These are the times that try brands' souls

(Our apologies to Thomas Paine. We aren't actually making to literal comparison between the plight of marketers  and that of revolutionary fighters.)

The truth is that branding, graphic design, identity development, creating a brand personality that speaks to your customers... none of this is easy, even in a good market. Sticking to your branding and marketing goals during an economic crunch is even harder. Your brand must be more focused than ever on the emotions and needs of your audience so that your prospects will choose to spend their limited resources on you.

Knowing who you are, who your audience is and developing your brand story takes effort.
Being different is not easy. Creating concepts that don't mirror (or directly copy, for that matter) your competition takes thought. Every article you read on branding will say something about how "Your brand is your promise..." or "Your brand is your unique offering..." or "Your brand should represent your company's core values..." and, of course, "Your brand should be memorable and distinct." All of this is true, and it is also good advice.

It is one thing to hear this advice and another thing entirely to put it to practical use in the real world. Our markets tend to focus on the short term, looking at quarterly earnings and monthly sales figures. But real building a brand takes time. The temptation to take what appears to be a successful formula from someone else - say a competitor - and try to replicate it may be strong. But it is, in the long term, a losing strategy.

No matter how hard you may try, you are not the company you are trying to “emulate.” You are your own brand with your own message, and trying to incorporate another company's design into your brand will most likely make your materials look thrown together and unprofessional. Doing the same thing as everyone else will do nothing to make your brand memorable and nothing to appeal specifically to your customers. If your message and presentation is not unique then your prospects have no motivation to choose you over anyone else.

This is why it is so critical to take a deep breath and do some real brand soul searching. Look for real ways to distinguish yourself and create the right impression on the market, be it developing a new logo or tagline, updating your imagery and colors or investing in a well-focused ad campaign. There are always new ways to distinguish your brand.

Comfortable is not safe.
Yes, we know the cocoon feels warm, comforting and safe, but to survive you must break out of it. You must step out of your comfort zone and take action. Interview your customers so you can understand how you are perceived and how you might be able to change to better meed their needs. Review your branded materials. Did you pick your colors and graphics out of a strategic understanding of their emotional impact on consumers or just because you kind of liked them?

Set realistic goals, have realistic expectations.
Good design takes work and collaboration. Any good graphic design company should tell you that. Establishing realistic expectations with your designer from the start will save a lot of headaches. A lot of strategic thought, sketching, more sketching and brainstorming go into the creation of logos, ads and marketing materials. All of these things are necessary steps in creating effective graphics that speak to customers. Knowing that, within reason, good design takes time will ease tension between you and your design team.

Creating custom graphics that tell your brand story, create a point of difference and position you as unique in your industry takes time. Paring down your copy, making your website and other materials clean, being direct and succinct and purposeful is a challenge. Throwing everything you have at your audience without taking the time to really pare down and hone your message is easy. Unfortunately, easy is not effective.