Are you sending mixed messages to customers and causing brand confusion? The whole point of having a brand is to help your business connect and resonate clients. According to ScribbleLive Search (formally known as LinkDex), a brand gives you an identity and positions your business in the mind of consumers.

“A brand has a personality. It appeals to the target audience, inspires confidence, and aids recall.”  Source: ScribbleLive Search

Confusion is your enemy in a super-crowded marketplace. In order to achieve brand success, it should be:

• Distinctive
• Clear in the message it is trying to convey
• Consistent with its message delivery

Here are five savvy ways to prevent brand confusion and help you stand out from the crowd:

1. Use Clear Product Naming Methods

When you think of Apple products, the first thing that probably comes to mind is the small “i” in iMac, iPod, or iPhone, right? You’ve come to expect this naming convention from Apple because the brand has been consistent with it. Similarly, Google names each of its Android software updates after sweets such as Jelly Bean, KitKat, Lollipop, Marshmallow. There’s no guessing involved. You automatically know that the next update will be named in a similar fashion.

Whatever method you use to name your products, it’s crucial that you stick to it to avoid brand confusion. This will position you in the marketplace and help consumers remember you and your products.

2. Make Sure Your Logo is Unique

Distinctive logos aid in brand recall. In one study, the Nordic brand, Libresse, improved its brand recall by 300% with logo placement. A simple design can make your brand stand out in the consumer’s mind. While it might be tempting to borrow or copy logo ideas from successful companies, don’t do it! Aside from screaming “We’re unoriginal!”, you risk confusing prospective customers and losing them to the competitors you were trying to emulate.

3. Use Logo Consistently in All Marketing

Avoid any variations of your logo and stick to one smart version that you use consistently. From marketing material to Web/print ads, your logo has to look the same across all channels so customers will recognize your brand. Avoid compressing or blowing up the logo whenever possible so your logo is always representative of brand standards.

4. Create A Recognizable Color Scheme

When you think of cola, no doubt red comes to mind for Coca-Cola and blue when you think of Pepsi. For decades, Pepsi has successfully “trained” us to associate their brand with the color blue, even though it doesn’t really have anything to do with the product they sell. In fact, they’ve created a sense of familiarity with their color scheme that is immediately recognizable and reassuring.

Can you say the same for your logo? Is your brand consistent with the image you present to the world? To achieve this, you need to make sure that your website, marketing material, product descriptions, and all other content you create for your audience has a recognizable color scheme that ties together the colors in the logo with the brand name so that your business looks professional, offers a consistent user experience and makes a lasting impression on consumers. Doing so will help prevent brand confusion.

5. Be Consistent With Customer Service Protocols

It’s important to remember that in addition to your product names, logo and color scheme, customer service is also a part the brand experience. When customers interact with your employees, there should be consistent job titles for the people they talk to. For example, do you have account managers or account executives? What exactly do they do?

Regardless of the job titles you use, it should be absolutely clear to the customers so there is no brand confusion. They should know exactly what the account manager does, as well as the role each person on your staff performs. Consistency in the use of employee job titles may seem like a small thing, but interaction with your company directly affects how it is perceived as a brand!

Avoiding Brand Confusion

If your company is often mistaken for a competitor or you struggle with getting people to understand who you are and what you do, you might have a problem with brand confusion, which can negatively affect any efforts to grow your customer base and increase sales.

Use the five tips above to make sure you stand out in a crowd with the kind of brand recognition that echoes across the vast retail landscape to reach your audience with clear, consistent marketing content that increases loyalty and delivers conversions.

Grow your brand with marketing tools by Rain Retail Software.