For example, say you own a shopping website. If your website design and content are poor, or worse, shady in presentation, then your branding will not impress. It is important to have elements that deliver on your branding promise.
You can address this lack of brand trust in multiple ways:
- Make Excellent Customer Service the Base – Good reviews by customers are powerful in attracting other customers. Ensure that your existing customers are happy.
- Use References and Testimonials on your Website – References by your customers and media coverage are great ways to generate credibility.
Testimonials by customers, celebrities, and social media influencers can help you make an impact on relevant audiences.
- Choosing partners with a well-liked brand – This strategy especially helps every business, but especially startups. A well-known partner builds credibility for your business.
Investors and customers want a trustworthy brand and if you are associated with one, the chances of success are more.
Lack of Customer Education
No matter how great your branding is, it will not work if customers do not understand your products/ services. Educate your target audience about your products/ services. Explain how you can help them with your products/ services.
Some ways to overcome this branding challenge:
- Offering free trials of your products/ services
- Explaining how your products/ services have made a difference in people’s lives. You can talk to your customers through the press, blogging, and social media.
Brand Inconsistency
Brand inconsistency happens when your branding elements, such as your logo, company actions, and marketing messages, do not align. When there is a gap between what you stand for, and what you communicate through your branding, you lose customer trust.
Some ways to ensure that you maintain consistent branding:
- Have clarity regarding your brand message – If you are unsure about your brand message, so will your audience. Whether you want to sound professional or light-hearted or want your customers to interact in a specific way with your brand, make it known.
- Define your target audience correctly – Who is it you want to be your customers? Adults, children, families, working women, or baby boomers? Specify.
Branding makes the required impact only when your message reaches the right audience. If you are targeting every consumer, then you will land nowhere.
- Be Consistent in Presentation – Use your logo, slogan, image, or any other branding element consistently across all platforms (brochures, office stationery, website, in-store, social media, blogs, etc.). Lack of consistency in presentation confuses customers.
Failure to Create Brand Awareness
Your brand needs to be embedded into customers’ minds to reflect your company in their minds.
Budget constraints can sometimes prevent executives from investing in brand awareness strategies. In the case of startups, tight financial situations are most often the case for lack of brand awareness.
In some cases, budget constraints can cause businesses to forgo investment in creative branding.
Executives hesitate to hire the services of a branding expert to accomplish the required task. In such cases, the result is inferior branding, which damages the company’s reputation and disassociates customers from the brand. Over time, the brand, and the company, are both forgotten.
