Brands, Stop Focusing On What Matters To You

We see this all the time... Companies big and small have some common "opportunities". One of the most common mistakes companies make in their marketing is being self-centered in their marketing approach. Meaning, the internal opinions, beliefs etc. are the foundation for their marketing and branding with no real quantifiable research. Tell us... How well do you know your audience?

More often than not, individuals tend to choose imagery, color schemes, messaging, campaigns, and overall content strategies based on what appeals to them personally and not their audience. Shane Snow (Founder at Contently) said in a recent Fast Company article:

"The companies that win friends and influence fans are the ones that give us content we want and unique experiences focused on us. For free. And those that do it well make a killing in business... Great content transforms advertisers from interruption to destination."

A lot of executives and marketing leaders alike will talk about the customer, however, their actions are all about the brand. This "brand-first" mentality permeates throughout the organization - regardless of size. Listen, if you like the color red and you want that all over your website... you have to understand the impact it will have on your audience. Maybe it works... maybe it doesn't. The point is, how do you know?

What we're saying here is, the entire experience someone gets from seeing or engaging with your brand should reinforce Digital Radar's branding best practice of the RARE Branding method.

Here's a high-level example of what our RARE Brand methodology is:

• Relevant - Your brand should speak to your audience in a way that it immediately tells them you are who and what they're looking for. In other words, it should scream, we're the solution to (fill in the blank). Relevancy ties into everything from your email campaigns, social, web copy and information architecture, and so much more. Again, think conversion not interruption.
• Alignment - Your brand, its messaging, creative etc. should have continuity across all your properties and collateral. Users shouldn't expect a different experience going from social to web. More than continuity, your brand needs to be aligned in the sense of it's core values and the relationship those values have on your audiences.
• Reinforcement - Those values, story pillars, noble causes etc. (whatever you prefer to call them) all should come back to the core of your audiences pain points and how your organization fills those needs or gaps. Everything your audience sees, reads, engages with should emphatically reinforce your brand promise and position.
• Emotion - At the root of everything, emotion is key. Your brand, messaging etc. should be appealing to the human elements of eliciting an emotion. This emotion aspect is true for any industry, any business and of course, of size.

Conduct a free brand audit on to see where your gaps are using our free RARE Brand worksheet: