Last week, I asked Does Your Brand Matter? where I talked about the tombstone test and asked you to analyze your brand and determine whether anyone would care if your brand disappeared tomorrow. Today, I have another extension of that test with this question:
If you replaced your logo on your advertising, marketing materials, website, etc. with your competitor’s logo, would the message still apply for that other company?
This test is meant to show you whether your messages (particularly your brand messages) are too generic. If another company’s logo could sit on your ad and the message would still work perfectly, then your brand message is not unique enough.
An important part of branding is differentiating your business or product from the myriad of others available on the marketplace and to make your brand stand out from the crowd. If your message would work just as well with another company’s name and logo attached to it, then you need to go back to the drawing board.
Talk to your best customers and find out what it is about your brand that makes them choose it over all others. That’s the message you want to communicate, and that’s the message that will differentiate your brand.
Lucy is Editor at Corporate Eye
