REASONS WHY YOUR BRAND STRATEGY MIGHT SUCK | by Ayomide Bakare

Wyatt had the best product the world had ever seen, so good that he knew once it hit the market it was going to change his life, but when it did, his brand strategy made his product look like the most regular product any one could get in their local store or maybe whip up in their kitchen. Now if you don’t want to end up like Wyatt with low profit margins and no return on your investment, I’m going to tell you the top reasons why your brand strategy might suck and how you can improve it. However, before we get to the main reasons, you may be wondering what a brand is and what even is a brand strategy? Well I got you:

A BRAND

A brand is basically a term that make you stand out from any form of business.

BRAND STRATEGY

Your brand strategy are your long term plans to achieve long term goals for brand recognition.Now that you have a key understanding let’s me give you some fresh branding tips to avoid a terrible creative strategy

1. COLOUR PSYCHOLOGY

It is a belief that a colour effects an individual in a specific way. For example, the connotation of blue may be sad, and yellow may be joy. When picking a brand colour, it is up to you to pick specifically a colour that makes your brand stand out.

A good example will be McDonalds. McDonalds uses red and yellow as their brand colour with yellow representing warmth and comfort while red representing a state of hunger. These two combinations makes it a perfect recipe to attract hungry customers looking for comfort foods. It is why most fast food joints use red or yellow.

So if you want to build a brand that brings you the consumers you need, you ought to ask yourself: is this the best colour for my brand? How does this cookout make me feel? When I use these colors what energy to they suggest?

2. FONT

Repeat after me: Your use of font matters. If you are free styling your use of font for your business, then you are making a mistake. Most business owners, specifically millennials, tend to pick fonts that are ‘readable enough’ without evoking any emotion with it.

For example, a jewellery brand using the Times New Roman font will probably have a low perception since the font is regularly used with write ups or newspapers. In the entertainment industry, specifically comic books, they use a particular font which is readable but evokes a goofy feeling when reading so it is not taking as seriously as reading a text book.

If your font is not equal to your good or service then you might be making the biggest mistake yet. So when next you think of picking a font for your brand, think about the history of the font and what emotion it evokes.

3. STORYTELLING

Most companies or businesses lack a good story. Their need for professionalism makes them nothing more than a product. If you want to connect with your audience, you must employ the art of storytelling. Almost every good thing has a story, and all you have to do is tell a story that your consumers can connect to. For example, in the Nigerian fashion industry, there has been a rise of clothing that represents a significant part of Nigerian culture therefore connecting with the Nigerian audience and others who find it interesting. Every person is attracted to a story, you just have to tell the right one. If your brand is not telling a story that connects with your audience, you might find yourself looking for consumers. To win your consumers, tell stories that target their pain points and how you want to help them solve it.

4. DEFINING YOUR BELIEFS

If your brand lacks a mission and a vision, or a simple paragraph of what it is, then you might find yourself at the back of the line in the profit party. Most consumers have beliefs and values that they strongly believe in, and they need to know of your beliefs fit into their lifestyle. For example, a gym rat or a mother with a healthy standard of eating for her children would want to know if your brand represents health and wellness or encourages bad eating habits. Now McDonald’s beliefs may not align with these beliefs, but perhaps a smoothie shop might. It is all in your beliefs, you have to make sure your brand has one belief that sticks by it.

5. BAD DIGITAL MARKETING

To be remotely successful, you need to create a sufficient digital marketing strategy that brings your brand strategy to life. If your ads have no call to actions or your write ups are not optimized, then even if your brand strategy might be the best, it will not be considered the best to you and not your consumers. You have to make effective marketing strategies to help your brand stand out; if not you might be stuck in whatever position you find yourself in.

CONCLUSION