Branding mistake #4 —
Part of our series “6 Mistakes You’re (Probably) Making with Your Digital Brand”
Have you ever seen a brand campaign that made you scratch your head and wonder, “What were they thinking?” Even some of the biggest companies — powered by the mightiest marketing and creative teams — occasionally undermine their brand identities with a confusing creative campaign. The result? Perplexed customers and resource-intensive work to repair the damage.
Here’s a look at four of the most common ways companies accidentally undermine the power of their brands — and what you can do to avoid making the same mistakes.
1. Launching a poorly researched brand update.
Back in 2010, Gap unveiled a new logo, and it was a spectacular flop. The president of Gap North America said it was meant to be more “contemporary and current,” but customers were so upset that the company had to return to its tried-and-true 20-year-old logo within a week. What went wrong? The company hadn’t talked to customers first, so they didn’t realize how attached Gap shoppers were to the logo.
The lesson? Tap into your customers’ feelings about your brand and test the waters before rolling out a big change.
Ben Abraham is the senior brand manager at Storyblocks, a company that provides stock video and audio to help its customers tell stories. He recommends testing and carefully rolling out changes. “We use feature flags on our website to create different user experiences for different visitors so we can test specific hypotheses,” says Abraham. “When we’re developing things like our design system, we’re not necessarily doing it all at once.”
“We use feature flags on our website to create different user experiences for different visitors so we can test specific hypotheses.
When we’re developing things like our design system,
we’re not necessarily doing it all at once."
Ben Abraham
Senior Brand Manager, Storyblocks
2. Striking up a partnership that doesn’t make sense.
A brilliant brand partnership can expand your audience. Does it make sense for Ikea (the build-it-yourself furniture company) to partner with Lego on storage furniture for the world’s favorite build-it-yourself kids’ toys? Absolutely. Should Starbucks and Spotify partner up on in-store playlists? Genius.
But when Hannah Montana cherries hit the shelves, it was a confusing moment in the produce aisle. There’s just no reason to blend the two together, so it’s not likely that either partner benefited from the collaboration. Similarly, when Colgate — the toothpaste people — launched a line of frozen dinners, consumers couldn’t figure it out. Who wants to eat food made by their toothpaste company? The affiliation didn’t make any sense for Colgate’s brand, and the project didn’t last.
3. Being inauthentic.
Customers are deeply invested in brands’ values, so they’ll spot an inauthentic moment in a heartbeat. In 2018, McDonald’s flipped their iconic M upside down to celebrate International Women’s Day. But the company was under scrutiny about their wages — an issue that disproportionately impacted female workers and their children. This deeply inauthentic moment angered critics, who lashed out at the fast food company.
To keep authenticity running through all of your brand campaigns, take the time to articulate your brand’s core values — do they include building a well constructed product, supporting your community, environmental stewardship, or something else? Once you know what you stand for, you can lean into your values and let them drive the creative.
4. Jumping on a trend just because it’s trendy.
When a new design trend is getting a lot of attention, it’s tempting to give it a go. But before you do, ask yourself, “Will following this trend enhance our unique brand identity?” If the answer is no, then jumping on the bandwagon may undermine your brand.
“Trends are quick dopamine hits that can distract from the larger goals of trying to serve your customers,” says Abraham. “It’s important to be really intentional. There are a lot of things we want to do, but at the end of the day, we have to think, is it something that brings new value to the folks we’re trying to serve, or will it disappear next week?”
Another risk of jumping on the latest trend: It might make you stand out less. “Many creatives are reading the same trend reports or following the same news sources,” says Abraham. “I would encourage people to seek inspiration from places outside of industry reports because ultimately we’re all served the same content, and it becomes bland because we’re all trendy in the same ways.”
“It’s important to be really intentional.
There are a lot of things we want to do, but at the end of the day,
we have to think, is it something that brings new value to the folks we’re trying to serve, or will it disappear next week?”
Ben Abraham
Senior Brand Manager, Storyblocks
You’ve accidentally undermined your branding efforts. What now?
It happens. A brand campaign can strike a wrong note, fall flat, or confuse customers. When you find yourself there, it’s time to listen without getting defensive. “It might hurt and not feel great to hear the feedback,” says Abraham. “But you can’t grow without it. If you’re operating in an insular way, it’s really difficult to recover. The folks you may confuse won’t feel heard.”
After you listen, act on what you learn, make corrections (even if it’s going back to your 20-year-old logo, as Gap did), and take the criticism for what it truly means: Your customers care about your brand.
Adobe can help.
Adobe Creative Cloud for teams gives you the world’s best creative apps and services in a single, secure, integrated platform. With 20+ desktop and mobile apps, Creative Cloud Libraries for keeping assets in sync across apps and devices, and 1TB of storage per user, this complete creative software solution is designed to support your business at every stage of growth. Plus, you can count on simplified license management and total control over your software to help your team stay focused on creating great work.