Common Problems That Can Lead to Brand Destruction

Branding mistakes are universal and can happen to even the most well-known and established businesses. So, if you think it is time for you to check your brand’s health, here are some common issues, which lead to brand destruction, that you need to watch out for.

Poor website experience

Your website is your online point of contact. And you never know who will visit it. That’s why you need to have a great website that converts.

Many visitors leave a website because they don’t find what they are looking for on the site, which makes them feel that the site is relevant to them even if it has relevant listings.

Poor design or functionality of the website can lead to customers abandoning a brand and not returning. So, to begin with, you ought to work on your website’s loading speed, content layout, and mobile performance.

Besides, one of the key metrics used to gauge a website’s success is bounce rate. Bounce rate is a measure of how much traffic leaves your site after viewing only one page. A high bounce rate often means that a website’s homepage isn’t compelling enough to retain visitors or draw them deeper into the site.

Fortunately, you can resolve website problems before they occur by planning, measuring, and thorough analysis. Check out our guide on website trends for 2021 to get started.

Ill-defined value statement

It may sound obvious, but many businesses lack a well-defined guiding philosophy that drives everything from short-term tactical measures to long-term business strategies. A flawed value proposition can cause a brand to contradict its core competencies, which can lead to brand destruction and failure.

More importantly, without a clear understanding of the value proposition, it can be difficult for brands to define the right market segments for their products or services.

Not delivering on the promise

A brand promise is the one thing that clearly articulates what a company will do for its customers to improve trust and loyalty in the market. In fact, it is a commitment rooted in a value proposition.

For instance, Amazon's promise is to "help consumers find, discover, and buy anything" at the lowest prices possible. And their value proposition states that they want to be the most customer-centric company on the planet.

All things considered, Amazon's prices, speed of delivery, and prompt customer support are all keeping up with not only their value prop but also their brand promise.

For a company, its brand promise is the foundation of its brand equity. It determines the level of trust and loyalty it will enjoy from its customers. If broken, it can lead to a decline in revenue and market share and cause irreparable reputational damage to any business.

Launching extensions without perfecting the main offering

In the last few years, brands have begun to realize the importance of launching sub-brands. It is an excellent way to reach more people and increase their revenue streams.

But when you launch a sub-brand without making sure everything is ready for prime time, it could lead to customer dissatisfaction and possibly even damage to the core brand.

Remember Colgate’s Beef Lasagna - one of the brand’s Ready Meals? And when Cosmopolitan introduced a sub-brand for selling flavored yoghurt for some reason? They failed because people couldn't associate these brands’ new ventures with their previous offerings.

As a result, both brands had to shelf these sub-branding ideas because they confused their existing audience.

On the other hand, Amazon struck gold with Alexa because they took heed of the future of voice search and they filled a product gap in the market.

Sub-brands are tricky. Even the biggest companies fail at creating a relevant one. So, unless you are certain about your core brand, it is best to avoid venturing into a new brand.  

Lack of brand personification

Companies don’t live, breathe, or love. Therefore, it is difficult for their customers to feel anything for them. And it may sound a little melodramatic, but it is true. For companies to have an emotional connection with people, they need to be humanized.

Humanizing a brand requires a ton of planning and strategizing. But giving it a face, humanistic characteristics, and a voice can speed up the process.

For instance, many brands have become popular due to their blogs. These blogs have a voice that helps build an emotional connection between the readers and the company. So, even if people don't know who is behind the articles, they lean towards their source - the brand.

Remember that without an emotional connection, a brand only has a pretty logo and a corporate-sounding tagline to rally behind. And that isn't ideal for long-term survival.

Rebranding without a relevant goal

Many brands believe rebranding is going to solve all their problems. But rebranding is not an easy feat to accomplish. It can be challenging to diagnose the real problem behind a business’s “big issue.” And if you get it wrong, it can be dire for you.

Every successful campaign needs a ‘why’ to reach its potential. So, if you are rebranding to solve a product issue, for example, it won't work. Your target segment will still reject your brand because you haven’t worked on the product. It is akin to painting over a mold. You won’t be addressing the root cause, rather prolonging it.

But if you are rebranding to show your new and improved mission, your strategy will work. Because going from, say ‘sustainable’ to ‘carbon-neutral,’ is a good reason for rebranding your company. All because you are building on something concrete, not changing it. And people will respect that and choose you over your competitors.

Conclusion

It may come as no surprise that every company is incredibly vulnerable to any of these destructive branding mistakes. Our advice couldn't be simpler. As experts, we advise you to carefully choose your partners, work with reliable marketers, and keep an eye out for trends to avoid mishaps!