Feb
8
Multiple Brand Personality Disorder
One of the key points I find myself repeating often as I speak with various Small Business Owners is the importance of Consistency.
It takes a lot of time, thought, effort and money to create a visual identity for your company, so it often comes together piecemeal at various stages of the company’s lifecycle. First you might get some business cards, then a Web site, maybe a brochure, eventually some storefront signage, and so on.
Usually, all of your Brand Signals (the visual and experiential representations of your brand) get created by different designers, produced by different vendors, and purchased at different times.
Before you realize it, you’ve stitched together a big, green FrankenBrand that displays more personalities than Sybil.
Let’s look at a couple examples of inconsistent signage that indicate the companies could be suffering from Multiple Brand Personality Disorder.
This is Couch Critics, a local movie and game rental business. Couch Critics moved into this location from across town recently.
The red and gold sign on the roof is a holdover from their old location and the orange and yellow vinyl window lettering is their new logotype.
By having both on display, Couch Critics appears noncommittal, like they want to start dating someone new, but haven’t quite broken up with their current partner.
Now, is this violation of The Rule of Consistency going to cause people to go elsewhere for their movie and game rental needs? Probably not.
However, people do notice. For marketing geeks like me, it’s glaringly obvious, but for the everyday audience, it’s a bit more subconscious.
This is a successful store called Soul Connections, a New Age retail emporium. From the exterior signage you would think that these are two different stores. Upon closer inspection you realize they simply have two different signs.
This is their original sign over their former entrance, which is no longer in use, from back when the store just occupied one space.
This more elaborate sign is over their new entrance, which was put up after the store expanded into the space next door.
So, is their original sign even necessary anymore? It’s not their official logo and it’s over a doorway that is no longer functional. As far as I can tell, all it’s doing is creating confusion.
Business is booming for Soul Connections, and they are doing a lot of things right, so my critique may seem like I’m splitting hairs. But, in the world of small business marketing, there’s always room for improvement.
To be fair, let me state for the record that I do understand that new signage is expensive, and that the current roof signs at both of these establishments are necessary for optimal street-traffic visibility.
But, the resulting effect of Multiple Personality Branding is that these morphing company logos never really gel, therefore, they do not end up standing for anything meaningful in the minds of the audience.
Picture this scenario: You’re on vacation, driving through a strange town. It’s 9am and you’re craving a triple latté.
Now, you could take a chance on the little coffee shack that has a sign promising, “Expresso,” but you figure, if they don’t know how to spell it, they sure don’t know how to brew it.
Then you see it - That beautiful, round, green logo with the happy mermaid and the familiar blocky, white letters that spell out ‘Starbucks Coffee’.
BAM – You’re in there! Why? Because, the minute you saw their Brand Signal (the familiar logo), you trusted them to deliver on their Brand Promise (a delicious trip-latté).
Now, on the other hand, if the logo you spied was a purple rectangle with ‘Starbucks Coffee’ in a yellow script font, it would either not register mentally, or you would be slightly confused. In fact, you might even backtrack to the “Expresso” guys.
To be clear, we’re not talking about corporate vs. non-corporate in this scenario, and it doesn’t matter what you may personally think of Starbucks.
We’re talking about the difference between sending signals that merely SAY something (coffee), vs. sending signals that MEAN something (the Starbucks Coffee Experience).
In order to create a strong brand, Small Business Owners must do the following:
- Know what you want to stand for in the minds of your customers
(i.e. widest selection of spiritual merchandise, movie-obsessed staff who give great recommendations, great coffee in a comfortable environment) - Create a visual identity that expresses what your brand stands for
- Be consistent with every application of your visual identity
- Be consistent with the delivery of your chosen Brand Promise
The long-term objective is to be sending familiar, consistent Brand Signals that spark immediate and positive associations in the minds of those who encounter them.
If your company’s visual identity is a careless, morphing mish-mash of styles, colors and ideas, the only thing you’ll be sparking is mass confusion, or worse yet, general apathy.
In a hyper-competitive marketplace, either one of those could be the kiss of death for your small business.
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If you need help curing your company’s Multiple Brand Personality Disorder, contact BAM! Small Biz Consulting for your FREE Needs Assessment. Phone: Nikolas Allen (530) 859.5454 • Email: bamsbc@gmail.com
