Branding mistake #5 — 
putting your stakeholders before your audience.

It’s a fact that creative teams are often caught in the middle, working to please both customers and internal stakeholders — from marketing and sales to senior leadership and even HR. It can be a stressful situation. A campaign that hits the wrong note runs the risk of alienating customers and impacting the business bottom line or frustrating stakeholders and muddling the brand message inside the company. 

It’s a balancing act — who knew leading a creative team would require advanced diplomacy skills? But it’s worth the effort to find a creative direction that speaks to every audience. Here’s a look at what can go wrong when you choose one audience at the expense of another, the signs that it’s time to push back, and how to find a resolution that balances your stakeholders’ needs with the things you know your customers want.

Back in the late 1990s, consumers were frustrated with poor service from airlines. So United Airlines decided to tackle the issue head-on. Their “Rising” campaign acknowledged the problems and promised customers that they were improving their service.

But the creative team behind the campaign neglected to take the folks inside United into account. Hardworking employees felt discouraged and demoralized by a campaign that highlighted their shortcomings. As a result, it became harder to keep up the employee morale the airline needed to deliver on its “Rising” promise.

The United example shows how easy it is to misstep when you neglect one audience for another. So how do you strike a balance?

It’s often a matter of looking deep into the customer research and talking straight with your internal stakeholders, according to Lee Lawrence, creative director at Brand New Day Marketing.

Lawrence remembers working on a campaign for a brand with a 50-year history. Internal stakeholders were deeply wedded to their look — especially their brand colors — but research showed that target customers found the brand’s look outdated. It didn’t resonate with a younger audience — the exact group the company wanted to attract with their new campaign.

“We knew they were very emotional about the brand colors,” Lawrence says. “But since we knew customers wanted to see less of those, we tried to dial that back and still keep the branding strong.” Finding a balance that could please everyone was a challenge, “but we stuck to our guns and were able to get the stakeholder to agree to dial it back a little bit and give it a go.” The result was a campaign that resonated with both key groups: the company’s longtime leadership and the new audience they needed to reach.

When stakeholder visions don’t match up with customer demands, a deeper challenge may exist. Whether it’s a disagreement over which marketing trends to follow or when to update the brand, it might be time to get back to basics: making sure your company’s campaigns are truly authentic. It’s a matter of finding that sweet spot where the brand promise meets the needs of customers.

For Lawrence, executives are the starting place. “My best approach is always to start with the leadership to get them on board.” Once leadership is on board with a concept that truly represents the brand and meets customers where they are in the journey, they can help get the entire company behind a campaign.

Oftentimes, an internal branding campaign can help get stakeholders on the same page as employees and customers. This can be especially critical in times of change, whether it’s a merger or acquisition or a shift in mission or corporate direction.