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7 Brand Elements Shoppers Don't Care About

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A brand is the name, design, symbol, or any other feature that distinguishes your goods or services from those of your competitors. Moreover, your brand is the representation of your company's reputation through the conveyance of attributes, values, purpose, strengths, and passions. A brand is one of the most precious assets of a business, and it needs to be carefully managed to ensure it properly and accurately represents your values.

The experts at HubSpot have some excellent advice to give when it comes to branding. “Remember: Brand is an evolving asset. It's one that requires continued attention. One that your customers will have a big role in shaping. One that you’ll need to foster. One that you’ll return to, make adjustments to as your business grows or changes.”

Crafting a brand is a shared endeavor, though. Customers, employees, blog readers and anyone who interacts with a business has a role in shaping the brand. But do you know how your brand is doing? Just as importantly, does your business understand which elements of its brand are important to shoppers, and which are not? 

Below you will find a list of the brand elements that shoppers don’t really care about.

Brand Names: Do brand names really matter? Is it the first thing you address when starting a business? You’d think so, right? But in fact, brand names mean little when you’re starting out. The truth is no one really cares that much about your brand name. Here is a real life example that will illustrate this point: Let’s say you are introduced to a new person at a business function. You get along well with them and agree to touch base in the future. But the next day you can’t for the life of you remember their name without referring to a business card.  So what do you remember? You remember the person and the personality. You remember the conversation. You remember all that stuff – but you it’s always the name you forget.

Brand Storytelling: It’s true that we all complain about how bad some of the messaging is from organizations, yet many of us get behind our computer screens and pump out information that no one wants to read. This just means that we are wasting time, and to make matters worse, most of us are probably doing it wrong anyway. For example, if a child doesn’t want to watch, listen to, or read your story, neither will your customer. We likely even know it’s bad and we know no one wants to read it. We all have bosses or clients who insist that our content be full of corporate speak and jargon. But it’s our jobs to change the thinking around this.

Brand Mascots: Brand mascots can become household names in their own right and help make their brands leaders in their industries. But there is a fine line between brand mascots getting your attention and being annoying and creepy. The truth is that there are far fewer brand mascots that we like than we dislike. Furthermore, when it comes to online publishing, many brands aren’t sure which kinds of content should be distributed via the high-level brand account and what should be relegated to the brand mascot. Brand mascot social accounts can easily feel spammy or frivolous, so brands should tread carefully. Either way, this is a brand attribute that many consumers just don’t seem to connect with like they used to.

Brand Jingles: The jingle. Those awful, uninspired lyrics set to a crude tune dreamt up in the boardroom of a McDonald’s corporate office. Are they annoying? Yes. While some argue that the days of the jingle are coming to an end, many small and regional businesses still employ them to gain recognition. But is the jingle all it’s cracked up to be? Advertisements have become part of our culture. People often remember ads from before they were born because ads help businesses become household names. A good ad can transform a business. But what about the jingle? While it’s often difficult to get the viral lyrics out of your head, will you think of them when you’re in need of a similar service? The fundamental is the business objective. What is it you’re trying to do? If you’re being funny for funny’s sake, that’s not necessarily the path to long-term success.

Final Thoughts:

Brand elements are evolving assets that require continued attention. This is something your customers will have a big role in shaping. You’ll need to foster them and make adjustments to them as your business grows or changes. Just make sure to stay current with the times, as what is considered trendy one day, could very likely be a big failure the next.

 

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