Consumers can easily get confused with products, and when that happens, one thing is for sure—they will never buy such. Most businesses will think their brand and products are good to go, falling into the trap of possibly confusing their consumers, evident in their marketing efforts. But this is one preventable issue. The first step is to get into the shoes of your customers. Here are some of the reasons they get confused about your products:
Similarity Confusion
It’s easy for consumers to get confused when they can’t see any difference between the products, solutions, or even brands in the same category. You know how it feels going into a store and having various product options of different brands. It gets even more confusing when all of them look, cost, and feel the same.
Ambiguity Confusion
This happens when the product’s information lacks clarity, consistency, or is misleading. They might go into your store and see that the information they need is unavailable or too complex to help them decide. Consumers also tend to get confused when the current products no more resonate with what they once believed them to be. When the products’ information is confusing, customers will tend to put them last in their options.
Overload Confusion
As lack of information will not get your customers to buy your product, over-information will also be counterproductive. You might have several products in one category. Giving so many alternatives and information to your customers will make them feel overloaded and thus, end up buying nothing.
Any business can be caught unaware that they are confusing their customers. First, know that your business’ brand and product are different so that you can approach their key differences in the right way.
A product refers to the company’s output, can be simply copied, and must go through a life cycle, while a brand is how customers build the products up (e.g., quality of a business’ products). A brand is unique, cannot be copied, and is timeless.
How to Prevent Brand Confusion
Nowadays, consumers have so many options that it’s hard to make decisions on what to buy. So, the best you can do is to give your company a clear and consistent branding to position your products first from others. Here are ways to do that:
Clear Naming Methods
Make sure you give consistent labels to your products. For instance, take Apple’s product names, all of which start with a small “i,” such as iPhone, iPod, or iMac. When you mention products named like that, anyone can immediately say it’s from an Apple company. Learn from this tycoon brand—insist on your brand’s personality through conventional naming. Be consistent no matter what.
Unique Logo
Logos can greatly aid consumers to recall brands, especially if yours is unique and quirky. One example is a logo that people find hard to spell, which doesn’t really create confusion in them but intrigue. When you have an international brand, reach to various nationalities and languages with your image logos.
It can be tempting to copy logo ideas from other companies but don’t do that so as not to confuse your customer base simply with the logo. You can work with marketing and advertising agencies to help you create the best for your business.
Consistent Logo
As much as possible, use your logo consistently. It has to look the same whether on a website or print advertisement. You might encounter space constraints that might force you to blow up or compress your logo, but if possible, avoid these.
Consistent Color Scheme
Pepsi successfully associated its brand with the color blue. If you visit their website, it will be shocking and irrelevant to see any other striking colors apart from blue. How Pepsi branded itself makes its customers know what to expect. What you can learn about this is consistency, just as for the many aspects of your business. Be sure to display your brand consistently, from the logo, website, and product descriptions to the color schemes.
Jargon-free
Mind your business’ language—product description, website content, etc. Inside language or jargon will only scare your customers or prospects away. You breathe in the language of your business every day but not your customers. You might not even be aware of it, but you might be too full of jargon, so recheck it with fresh lenses before you get your words out. Remove any phrases or acronyms that might sound gibberish to your customers.
Consistency Is the Key
From the logo and color scheme to the language and service, ensure that everything about your business is consistent. Attract loyalty from the old customers and sales from potential ones by grooming your brand.