brand in a way that feels right to you and communicates your best features. 

Shaping an authentic brand narrative will help you avoid these seven bland brand types:

The Vanilla Brand – Yawn! This brand doesn’t tell a captivating story. It is boring and plain, so it tends to blend in with the rest or fade into the background. Vanilla brands feel generic. They are afraid to ruffle feathers, so they don’t take a stand for anything and therefore come across as passive and lukewarm. 

The Invisible Brand – This brand is lacking presence online in all or almost every forum. I call them ghost brands because they are scared to show up and often hide behind their portfolio + logo. If they have an online presence, they only talk about their products + services and fail to share any origin story or personal details that make them appealing to potential clients. 

The Fluff Brand – This shiny brand may have a fancy website and all the pretty colors and fonts you could dream of, but they lack any depth. A fluff brand is like a highlight reel with no substance. They are superficial and only talk about themselves instead of the needs of their customer. This brand may catch attention for a brief minute, but its message falls flat when it fails to provide real solutions. 

The Copycat Brand – We all know this type of brand. The copycat brand sounds and looks like everyone else. They seem oddly familiar because instead of creating a unique space for themselves, they resort to cloning leaders in their industry space. They can go as far as mimicking marketing tactics and even copying the prices of their competitors. 

The Robotic Brand – This brand is so stiff and professional, it could have been written by a program. There’s no passion and no heart displayed in its messaging. It is stiff and professional and misses that human element that draws people in. Without a brand personality, it fails to connect and doesn’t convey a sense of dependability. 

The Confused Brand – This brand gives the impression that it can’t make up its mind. It is constantly changing course and speaking a new message or developing a new offer every few months. As a follower, you can’t keep track of who they are. This brand is doing too many things at once, is scattered, hard to keep track of. 

The Lazy Brand – This brand doesn’t engage, doesn’t update, and doesn’t create content at all. Whether they are just too busy with the day-to-day or they don’t want to be bothered at all, this brand will never grow into its potential without a major shift.

Do any of these sound familiar? 

We all can slip into the above brand categories from time to time, but it’s important to recognize these potential brand types so that we can pull ourselves out if we begin to fall into these traps. 

Our customers are looking for something better.

They are looking for more depth than the brands above offer, and I know that you are capable of giving them more!

The best way to avoid these brand traps is to do the behind-the-scenes work that will lead you to brand clarity. Set aside time to answer big questions about who you are and what your story stands for. You’re gonna have to dive deep and learn about your target market and what they want if you’re going to carve out a point of difference that turns heads. You must commit to understanding your audience inside and out.

As you work to create your unique brand, remember that it represents your vision and the shift you want to bring to the world. It encompasses your distinctive story and set of values. It represents a lifestyle that people want to interact with and be part of. A modern brand needs depth, soul and meaning. 

How does your brand connect to people’s lives and make them better?

In what ways does it matter, inspire and build a sense of belonging? 

Come join my free Facebook group, Brand Confidential to learn more branding tips and strategies to help grow your business.