No entrepreneur wants their this to ever happen in their company and business—why brands fail.
You’re pouring out your blood and sweat into a product or service, thinking it so amazing and awesome.
First and foremost, have you done your research? The boring stuff like market or business research?
Do you know your business goals?
More importantly, who are your customers; what problems and pains do you solve for them?
At No Boundaries Design, we talk about how to help attract the right people to your website, so people and their problems/pains are always first.
The question we ask is seeing how we help that one person improve their life.
You need to be thinking about the customers first! Think of this as reason number 0 out of the the 5 reasons!
Without the customers, there’s no experience or journey and without that, the company will be in the dust.
Because remember customers drive your company, and without catering to them, brands fail.
So, what happens when brands fail?
Imagine McDonald’s for example.
Their mission is to be the customers’ favorite place and way to eat and drink.
Alright! Let’s say McDonald’s removed their mission statement, the meaning, look like the golden arc, the look and feel, voice and tone, what are you left with?
Probably a half-baked burger with no recognization with maybe an employee treating you horribly.
It’s like removing the soul and heart from the body.
If you happen to be the buying customer, how would you feel when you’re treated in that way?
Think of it like that when there’s no brand.
Without the values, vision of how a company or person will help someone, the feelings and the tone, it’s like operating a company with no morals.
You’re met with uncertainly, unknowingly how you’re going to be treated, and there’s a lot of guessing involved.
Who would want to be involved in that?
Another reason is a company or a brands fail to keep up with a trend.
Taking Kodak for an example. Kodak once was a dominant force in the photography industry.
The brand soon faced a challenge stemming from its inability to adapt its brand to the digital era.
Its failure of addressing the shifting market dynamics resulted in a significant decline in brand relevance and market share.
Kodak’s resistance to embracing digital innovation proved detrimental to its long-term viability.
Despite later attempts to pivot towards digital offerings, the brand struggled to regain its former dominant stature in an increasingly competitive landscape, leading to the brand failing.
Having a brand is important to your business development.
Many companies are unclear about their brand because they don’t have a foundation and stability to run off.
They think its not important since it’s intangible!
They want tangible results, so asking for a website or logo design makes them think this “covers” what they are missing from developing “a brand”.
And I get it! You want to see if these results deliver or not!
In your brand and business development, its important for you to clear identity of who you are, what you’re helping your customers with, and why you’re here.
So, what if you can start having a great conversation with your clients, knowing you understand your own core values?
What if you make money from an organized, well-resourced brand strategy?
How will people perceive you when you have a solid and stable brand foundation?
Now, in order for us to take a look at brand experience, we must understand the essence of a brand.
How to prevent your brand from failing.
As mentioned earlier, hiring a designer for website design or logo design isn’t going to _solve or fix_ the core of your problem.
You’re hired or seen as a guide to someone’s problem. To validate whether your idea rings true to your audience, understand these 5 reasons why brands fail and how might you fix them:
Reason 1: Lack of an Authentic Brand
Brands often lose touch with their core values and identity often lack authenticity, which is why this is the cornerstone of any strong brand.
When companies prioritize short-term gains over long-term authenticity, people notice.
As mentioned in the McDonald’s example, when a touchpoint crumbles, so does trust and loyalty of a company.
Reason 2: Failure to Innovate
People are always changing and adapting to trends.
When brands do not innovate and are not keeping up with the consumer trends, they are at-risk of becoming obsolete in a rapidly evolving market.
Think Blockbuster, Toys-R-Us, and back to Kodak.
Reason 3: Poor Customer Experience in a Brand
Remember Reason 0 is understanding who your customers are in the beginning of the post? It’s essential to understand your customer—their pains and their problems.
People are the lifeblood of any business.
Brands that neglect the customer experience might as well act with caution.
Whether it’s half-baked services, weird processes, or horrible products, any aspect of the customer journey that falls short can drive customers into their competitors.
Reason 4: Misaligned Marketing Strategies leads brands to fail
Effective marketing is about more than pretty colors and rainbow campaigns and catchy slogans; it’s about resonating with your target audience on a deeper level.
Brands that miss the mark by failing to understand their audience or by employing tone-deaf messaging that separates themselves from their desired audience rather than attracting them.
Reason 5: Ignoring Feedback
Putting away your emotions and listening to feedback, whether positive or negative, is essential for growth.
When customers care, they voice themselves to HELP YOU improve. Brands that don’t care about feedback and are not adapting to customer’s needs AND aligning them with your business goals sets you up for failure.
Ignoring feedback means missing out on valuable opportunities for improvement and risk falling behind the competition. No one wants to repeat the same mistake again.
Steering towards a successful brand.
Just to be clear, no perfection of a logo and website will save you from a failing brand!
Understanding and building a brand foundation to help navigate you towards a sustainable success can be done so by what we’ve discussed here!
- Prioritizing authenticity
- Innovating to understand your customers
- Building a solid customer experience
- Making sure your marketing strategy is aligned to your brand
- Utilizing audience and customer feedback for improvement.
Again, no one wants to be in this position where people starts going to another competitor because of a lack of clarity!
Remember, while building a lasting brand comes with its fair share of challenges, with careful navigation and strategic decision-making, it’s a journey well worth undertaking.