Saving on branding? That’s going to be expensive …

Unclear positioning, inconsistent appearance, incoherent messages: many companies struggle with developing and nurturing their corporate brand. Understanding the biggest branding mistakes makes it easier to avoid them – and strengthen the brand.

• Missing alignment with business strategy: a brand that is positioned incorrectly will not support the implementation of the business strategy – in the worst case, the brand will even work against the strategy.
• Unclear positioning: brands that do not take a clear position find it difficult to generate relevance for their stakeholders.
• Lack of credibility: Brands that fail to keep their promises lose the trust of their customers.
• Frequent changes to the positioning without strategic justification weaken the brand. Here, too, relevance is lost.
• Lack of differentiation: A brand that does not stand out from the competition offers no reason for customers to choose it.

• Lack of or unprofessional strategy for defining the brand architecture.
• Brand portfolio that is too large or brand architecture that is too complex: a brand portfolio that has grown over time or has been designed in a complicated way dilutes the attention of customers and weakens the overall perception of the company. In addition, a large brand portfolio requires considerable financial and human resources.
• Insufficient differentiation of brands within a brand portfolio – this leads to confusion and makes it more difficult to address stakeholders in a targeted manner.
• Choosing the wrong brand architecture, for example when a B2B company imitates a B2C brand strategy and tries to manage a very large brand portfolio. Due to limited resources in B2B, the individual brands are not sufficiently maintained and deteriorate, while the main brand is suppressed or even cannibalized by the other brands in the portfolio.
• Missed integration after the acquisition of attractive small to medium-sized technology brands by large corporations: the new technology is not attributed to the corporate brand, but to the acquisition. The corporate brand is standing still, while the stand- alone technology brand faces difficulties in scaling.

• Generic imagery. Good brand designs have a unique visual style and imagery content that the brand can claim exclusively, to ensure recognizability.
• Lack of system capability – in particular when the design idea is based on an advertising campaign and important elements and scaling, such as imagery, website, event design or signage, are not thought through integrally.
• Inconsistency between brand design and marketing communication: the brand design must form the visual basis of marketing communication to ensure recognition and to strengthen the brand.
• Focus on specifications. What is important is not the calculated distance between logo and edge of the format, but the overall effect and the interplay of the elements.

• Inconsistent appearance and messages. Inconsistency weakens recognizability and confuses stakeholders.
• Overloaded or unclear communication. Complex messages require intellectual effort on the customer side – this reduces attention and weakens relevance.
• Neglect of personal encounters. Poor customer service and unfriendly customer contact lead to dissatisfaction and a turning away from the brand.
• Frustrating experiences in digital interaction with the brand. Incomprehensible navigation, a lack of options for action and aborted purchase processes that require the customer to re-enter all information are examples of poor user experience, leading to high bounce rates and ultimately to customers turning away from the brand.

• Lack of strategic foundations: a brand with an unclear positioning is irrelevant – and will not become a preferred brand.
• No adaptation to market changes: a brand that stands still and does not react to evolving customer needs and market situations risks to becoming irrelevant.
• Inadequate internal brand management: if employees do not represent the brand to the outside world because they either do not understand it, or because they are just introduced to strategic principles and design elements in a rudimentary way, this will lead to a dilution of the brand. In the long run, brand equity is negatively affected – which equals destruction of assets.
• Excessive focus on advertising/marketing without building and maintaining the strategic branding foundation: A brand that exclusively relies on advertising campaigns may be able to achieve short-term sales success. However, frequently changing campaigns prevent the brand from developing a clear strategic profile. This impairs trust in the brand and brand loyalty.

• Internal lack of brand awareness. The brand is not seen as a business- relevant asset in the company, so it is not actively maintained and provided with the appropriate budget.
• Inadequate brand protection. The brand is not registered in the relevant trademark registers, or only in a rudimentary way. If a company wants to expand into new markets, for example as part of an acquisition, unprotected brands bear a significant business risk.
• An uncontrolled growth of the brand portfolio, resulting from acquired, non-integrated companies. This reduces synergies, makes brand management more expensive and prevents the brand from being perceived as a leader in its segmenz.
• An unclear brand strategy and a generic brand experience. Both lead to an unclear profile and reduce relevance for customers.
• A weak brand presence, which in turn reduces brand awareness and reach, negatively impacting the acquisition of new customers.

• Neglect of the corporate brand. A strong employer brand is built on a strong, well-managed corporate brand. Without the corporate brand as a beacon, employer branding has limited chances of success.
• Falsely reflecting a culture that is not lived. Companies should not try to present themselves differently in their employer branding than they really are. A startup-style glamour in employer branding leads to disappointment when the corporate reality is still traditional and hierarchical.
• Neglect of the employer brand as a contributor to business success. Employer branding contributes significantly to business success: the company that attracts the best talent strengthens its market position and business success.
• Development of a separate employer brand logo. A separate logo detracts attention from the corporate brand. It creates confusion and leads to inefficient and complex brand management.