RANT ALRERT: There times in your business to be righteously upset. Right now is one of those moments for me. I absolutely cannot STAND people who call themselves “branding experts” or talk about brand in ANY professional way who don’t have good branding themselves!!!
And I literally see it in my news feeds every single day.
FOR THE RECORD:
- Knowing how to use Adobe: Not branding
- Looking crazy over the top in your photos: Not branding
- Loads of experience in other industries: Not branding
- Plastering cheesy photos of yourself all over your website: Not branding
I just checked out one of these so called “experts” sites, and while it was not the worst I’ve seen, it certainly was a far cry from what I would consider acceptable on a professional level. From the design to the photography. Just not great. Yes, her content was good, really good even, and she clearly has a lot of happy customers.
To me, however, somewhere in there is a serious disconnect from understanding branding on a “self” level and being able to talk about who you are, to understanding how to communicate that on an acceptable visual level.
That disconnect makes any self proclaimed “guru” or “expert” completely untrustworthy in my book. No amount of experience can make up for it. In fact, the more “experience” someone has with a severely sub-par brand, the less I trust them.
They should know better, right?
Simply understanding how to encourage people to embrace who they are and let others see it is important, yes. BUT its only half the job! Which means its not actually branding.
Branding IS THE WHOLE PACKAGE. Always.
Branding is EVERY TOUCH POINT of your business. Always.
I started The Brand Gals because I got tired of seeing my awesome well branded photos ending up on crummy sites. I wanted better for my clients (and I wanted better for my photos hehe!). It didn’t take long for me to realize I needed to, and wanted to guide the entire process from start to finish.
Of course, at the end of the day, neither you nor I can change other people, so getting “upset” past a certain point (like the end of this post!) is well, pointless.
So, we continue to build the most beautiful and intelligent brands we can muster for our clients, and love to watch them soar! END RANT.
