How do I know if my brand is the problem?
Your brand is the problem when the business is good and the outside doesn’t show it. You will rarely see it in a spreadsheet. You will see it in small things you do without noticing.
What are the signs?
1. You apologize for your website before you send the link. “It’s a little out of date” is a brand problem announcing itself.
2. You explain what you do differently every time. If the answer changes depending on who asks, nobody else can repeat it for you, and referrals depend on repeating.
3. The work is better than it looks. Clients are delighted once they hire you. Getting them to that point takes more convincing than it should.
4. You look like a different company in every place you show up. One logo on the card, another on the invoice, a third on LinkedIn.
5. Your logo was built for the business you started. You have grown, changed services, or raised your prices. The logo is still dressed for the first day.
6. You lose work to competitors who are not better, only prettier. This one stings, and it is the most fixable.
7. Your website doesn’t sound like you. People who meet you in person are surprised, in a good way. That surprise is the gap.
Three or more of these, and it is worth a conversation.
What is not a brand problem?
I would rather be honest about this than sell you something. A brand will not fix a service people don’t want, a price that doesn’t work, or a business nobody has heard of because nobody has been told. Those are offer, pricing, and marketing problems. A good brand makes marketing work harder. It does not replace it.
Why can’t I see it myself?
Because you are standing too close to the mirror. You know what you meant, so you read your own website and see what you meant. A stranger sees only what is there.
I have been doing this since Illustrator 1.0, and the diagnosis has never once been “no personality found.” The personality is always there. The person who has it is just too close to see it.
What should I do about it?
Start small. The Brand Smart Check is ten questions and about three minutes. It gives you a straight read and the three things I would look at first.
If it sounds like you, the next step is a free twenty-minute hello, and then brand therapy: ninety minutes of questions, and a written diagnosis that tells you what to fix first and what can wait.
Sound like you?
Everything starts with a free twenty-minute hello, where we both decide whether this is a fit. Or take the Brand Smart Check first: ten questions, about three minutes, and a straight answer.