More than a marketing trend, branding is now a critical factor for the sustainable growth of companies. A recent study by Conversion reveals that by 2025, between 80% and 90% of traffic that converts for medium and large companies comes from brand-related searches. The data reinforces the strategic role of brand building as a revenue generator, highlighting that how the brand is perceived and, more importantly, how it is felt and processed in the consumer’s brain directly influences business results.
Nevertheless, many companies, especially those in expansion or repositioning phases, make mistakes that weaken their identity and reduce their impact on the market. Branding is not just aesthetics or digital presence: it is consistency, authenticity, and alignment with the company’s values and audience’s expectations. This is where neurobranding comes in, allowing brands to build deep emotional and cognitive connections that go beyond rationality.
Check out five branding mistakes that deserve attention and learn how to avoid them:
1 – Choosing an Inappropriate Archetype
Archetypes help shape the brand’s personality and way of communicating. When this choice does not align with the business’s essence, the brand conveys a misunderstood image, causing confusion and driving away the audience. Therefore, it is essential to choose an archetype that aligns with the company’s values, purpose, and mission, genuinely reflecting who the brand really is. To ensure this harmony, market research, combined with neurobusiness techniques such as implicit association tests and analysis of emotional reactions, can reveal if the chosen archetype truly resonates in the subconscious of your audience, avoiding dissonance that impairs brand perception.
2 – Lack of consistency in communication
Visual identity, tone of voice, and disjointed messages across different channels harm the brand’s perception. This inconsistency conveys an image of disorganization and lack of professionalism, compromising consumer trust. To avoid this, it is essential to ensure that all touchpoints, from the website to social media, through advertising campaigns and customer service, convey a consistent message aligned with the brand’s identity. From a neurobranding perspective, inconsistency creates unnecessary cognitive load and can activate areas of the brain associated with distrust, making it difficult to form positive memories and build a lasting emotional bond.
3 – Ignoring the audience’s opinion
A brand that does not listen to its audience misses valuable opportunities for connection and evolution. Ignoring feedback and making decisions without considering consumer expectations can lead to a loss of relevance and engagement. Maintaining active listening channels, conducting periodic surveys, and analyzing data are essential practices to adjust communication and positioning according to the audience’s interests. However, traditional research often captures only what the consumer says they think. Neuroscience, with tools like eye-tracking and facial coding, allows going beyond, revealing the audience’s unconscious emotional and cognitive reactions, offering deeper and more authentic insights into their true preferences and perceptions.
4 – Being too generic
Brands that do not show personality tend to get lost among the competition. The lack of differentiation makes the brand forgettable and unattractive. It is necessary to invest in elements that make the brand unique, whether it’s an authentic language, a striking visual identity, or well-defined values, and find ways to stand out with originality and clarity. Neurobranding is essential here, as it helps identify the unique emotional and cognitive triggers that your brand can activate in the consumer’s brain, ensuring that it not only stands out but is memorable and creates an emotional connection that sets it apart from the competition.
5 – Not investing in a specialized company
Branding requires strategy, research, and technical knowledge. Trying to manage it internally without the necessary expertise can result in misguided choices and a fragile, misaligned image. Relying on the support of professionals or specialized companies can make all the difference in building a solid, cohesive brand prepared to grow sustainably. The most advanced companies in the field of branding today are those that integrate robust market research methodologies with the principles of neurobusiness, ensuring that each brand decision is based not only on declared data but also on the consumer’s brain and emotional reactions.
