If you are a human in the world, you have a brand.
Simply put, a brand is what people associate with you. It’s their assessment after they first meet you and every interaction since. Are you a business casual or athleisure type of person? Are you extroverted or shy? Whatever they think, their opinion can get locked in and it’s difficult to shake. For good or bad.
With a company, your brand can be your logo and certain colors or the feeling a person gets after reading your blog articles or watching a YouTube video. Do they feel as though they know you? Do they like you? Do they trust you?
In business, trust is the number one factor at play when a person is deciding to spend money. No one is going to part with their hard-earned dollars if they feel as though they are going to get hoodwinked or swindled. Can you deliver on your promise?
Don’t FaceTune Your Authenticity
If you think it’s okay to FaceTune your brand like you FaceTune your photos, you’re going to be in trouble. FaceTune is an app that allows its users to alter their physical appearance. So much so, that if you saw a photo of someone and then met them in person, you would be shocked at the differences. It would be like seeing a completely different person. It might look polished on social media but when looks are deceiving, you immediately become distrustful.
Authenticity is the #1 reason why people don’t trust your company brand.
Brand Authenticity Checklist
Here’s a quick checklist to see if you’re at risk of losing the trust of your clients and customers
- Is the photo of your office accurate? Or is it only just one wall in your bedroom made to “look nice?”
- Do you give proper credit to sources on your articles, social media posts, or images or do you claim the credit?
- Do you have a portfolio with real clients that people can fact-check?
- Have you sent a recent email claiming to be an “inclusive company” after recent racial justice efforts but are still using general language and not willing to take a stand?
It’s not too late to make changes in how you come across in the inboxes and feeds of your clients and customers. You only need to ask yourself, are we being truthful? Is this a real representation of us? If someone met us in person, would they feel like what they see is what they get?
If the answer is no, then you need to start making some immediate changes and update your policies going forward. Once you lose someone’s trust, it is very difficult to get it back.
Get Help With Your Brand
If you are curious about how your brand appears to someone completely neutral, reach out to us at SNR Creative. We are happy to perform a brand audit with our initial assessment. If what you are putting out into the world about your company isn’t what you want people to think, we are happy to partner with you with our branding services.
We actually encourage you to check us out on our various social media channels. Facebook. LinkedIn. YouTube. Instagram. What you see is what you get.
That is how it should be for all of us.
