3 Common Signs Your Brand Is Damaged (and 3 Ways to Fix It!)
Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2024 9:54 am
In a previous article , we explained that your brand is the experience you provide to your customers during their purchasing relationship with you. When you think about it in these terms, you can see that the importance of brand cannot be overstated.
The impact your business has on your target market is a testament to the strength of your brand. It’s not just how your business wants to be perceived in the marketplace, but how it’s actually perceived by customers. When there’s a mismatch between these perceptions, your brand suffers.
The consequences can be disastrous for your business: lost sales, stunted growth and damaged reputation.
Why does this happen?
Your brand suffers damage when it moves at a different pace than your market. This creates a mismatch in perceptions.
For example, your company may see itself as a market leader for its expertise and professionalism. You know that your products are a great fit for your target customers, but your brand sends completely different signals. In fact, your customers perceive your company as inaccessible and confusing.
If you're having this kind of problem, know that a brand is not permanently damaged. Businesses evolve. Customers evolve. Cultures evolve. That's life.
How do you know if your brand is damaged?
Here are three common signs that a brand is damaged (or in danger).
1. Your brand has become reactive
You respond to product launches, competitor actions, and market opportunities in a timely and reactive manner. As a brand, you often go off-track to “explore” new opportunities that take you away from what you originally started out to achieve.
2. Your brand is no longer relevant
Your brand is perceived as outdated and boring. It no longer generates customer enthusiasm like it once did.
3. Your reputation has been tarnished
Your brand is being perceived in a negative light by your customers. You've made changes to address this issue, but it seems like you're continuing to lose new customers, as well as loyal ones.
How to rehabilitate your brand?
If you believe your brand has been damaged, here's what you can mom database do to get your business back on track.
1. Create a solid foundation
With your leadership team, you should spend time establishing or redefining your core brand statements (brand vision, value proposition, and positioning statement) and identifying the market segments you are targeting. To align brand and market perceptions, you need to develop a detailed understanding of both sides of the equation.
Often, it’s small differences in how these core elements are understood within the company that begin to damage the brand. Take the time, with your leadership team, to clearly redefine what your brand stands for and what it will become.
2. Realize your brand culture
Defining your brand on paper is one thing, but translating it into concrete facts is another. Demonstrating your brand’s value to the market is also known as “brand personality,” where the emphasis is on personality. It all starts with people.
People are the ones who work for your company and demonstrate your brand every day. A customer service agent who is happy to help customers and enthusiastic about her job creates a different brand perception than one who is disinterested and bored.
People are also your customers – those who buy your products or services, those who are just discovering you, and even those who decide to no longer do business with you.
People create culture. Build your brand on the existing culture or encourage your culture to evolve with your brand (or better yet, do both!). Think WestJet. Whether you’re a staff member or a customer, the brand is a culture at WestJetters and your interaction with the company makes you a member of that group.
3. Create a consistent customer experience
Brand personality covers every aspect of the customer experience , from the wording and tone of your message to sales conversion efforts to customer service response time.
Every interaction with your company is a reflection of brand behavior and part of creating your customer experience. Your goal here too is to align the perceptions customers have of your brand with how your company wants to be perceived. To achieve this, you need to speak with one voice throughout the customer experience. So, going back to the previous example, the ideal brand is one where you align your customers’ need to easily understand what you do with your company’s need to demonstrate expertise and leadership in its field.
Again, if a brand has suffered damage, it can be reversed. Rehabilitation is a matter of alignment. Start by establishing a solid foundation that will allow your brand to grow and evolve with your market.
Do you have an example of a company that has successfully repaired brand damage? Do you have questions about how you can start to address the issues that are shaking the foundations of your own brand? Comment below – we look forward to hearing from you.
The impact your business has on your target market is a testament to the strength of your brand. It’s not just how your business wants to be perceived in the marketplace, but how it’s actually perceived by customers. When there’s a mismatch between these perceptions, your brand suffers.
The consequences can be disastrous for your business: lost sales, stunted growth and damaged reputation.
Why does this happen?
Your brand suffers damage when it moves at a different pace than your market. This creates a mismatch in perceptions.
For example, your company may see itself as a market leader for its expertise and professionalism. You know that your products are a great fit for your target customers, but your brand sends completely different signals. In fact, your customers perceive your company as inaccessible and confusing.
If you're having this kind of problem, know that a brand is not permanently damaged. Businesses evolve. Customers evolve. Cultures evolve. That's life.
How do you know if your brand is damaged?
Here are three common signs that a brand is damaged (or in danger).
1. Your brand has become reactive
You respond to product launches, competitor actions, and market opportunities in a timely and reactive manner. As a brand, you often go off-track to “explore” new opportunities that take you away from what you originally started out to achieve.
2. Your brand is no longer relevant
Your brand is perceived as outdated and boring. It no longer generates customer enthusiasm like it once did.
3. Your reputation has been tarnished
Your brand is being perceived in a negative light by your customers. You've made changes to address this issue, but it seems like you're continuing to lose new customers, as well as loyal ones.
How to rehabilitate your brand?
If you believe your brand has been damaged, here's what you can mom database do to get your business back on track.
1. Create a solid foundation
With your leadership team, you should spend time establishing or redefining your core brand statements (brand vision, value proposition, and positioning statement) and identifying the market segments you are targeting. To align brand and market perceptions, you need to develop a detailed understanding of both sides of the equation.
Often, it’s small differences in how these core elements are understood within the company that begin to damage the brand. Take the time, with your leadership team, to clearly redefine what your brand stands for and what it will become.
2. Realize your brand culture
Defining your brand on paper is one thing, but translating it into concrete facts is another. Demonstrating your brand’s value to the market is also known as “brand personality,” where the emphasis is on personality. It all starts with people.
People are the ones who work for your company and demonstrate your brand every day. A customer service agent who is happy to help customers and enthusiastic about her job creates a different brand perception than one who is disinterested and bored.
People are also your customers – those who buy your products or services, those who are just discovering you, and even those who decide to no longer do business with you.
People create culture. Build your brand on the existing culture or encourage your culture to evolve with your brand (or better yet, do both!). Think WestJet. Whether you’re a staff member or a customer, the brand is a culture at WestJetters and your interaction with the company makes you a member of that group.
3. Create a consistent customer experience
Brand personality covers every aspect of the customer experience , from the wording and tone of your message to sales conversion efforts to customer service response time.
Every interaction with your company is a reflection of brand behavior and part of creating your customer experience. Your goal here too is to align the perceptions customers have of your brand with how your company wants to be perceived. To achieve this, you need to speak with one voice throughout the customer experience. So, going back to the previous example, the ideal brand is one where you align your customers’ need to easily understand what you do with your company’s need to demonstrate expertise and leadership in its field.
Again, if a brand has suffered damage, it can be reversed. Rehabilitation is a matter of alignment. Start by establishing a solid foundation that will allow your brand to grow and evolve with your market.
Do you have an example of a company that has successfully repaired brand damage? Do you have questions about how you can start to address the issues that are shaking the foundations of your own brand? Comment below – we look forward to hearing from you.