Yihao Classroom
Warning! Seven Pitfalls of Corporate Branding
Below are the most common branding mistakes, and some suggestions on how to avoid them.
1. Praising your own brand
Imagine you're at a party. A man introduces himself like this: "As a man, I am exceptionally intelligent, impeccably dressed, and remarkably charming." You would think he's a fool, wouldn't you? This is no different from a company claiming to be "top-notch, innovative, and industry-leading." People will wonder why you feel the need to boast about yourself.
Alternative approach ：Give your customers a megaphone so they can do the praising.
2. Over-promising and under-delivering
Nothing is more frustrating for customers than being promised something and not getting it. For example, if you guarantee 24/7 service, your customers better not hear a busy signal. Similarly, if you advertise a product with certain features, the product better have those features.
Alternative approach: Under-promise and over-deliver.
3. Stingy customer support
Do you know what customers hate? Companies that hide their customer support phone numbers. Then, when you finally find the number and call, you get put on hold.
While on hold, they play annoying music, occasionally punctuated by cheerful suggestions to visit the self-service support website, while insisting that "your call is very important to us," despite all evidence to the contrary.
Alternative approach ：Hire and train the best customer support people you can find, as many as it takes so customers can get through quickly. Sound expensive? Well, yes, but here's a thought: Try releasing higher-quality products that require less support. Remember: Customers call for support because something went wrong with the product. Otherwise, they wouldn't pick up the phone.
4. Launching too many brands
If one brand is good, then having 50 brands must be 50 times better, right? Wrong. The more brands you have, the harder it is to make them stand out. General Motors took 30 years to figure this out and shed its excess brands.
Alternative approach: Have one corporate brand. If you're big enough, have one or two sub-brands. Only launch multiple brands if you want to enter completely different markets.
5. Attacking another brand
When I went to see the new Captain America a few months ago, the cinema played a Burger King commercial before the movie. However, this isn't intended as an advertisement for Burger King. The intention here is to point out other better fast-food alternatives to Burger King. The fact is: When you attack another brand, you're just spending your own money to make that brand stronger.
Alternative approach: Don't mention your competitors' names in your advertising.
6. Using the CEO as a brand image
This is a no-win scenario. Consider this: If your CEO is dull, ugly, or obnoxious on camera, using him or her as a spokesperson will make your brand seem dull, ugly, and obnoxious as well. But even if your CEO is charming and photogenic (think Steve Jobs), when that CEO is gone, your brand will suffer (as Apple experienced after Jobs' death).
In smaller companies, this revolving-door performance is always playing. If a startup is too closely tied to the founder's personality and image, the company's brand often suffers a severe blow when the founder leaves or is replaced.
Alternative approach: Build your brand based on customer experience, not the CEO's personality. 。
7. Rebranding to fix product problems
I'm not a fan of rebranding. It's expensive, and often the difference between the old and new brand image is a chasm. Sometimes companies rebrand because customer perception of the brand is negative. This is almost always due to poor product quality or terrible customer service.
You can't cover up either of those problems by slapping on a new brand. Rebranding just draws more attention to those problems.
Alternative approach: Spend the money you'd spend on rebranding on making a better product and providing better service. When your customers notice that, your brand will regain its luster.
Let's talk about good brands from the standard of a good man. Feng Tang summarized the five criteria for a good man as: Pan, Lv, Deng, Xiao, Xian. That is, the appearance of Pan An, a strong body like a donkey, the wealth of Deng Tong, being humble and subservient, and having free time to spend with you. A good brand should also have five basic elements: Pan - Image first. Really, if you can't make a good impression, don't even think about building a brand; Lv - Product is the root. No matter how good the image is, without roots, what's the point of showing off?; Deng - Learn to make money first. The foundation of a brand is survival. Once survival is secured, then talk about branding; otherwise, it's pointless; Xiao (approximately equivalent to gentlemanly demeanor) - Internal and external unity. A brand is basically equivalent to a tycoon and a gentleman, the difference lies in the degree of internal and external unity; Xian - Let the brand try to have more 'hook-ups' with consumers. Brands and consumers are lovers, not worshippers. The closer the relationship, the easier it is to spark, and without that spark, it will always be just watching from afar.
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