Business Online

Building brands takes courage. The freshness that is somehow inherent in marketing carried out by say Volkswagen or Apple or Nike is something to aim for in your business’ branding. Unfortunately, a lot of companies, not only in Pakistan but around the world, are not that brave at all!

Take the profession of copywriting for example. Clients and copywriters alike cringe at the thought of taking the path less travelled. ‘Make sure our logo is the biggest thing in the ad,’ the client would say. ‘Our competitors have this-or-that on their website, so should we, period,’ demands the client. ‘You are selling motorbikes, so putting a girl on top of it will make these babies sell like hot freakin cakes,’ so says the creative director!

Please.

“I’m convinced that fear is at the root of most bad writing,” Stephen King says in his book On Writing. And no, Mr. King is not talking about the fear his own writing induces; he’s talking about timidity, the insecurity that makes us doubt ourselves and abandon our very substance to feed some hollow myth about audience expectations or to paper over some perceived failing. (mainly quoted from this site). Same, if not more can be said about almost every other facet of marketing.

Playing it safe is a good practice when it comes to running your business finances perhaps, but playing it too safe when it comes to marketing can and usually is the reason your business does not stand out from the pack.

As websites are a part of your business’ marketing efforts, it only makes sense that you talk to your audience rather than hide behind established cliche’s such as ‘our product/service is of the highest quality’ or ‘we have years of experience’. Fear of not being able to appeal to everyone will make you lose the ones that you perhaps were appealing to at one point!

Shirking these tasks and retreating to the murky middle ground is the quintessence of what we call “fear-based branding.” And though you may feel you’re just playing it safe, fear-based branding is actually toxic to the development of your brand. As the old saying goes, standing in the middle of the road only means you’ll be hit by traffic in both directions. (from Editorial Emergency)

Standing out is essential. Differentiate or die, it is that simple.