1) Choosing color for your brand based on preferences.
Nope, not a good idea to choose the color green for your destination logo mark because most of the stakeholders like the color green. Or because you noticed some great hoteliers are using turquoise and brown together... The color of your brand should be strategically selected to evoke great intentions and emotions for your brand. As Walt Disney so aptly put it, we live in a "wonderful world of color." Colors have such a strong association that even a black-and-white rendering of a brand's logo instantaneously calls specific hues to mind. Colors also have psychological and physiological effects on our bodies. Reds make people jumpy. Green calms us down. A pink room effectively lessens anger. Reactions to color are so strong that studies show coffee sipped in a blue mug will actually seem cooler than the same liquid served in an orange mug. Innovative uses of color can open the door to market expansion, so simply relying on colors that have been successful in the past are long gone. Take advantage of color and make selections based on objective goals, not subjective preferences.
2) Using your agency of record or in-house design team to re-design your brand.
This is a most common and convenient mistake. Choosing the right brand partner can be tricky and many organizations do not take the time to choose. Instead they go with existing resources out of convenience or fear. Current resources may be good at the creative, but not at selling the concept to your constituents. Others may be great at the sell, but fall short of creative offerings. There are plenty of great minds throughout North America; don't let distance be a deterrent to a great brand. Hire branding experts that understand both strategy and the value behind place branding, as well as those who include a strong creative foundation to develop the best visual assets.
3) Negating the brand assessment will save time in the re-branding process.
Actually, by skipping this initial phase it will end up costing you more time and money. Here's why: The brand assessment is a measurement tool that helps organizations and their marketing advisers assess the strength and value of your brand. It uncovers underlying business or marketing issues that may be undermining the success of your brand. It identifies perceptual gaps among important audiences on key dimensions of your brand. It recommends specific areas in which business and marketing communication practices need to be improved in order for your brand to reach its potential. The overall benefits identify major branding and marketing objectives and create an action plan to achieve them, which ends up shortening the up-front cycle to initiate appropriate tactics, while validating the value of the branding initiatives. Request a free FAQ for strategic branding assessment.
If you are considering a re-brand in your near future, email me to schedule a brief chat.
