7 Branding Do’s and Don’ts That May Surprise You

The branding industry is awash with groupthink. 

Branding thought leaders tell us to follow this or that particular way of doing things. Then a hundred Instagram and LinkedIn ‘experts’ regurgitate the info (often as their own) and other 100K+ users jump on the bandwagon. 

I’ve never been one to follow the herd, and tend to explore different points of view, knowing that there is rarely one single truth that works in every context. We live in a complex world after all. 

So in the following article, I hope to give you some new ways to look at branding. And maybe even dispel some myths, or point out some glaringly simple mistakes you could avoid. Or just open your eyes to another perspective. Whether you’re an entrepreneur or a brand builder who helps clients, this branding ‘cheat sheet’ might be the aha moment you were looking for. 

I’ve called it the do’s and don’ts of branding, somewhat ironically. As I mentioned, I don’t believe there is a single truth that’s always true no matter what, when it comes to branding. 

Everything in branding is contextual.

Making it all about your product or service

• Don’t focus on the features and benefits of your product or service.
• Do: Focus on the customer’s transformation thanks to your offering.

When I’m in the market for buying a new phone, I’m aware of the features I’d like it to have. Some are crucial (like being able to make a call), and others are nice-to-haves (like being able to shoot portrait mode). 

All of these, no doubt, contribute to my final purchasing decision. But at the same time, I’m very well aware that by now, the majority of larger phone manufacturers are more or less equal in terms of the features I can get with either provider. So thinking that consumers buy your product mostly because of its features is a moot point.

In reality, I will almost always buy an iPhone because I have built up a certain brand affiliation with it. I identify as a creative, forward-thinking person who likes to ‘have nice things’ – and buying Apple’s products tends to reinforce that image for me. 

And a decade ago, before iPhones existed, I always went for something nobody else had – again linking back to my ‘forward-thinking’ and trailblazer image I have of myself.

The main takeaway here is, when branding, and then marketing your product/s or service/s, make sure you paint the picture of the transformation the customers could have. To them, it could be about status, achieving their potential, simplifying a complex process, connecting them to a like-minded community, or something of that nature. 

The features are seldom the primary driver.

Thinking of branding as a lick of paint

• Don’t think that a good brand identity will ‘fix’ poor brand experience.
• Do: Make every interaction customers have with your brand consistently amazing.

In the last 20 years in the industry, I have spoken with plenty of business owners who see branding as something like a chore. 

Some peers have told them they need to re/brand, or they have seen a competitor get some pretty new colours, and they get FOMO. They just want to get it over and done with, ideally with minimal involvement (and minimum of investment) on their behalf.

Or, even worse, they’d heard that branding can help improve the perception of their business on potential and current customers, and they feel that maybe they can ‘fix’ a lack of customers, or the lack of repeat business. If they just get a new logo.

Putting lipstick on a pig comes to mind. Branding can certainly help to shape perceptions. But only if that message is being consistently backed up with your superior customer service and brand experiences through all of the brand’s touchpoints. It ultimately comes down to over-delivering on customers’ expectations.

Branding won’t help save a poor service/product. 

Exaggerating or fabricating the brand purpose

• Don’t create WHY statements you can’t really follow through on.
• Do: Position your brand in a way you can live and breathe through authentically.

The entire branding community (bar a few open-minded individuals) is raving about Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle as the Holy Grail of branding. 

And every time I share my view about the WHY of a business, lots of folks tend to get offended. 

You see, to me, it’s perfectly acceptable for a business owner to start something without wanting to bring world peace or some other grandiose thing. Just to bring their expertise or know-how to the world. Just because they spotted a gap in the market. Or just because they ‘fell into’ an opportunity that was too good to pass up.

In other words, if you’re a brand builder, working with clients, or you’re a start-up – don’t try to fabricate something that isn’t there, just because someone tells you so. 

If a business didn’t really start because it wanted to revolutionise an industry, why claim that it did? It’s disingenuous and won’t help the business succeed, because it’ll be impossible to maintain authentically and consistently.

Instead, lean into some other aspect of the brand to craft that brand positioning. It might be a unique way you do business. A unique process. A more customer-centric operation. Or something else. 

In other words, still make it about the customer’s benefit (even if it’s not going to be a HUGE deep purpose), and find some way the brand actually CAN improve the customer’s lives in some way. Look at Apple (again) as an example. The AirDrop feature may not be THAT revolutionary, but it sure is convenient to flick files from your iPhone to your MacBook in a matter of seconds. Yes, it may only be a feature (mind you, one they rarely talk about) but it’s a feature contributing to their overarching vision and that customer transformation.

Whatever your claim to customers is, make sure you can implement it in an actionable way, consistently.

Moving too fast without a roadmap or a goal

• Don’t assign budgets for marketing or branding without a strategy.
• Do: First, formulate your brand goals, customer acquisition strategy, channels etc

When I was 20, I was so skinny (considering my 195cm height), that most people I knew commented that I need to put on some weight. And it wasn’t for the lack of trying. I went to the gym with my friends. I tried to eat more food to bulk up. I drank protein shakes and supplements. 

But it wasn’t really until I set a specific goal of 95kg weight, and actually put together a plan on how to get there (with some help), that I’ve eventually managed to get there. With lots of habit building, tracking and measuring, and adjusting if needed.

It’s the same for achieving anything of value – it’s unusual to become an overnight success. More often it’s a set of small, incremental steps that get you there. And you can only follow through on those if you have a roadmap and strategies of how to get there. Including branding.

If you’re thinking about your branding or marketing after you’d already launched your product – you’ve waited too long. I’ve launched enough failed courses and products, thinking that they will just ‘fly off the shelves’ to tell you that you need to have a strategy in place.

Things like defining your ideal target audience are a no-brainer. But you will also need to have in place a toolkit you can use when you launch, which might be email templates, artwork assets, messaging examples to invite influencers to spread the word, a specific schedule for your marketing campaign/s, and a way to measure all of it to make sure you’re on track.

Only what gets measured, gets managed.

Thinking of branding as a one-off thing

• Don’t assume what once you have a new brand identity, the work is done.
• Do: Think of branding as a continuous evolution, consistent with your strategy.

Branding is not something that you can turn off, once you’ve started. It happens whether you influence it or not. And you NEED to continue to influence it. Otherwise, customers and outsiders will do it for you.

So in that aspect, branding is a bit like breathing. The moment you’ve had your first breath, you need to continue breathing in and out to make sure you can keep moving forward. Breathing does happen whether you’re thinking about breathing or not. So why not exercise some ‘intentional breathing‘ – the kind that mindfulness leaders use to proactively combat stress.

From a practical point of view, that might mean not throwing the brand/communications guide into a dust bin once it’s created by your brand agency. But regularly reviewing and referencing the guide with the view to adhere to it for consistency. 

Remember, once you have a plan, a strategy, a direction, and a goal of where you want to be with your brand, you need to be intentional as to how you get there. 

Undoubtedly, some brand evolution may happen along the way. A new way a logo could be applied, or a clever campaign that opens up a novel visual way to represent an old idea. So long as those are not just quick trends, and you feel those changes are contributing to your overarching strategic goals, proceed confidently.

And don’t forget to update those style guide documents again.

Being disruptive with your brand, because you can

• Don’t only consider branding as a way to disrupt, or differentiate.
• Do: Align branding with your strategic goals, aiming for brand salience.

If you ask a brand builder about the main purpose of branding, 8 out of 10 experts will tell you it’s about differentiation. Myself included – if you’d asked me in 2016. 

Don’t get me wrong, differentiating your brand from competitors is a key priority in many contexts. Especially if you’re a newcomer to the industry and would-be customers have zero to little awareness about your offering. But few people seem to understand that the decision to differentiate should be the result of careful consideration – not the default action. 

To them, it’s merely a case of ‘let’s disrupt and differentiate because we can’. So they go out, often completely ignoring industry conventions, familiar color associations, and other industry codes because they view everything as an opportunity to demonstrate ‘their difference’.

In some contexts, like a few I’ve faced myself as a brand builder, differentiation may not align with the overall strategy of the brand. I’ve worked with B2B brands that partner with government organisations, where being disruptive or hugely ‘different’ could actually have a negative impact on the business.

So what’s the answer? As I mentioned earlier, there is nothing wrong with using branding as an opportunity to be different (usually through your brand purpose, WHY, and so on), if that aligns with your strategic goals. 

But another key priority you may want to consider is brand distinctiveness (different to differentiation), to achieve brand salience. 

That usually means creating something you can ‘own’ – a pattern, a colour, a shape, a tagline, a jingle, or any other number of distinctive brand assets that can help would-be customers to recognise (and later recall) your brand. 

These assets, if developed thoughtfully, can become the mental shortcuts to your brand attributes, customer experience, and your services – and hopefully make your business top-of-mind when they think they need a service/product that you offer.

Making the logo bigger

• Don’t make the logo bigger. Or use Comic Sans. No matter the scenario.
• Do: I know that Nike’s tagline is Just Do It, but in this case – just don’t

This is just a fun one to make sure you’re paying attention. Of course, as with everything, there will be times when you will need to make the logo bigger. For better brand salience for example.

It’s great to take risks with branding – sometimes you don’t know what you can achieve until you try. Especially if everyone in your industry has been doing the same old thing for ages. But remember that everything needs to have a balance about it. Like Aristotle’s Golden Mean suggests, rather than focusing on the extreme, going somewhere towards the middle can have its benefits too.

With branding, that can mean experimenting (provided you have strategic reasons and ways to measure the outcomes of this experimentation) with logo size, colors, and imagery, perhaps early on in the life of your brand. But eventually, you will want to find a sweet spot of what your customers feel to be familiar, attractive, and distinctive to you.

And if that turns out to be Comic Sans as your headline typeface, then you are probably doomed.

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