MD: I’d like you to generate more leads this year
You: We have no brand and our logo makes us look like amateurs
MD: Our logo is our brand and anyway, we don’t have the budget for a rebrand
Your company ‘brand’…
As someone in marketing, you’re likely to be aware of the power of good branding and the negative impacts no/poor branding can have on your job.
It makes you cringe and you consider quitting your job every day just to work somewhere that takes branding more seriously.
Wouldn’t it be delightful to get your shitty company branding sorted?
Well, that’s what we’re going to do in this post; provide enough evidence to convince your MD or FD just how beneficial to the business it could be.
Let’s handle the first objection you’re likely to get – they disagree the branding is shit.
How To Know If Your Company Branding Is Shit
First of all, let’s get one thing straight, your brand is not your logo.
Your company branding includes your logo but that is just one brand asset.
Branding is how people feel and what they think when they come into contact with your company.
With this in mind, your brand should accurately represent you and…
- Communicate your values
- Appeal to your target audience
- Convey your company’s personality
Are these things being accurately communicated at every touch point with your company?
Some examples…
Company A has a core value of ‘Honesty’ yet when the phone rings for the director, she tells the person who answered the call to ‘say I’m in a meeting’ when in fact she just can’t be arsed to take the call.
Company B is a fun, laid-back and friendly team of people but each of their LinkedIn headshots is black and white photos of each of them in suits.
Company C provides tech services but its clients are not particularly tech-savvy and its blog content is riddled with confusing acronyms and jargon.
How many of these types of experiences is your company getting wrong?
These experiences are your branding.
If the experiences you’re providing are shit, your branding is shit.
Why Poor Branding Is Bad for Business
If your branding doesn’t accurately reflect how you do business, it can be very costly and not just to the pride of those who work with you.Recruitment Issues
One of the previous examples was Company B which is a fun, laid-back and friendly team but the impression the company gives is formal, traditional and stuffy.
Do you think this type of branding will attract or repel more fun and friendly employees?
The result is a long, stressful and expensive hiring process that will ultimately attract the wrong type of people who may well end up leaving soon after joining because they don’t fit in.
Marketing Spend
Simply put, if your company branding does not appeal to your target market, your target market is less likely to buy from you.
This makes the job of marketing your company and services incredibly difficult.
A large percentage of every minute of time spent marketing and every pound invested in marketing activity is being wasted on the wrong people, people who will never become clients because they’re the wrong fit.
Let’s say that a modest 40% of people that interact with your brand can’t afford your services but think they can because your branding looks cheap.
That’s 40% of your marketing investment and 40% of your marketing manager’s salary being completely wasted.
For the FDs reading this, let’s put that into numbers…
£30,000 annual marketing budget
£45,000 marketing manager annual salary (UK average)
£75,000 total
40% of that equates to £30,000 completely wasted. Every. Single. Year.
Your FD right now…
Marketing Investments
So far we’ve only looked at some loose examples of spending on current marketing activities but what about future investments?
Successful marketing is all about constant testing & measuring.
You will always want to be trying new tactics in order to win new leads and stay ahead of your competitors.
Let’s say, for example, you plan to redesign the company website because the current one does absolutely nothing to convert the traffic it gets.
The current website is also 5 years old and due a refresh so the MD agrees to a budget of £25,000 for the design and development of the new website.
But even the best website in the world will have issues converting visitors into clients if your company branding is poor.
Not to mention how much harder you will be making the job for your chosen web agency which could push their pricing up.
Following the same example previously, let’s assume that 40% of your website traffic is not your target audience.
£10,000 of that £25,000 budget is wasted before one pixel has been designed.
Good Branding Is An Excellent Investment
We’ve barely scratched the surface of the pitfalls of having poor branding and insane amounts of wasted time and money that comes with it.
Investing in good branding should be a no-brainer.
Great branding will stand the test of time so don’t go for the cheapest option.
Get it done. Get it done properly. Reap the rewards for years to come.