We have discovered the formula for splintering your brand. First look to your closest resources that you can get on the cheap. Don’t be concerned with accomplishment or competence; just see if the job can get done. Then choose the relative or friend that can build the website. Find the online resources that have the cheapest price on print and promotional materials. And finally, avoid strategies that take up your time to develop. Let the people you hire develop your image for you.

Splintering your brand is allowing other companies and individuals to develop different parts of your brand and your image separate from one another. Without a central advisor or marketing resource in place to develop and manage your brand, you can and will give your customers a splintered view of who you really are. Your most loyal customers will stay with you but new growth may be harder to create when the business card, brochure, website, and email newsletter all have a different look and a different message.

Here is a real-life example…

A Brochure
Company 123 decides they will hire an outside firm to design and create a new brochure. The outside firm charges a hefty sum for the effort but the final product is beautiful. The design is sleek, the copy is well written, and the imagery is compelling. There is only one problem. When speaking to Company 123 about their unique internal structure and the special way they pursue and satisfy customer needs, what the brochure speaks has no connection with the real value they bring to their marketplace. The customers of Company 123 see the brochure as an impressive piece but it speaks the same messages that their competitors speak.

Hiring an outside firm to build one marketing tool was probably the right step. And yet the end result is that the brand that potential customers need to hear. The outside firm was neither directed to a larger branding and selling strategy nor did they do their homework through consulting to discover the real differences and value propositions that made Company 123 a compelling supplier. Next on Company 123’s agenda will be to improve their marketing efforts by hiring a website design firm. Company 123 now has two separate outside resources working for them and neither is working from a complete marketing strategy nor from the same page. That is splintering your brand.