8 Biggest Branding Mistakes Businesses Make

Is your business not as successful as it could be? Not as profitable as you'd like?

Perhaps your company is committing one of the 8 Cardinal Sins of Branding.

#1 Branding Mistake Businesses Make:

Marketing Messages are Way Too L-O-N-G

Did you know the top ten marketing slogans (as selected by Advertising Age magazine) of the last fifty years are ALL under 7 words long?

Why? The mind can only keep 7 bits of information in short term memory.

If your marketing slogan is longer than that, chances are people can't remember it. And if people can't remember your name and slogan, why will they hire you, how will they find you, recommend you?

Follow the example of winners Nike ("Just do it"), Avis ("We try harder") and Wheaties "(Breakfast of Champions") and keep it brief so people don't give you grief.

Comedian Jonathan Winters said, "I have a photographic memory. I just haven't developed it yet."

Most people don't have a photographic memory. If you want your branding message to stick, develop a marketing message that's easy to remember . . . which means keeping it under seven words.

Check back in two days for #2 Branding Mistake Businesses Make