18/12/2018 The Dos And Don'ts Of Building A Brand Identity (Part 2)

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The Dos And Don'ts Of Building A

Brand Identity (Part 2)
Katie Jansen CommunityVoice
Forbes Agency Council CommunityVoice

POST WRITTEN BY

Katie Jansen
CMO of AppLovin, a leading mobile marketing platform that helps brands reach over 2 billion consumers
with relevant content.

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In the "Dos And Don’ts of Building A Brand Identity (Part 1)", we looked at
examples of how companies managed to build, maintain and modernize their
brand identities from various industries. In this installment, we’ll be taking a look
at some brand identity mishaps and what you can do to avoid them.

Your brand is the core of your outward-facing identity, in my experience, so it’s

important to understand the implications and circumstances in which it will be
used. Your brand is meant to highlight your company and be consistent with the
way you think and speak about your company. The last thing you want is for your
brand to distract your business.

In the world of mobile apps, for example, a common mistake I see is to focus too
much on the branding of a specific product, rather than on the corporate brand.
This can lead to brand confusion, especially when it comes time to cross-promote
a suite of apps.

It is important for marketers and brands to learn from the mistakes already made
when planning for success, and here are three lessons to note.

Don’t: Jump on trends without thinking of the bigger picture.

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One of the biggest brand identity failures in recent history came from Pepsi when
it uploaded an ad, which was quickly pulled and never made it to TV, showing
Kendall Jenner solving social issues with soda. Yikes.

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Pepsi saw growing political unrest, including protests led by the Black Lives
Matter activist movement, as a trend, and they jumped without thinking of the
bigger picture. The tone-deaf commercial went viral and spawned an unrelenting
torrent of criticism across social media.

While jumping on trends can be good for your brand identity, it’s important to
only incorporate trends that are relevant to your company and product. If you’re
a soda company, you should probably avoid getting political.

While it may be easy to jump on hot trends, not every trend will be beneficial to
your brand and some may even cause damage. Before leveraging trends, think
ahead to how your messaging can be misconstrued or considered disingenuous.
Including trends in your marketing will always be risky, so make sure it’s worth
the reward.

Don’t: Wait too long to rebrand.

MySpace and Yahoo, two internet giants of the 2000s, waited years to rebrand
and, as a result, continue struggling to this day. Yahoo rolled out its exclamation-
mark-less logo in 2013 but failed to show how the company was adapting to
bigger trends. Instead, the company kept its services the same and was eventually
bought by Verizon in 2017 for $4.48 billion.

Similarly, MySpace revealed its new logo in 2010 but failed to distinguish how the
company would change. Facebook became the social network to beat and
MySpace languishes as a strange amalgam of an entertainment and music
discovery site.

The failures of Yahoo and MySpace show that brand identities are more than just
a logo. Your brand has to mean something and must differentiate you from
competitors.

Some of the biggest reasons to rebrand are when you’re trying to appeal to a new
demographic, you want to shake an old image, you need to adapt to market
trends or you simply want to grow further than the company’s original mission.
Thoroughly consider your reasons for rebranding and strategize accordingly so
that your efforts are effective -- but don't wait until it's too late.

Don’t: Ignore trends.

Campbell Soup Company may still be popular among Generation X and baby
boomers, but millennials are shunning the 148-year-old company. In the
Morning Consult’s Most Loved Brands survey, boomers and Gen Xers ranked the

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soup company at No. 2 and No. 5 respectively, while millennials ranked it at No.
27, next to Hershey’s and Dunkin’ Donuts.

Where McDonald’s identified and adapted to trends, Campbell’s has struggled for
relevance. The company repackaging its soups and tried selling them in
microwavable bags, but neither worked to rejuvenate the brand. Campbell’s
acquisition of Bolthouse Farms is a step in the right direction, but there’s nothing
associating Bolthouse’s healthy products to its parent company. To many
millennials, Campbell’s is an outdated brand with an outdated product.

Companies should constantly be analyzing the behavior and needs of its

customers. Customers will literally tell you what their needs are and will help you
identify trends that will assist in shaping your company’s brand strategy. You can
select random customers to participate in surveys or focus groups, and you can
also study reviews for your products or services. These methods also offer
opportunities to engage with your users and find out what they truly care about.

Building and maintaining a strong brand identity is half art form, half
experimentation. The brilliant thing about digital advertising is that you have
data available to constantly build, test and target. You must be diligent in
identifying and analyzing trends, have strong values and be data-driven. Values
are important, but it’s equally important that these values are questioned and
tweaked constantly to keep your brand identity relevant and strong.

Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in

successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do
I qualify?

Katie Jansen is CMO of AppLovin, a leading mobile marketing platform that

helps brands reach over 2 billion consumers with relevant content.

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