Damaging a Successful Brand

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12 Mar. 2019. Brand management is one of the toughest and most important areas of marketing. It can take a long time and a lot of hard work to build a successful brand that people trust and respect. However, all of this effort can be undone in an instant. While you may feel you’re running your business as usual, just one tiny error can have even those most loyal to your brand looking at you in a completely different way. With that in mind, here are eight ways to damage your brand.

1. Failing to keep promises

Nothing frustrates a customer more than being promised something, yet not getting it. If you build your image around certain guarantees or promises, then you need to make sure that you deliver on them every single time. Not doing so will make your business seem untrustworthy compared to others out there. To be on the safe side, you should underpromise, but aim to deliver more.

2. Skimping on customer support

Even when you’re trying your very best to offer an exemplary product or service, there will still be a customer or two who has an issue with it. Whether this is your fault or not, you need to ensure they have a way to reach you when this happens. This means offering several contact methods, which you clearly display. When customers can’t get in touch, it makes bad situations worse.

3. Using poorly designed websites

Consumers tend to look a product up online to find somewhere to purchase it. This means that your website will give the first impression of your brand. For this reason, you may want to invest in professional help. For more difficult niches, you can opt for an expert, like a CBD web design agency. They will be best equipped to create an attractive site that is also easy to navigate.

4. Publishing low-quality content

Today’s mobile devices are more than capable of creating great content of any type. For this reason, most consumers expect brands to publish content that is of the highest quality possible. This means videos with excellent sound and lighting and unique and informative blog posts. By doing this, you’ll show yourself to be an expert and become a helpful resource for consumers.

5. Over-promoting your brand

While part of building a successful brand is telling others about your business and what it can do, you shouldn’t shove your successes in your customers’ faces. After all, if someone were to come up to you and tell you what makes them so great, you wouldn’t enjoy it very much. Instead, you should show your customers that you’re the best and let them do the praising for you.

6. Attacking somebody else’s brand

Your products or services may be of better value or quality than those of your competitors, but that doesn’t mean that you should directly slam them in your promotional material. If you mention another company by name, even to explain why you’re better, consumers will only remember the other brand that you mentioned. With that in mind, you should only speak about your business.

7. Acting in unprofessional ways

When trying to build a brand, you’re on display for the entire world to see. This means that, if you were to do something unprofessional, consumers would have the opportunity to judge you for it. This could massively harm your brand’s image. To avoid this, you should avoid any childish behaviors and act in a respectful way at all times. You can also ask employees to do the same.

8. Ignoring all negative feedback

After working so hard to create a business, reading negative feedback can be tough. However, you shouldn’t ignore it either way. While there are sure to be trolls with nothing constructive to say, most bad reviews will highlight specific issues with your brand or products. With this information, you can make changes and improvements to keep your customers happy.

Being a business owner is never easy, but building a brand that people can trust is definitely a tough job. You’ll need to invest a lot of time and money into this venture and tackle any number of challenges along the way. Things go wrong every day in business, of course, but, wherever possible, you should try to protect your brand. Hopefully, with the information above, you will be able to do just that. Even one small mistake can put customers off your business, so make sure that you avoid making any of the major errors listed above.

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