Common Visual Branding Mistakes in Your Advertising Campaign

Remember that the visual branding aspect of your advertising campaign plays a major role in how an audience perceives your brand as a whole, as well as how memorable you make yourself. So before you plan out a month or more of visual content, make sure you are happy with your brand in itself and that you understand its audience, voice and goals. If you are using a brand agency to help with you with any marketing needs, make sure they are also understanding of what you are trying to convey. It is easy to lose track of your marketing intentions, so we made note of these common mistakes to avoid with branding visuals.

Inconsistency

Once you decide on a logo, color scheme and vibe for your brand, try your best to keep it consistent throughout all platforms and advertisements. Finalizing a logo can help with the rest of the visual branding, allowing you to form a full color scheme and any additional graphics. However, sometimes visuals are not only inconstant because of branding misunderstandings, but because of carelessness when it comes to finding exact colors and fonts. If you are continually inconsistent, audiences may see you as unreliable or unprofessional. You then allow a lapse in your brand strategy where trust is lost and consumers turn towards your competitors.

Also, images used on social media are just as important and should reflect those used on the website and other collateral. For example, keeping your Instagram uniform is not only visually appealing, but keeps your brand message true.

Inaccurate Targeting

Selecting your targeted audience is where many companies can get caught up and make mistakes. People fear that by narrowing their target audience, they risk losing a chunk of sales. The problem is, very few businesses are actually meant for all demographics, and you are hurting yourself in the end.

What audience did you have in mind when you started your business and began branding? You need to tie in the visual branding of your advertising campaign to appeal to those people, not who your competitor decided to target. Of course, there is always room for slight adjustment, but try to come up with some sort of target audience guidelines. 

Trend Obsessing

Although it is important to stay relevant, you should not completely ditch who you are as a company and what you have already built as a brand, to be the trendiest in your industry. Trends are constantly coming and going, leaving you with last month’s look and a profit decline. If what you have is working, don’t stray too far from that success. Also, if you change your branding too frequently, you risk the inconsistency discussed above.

If everyone’s advertising campaign decided to make the same trendy leaps, you then risk a copycat scenario. Everyone’s visual branding will be harder to decipher if they use the same ideas, which is why a brand agency would suggest using trends as inspiration, but not something to fully mimic all the time.

Do you want to revamp your branding? Kraus Marketing specializes in corporate branding. We conduct in-depth interviews to understand your company. Afterwards, our team of creative designers and copywriters work to create a brand that represents the direction you want your company to go in. Contact our team for more information.