Top 5 Small Business Branding Mistakes

Branding is a word that is common to hear lately. We have a personal brand, organization brand, product brand, service brand.

Now the question is, “Do you need it? Do you need a brand? If yes? What brand suits you?”

And the answer is: Yes, you need a brand. Why? Because you need to be identified, you need to be different.

If you are planning to establish a company, a personal website, or an organization. Then you are familiar with the word “Branding”.

Today, presented through a Google Hangout, a few experts on branding took the stage to give advice to small businesses (and anyone who watched the presentation) in regards to what not to do. It was co-hosted by Julie Cottineau, Founder/CEO of BrandTwist & former VP of Brand for Virgin and Terry Byford, Director, Corporate Counsel at Getty Images.

Here are the 5 mistakes to look out for:

1. Underestimating the power of a brand. Understanding what a brand is would be the first step in building anyone’s brand. A brand is not a logo, an identity, or a product. “It is,” as defined by Marty Neumeier, “the gut feeling an individual has about a product, service or organization.”

When we’re able to effectively manage our brand that you can truly fulfill your brand’s promise on every level. Make sure you ask yourself the following:

• Who are you targeting?
• What are you promising?
• Why should they believe you?
• How is it felt?

Once you develop a strong brand, people will pay more, try more new products from you, and when mistakes happen, they’ll be more opt to forgive you.

2. Targeting everyone, reaching no one.

Targeting an audience can be difficult, but it is absolutely necessary to get more specific. A specific target audience, for example, cannot be “women between 13 and 20”- give it more! Ask yourself about your brand and who you would want to enjoy it. Build a personality for it.

3. All about thinking outside of your category.

Don’t compare yourself to your competition but to brands you personally like. Think about what aspect of them attracts you to those brands and then, if they match what you’re looking for, implement some of those aspects into your brand.

4. We’re shifting culturally to desiring a personal connection with brands.

We want to know the story like where do these eggs come from? Or how were the chickens treated? Even asking what’s the story behind the founder? Being a small business isn’t always a disadvantage to the larger ones, but remembering that personal connection will be crucial in fully taking advantage of it.

5. Little moments, also known as touchpoints, are very important to give any consumer of your product the full experience of your brand.

Similar to how Renny Gleason describes in his TED Talk about 404 Error pages, we must take advantage of those little moments to make the biggest difference.

If you would like to view the full chat you can visit the Google+ event page.