Despite all the knowledge, tools, and design talent available today, branding missteps are still surprisingly common. You’d think with everything we now know about customer experience, brand loyalty, and visual storytelling, we’d see fewer brand failures. And yet… they happen. Often.

So, what’s going wrong? Why are some businesses still getting it wrong in the branding department? Let’s unpack a few of the most common culprits and how you can avoid steering your own brand off course.

1. Internal Disconnect Between Leadership and Marketing

One of the most overlooked reasons branding efforts fall flat? A disconnect between leadership and the marketing team. It happens more often than you’d think.

Sometimes, individuals are promoted into leadership roles because they were outstanding in their previous positions—say, operations, sales, or finance. As a reward, they’re given more responsibility, including influence over brand and marketing decisions. But here’s the catch: being brilliant at logistics or numbers doesn’t automatically mean you understand brand strategy or audience perception.

This can lead to tension, confusion, and brand decisions being made by people who think they understand branding—but don’t. We’ve seen it firsthand. At Creative Instinct, we often take on the role of the “brand police,” helping our clients maintain consistency and strategic integrity. But every now and then, we hear those dreaded words: “It has come from above, just do it.”

When brand decisions are made based on hierarchy instead of expertise, strategy can get thrown out the window. The result? A patchy brand presence, internal misalignment, and a frustrated marketing team stuck executing directionless requests.

What to do instead:
Brand success requires alignment. Leadership needs to trust and empower their brand and marketing teams (or external experts) to do what they do best. If there’s a knowledge gap, bridge it through collaboration, education, and clear communication of brand strategy across the business. A united front makes for a far more powerful brand—and way fewer facepalms.

2. They Think a Logo Is the Brand

Let’s clear this up once and for all: a logo is part of your brand—it’s not the whole thing.

Your brand is how people feel about your business. It’s your tone of voice, your customer experience, your values, your story, your design, your content, and yes, your logo too. But slapping a pretty mark on something and calling it a brand just doesn’t cut it.

What to do instead:
Invest time in defining your brand strategy—your purpose, personality, positioning, and voice—before you touch the visuals.

3. Inconsistency Across Touchpoints

A brand that looks sleek on Instagram but falls flat on its website or sounds completely different in an email is going to confuse people—and confused customers don’t convert.

Inconsistent branding can happen when businesses grow too quickly, use too many contractors without a central brand guide, or simply lose track of their identity.

What to do instead:
Create and stick to clear brand guidelines. This includes tone of voice, colour palettes, typography, logo usage, photography style, and even how your brand speaks.

4. They Don’t Know Their Audience

You can’t build a brand that connects if you don’t know who you’re trying to connect with. Some businesses dive into branding without taking the time to understand their audience’s needs, values, and behaviours.

The result? A brand that looks good on the outside but feels off or irrelevant to the people it’s trying to attract.

What to do instead:
Do the research. Build customer personas. Run discovery workshops. Your brand should feel like it was made for your audience—because it was.