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Brand focus is key to the success of any business. But losing brand focus is easier than you think.

One minute your brand is laser-focused on solving your most valuable customer’s most important problems. And the next, your brand feels confusing, overextended, and diluted.

So, how can you tell if your brand is losing focus?

In this post, we look at what we mean by brand focus, unpack 4 telltale signs your brand is losing focus, and give you tips on how to get your brand back on the focus track.

CONTENTS

What is Brand Focus

Brand focus is the mark of a brand that is relevant, cohesive, and compelling in the eyes of its target audience.

Brands tend to lose focus for many reasons. Markets change and customer needs shift. If your brand isn’t changing along with these things, it risks losing focus.

Another common reason for a loss of brand focus is when a business over-compensates in the attempt to keep pace with increased competitions.

The temptation to diversify and adapt to changing markets can result in brands pursuing irrelevant or unsustainable brand extensions.

4 Signs Your Brand is Losing Focus

No brand is immune from a loss of focus. From small businesses to global enterprises, it happens to the best of us.

A loss of brand focus usually isn’t the result of reckless behavior, either. More often, it’s an unintentional lack of vigilance that gets brands in trouble.

In fact, most brands don’t even realize they’ve lost focus.

The following are 4 telling signs that you might be drifting from a clear, cohesive brand to a confused and diffuse brand experience.

1. You’re Diversifying Just to Generate Revenue


Diversification is seen by many as a key to success, but when done poorly, it has the power to dismantle your brand’s legacy and leave customers scrambling to understand what your brand stands for.

A classic example is Apple’s rapid product expansion not long after the death of founder Steve Jobs. Without the steadying keel of its iconic leader, many thought the brand was just throwing darts at what to do next.

If your brand is struggling, it can be tempting to diversify as a last-ditch effort to widen your sales funnel.

But if you can’t attract and keep customers with your signature offerings, trying to reach a greater audience by haphazardly expanding into adjacent markets comes with a significant amount of risk.

At the end of the day, your customers need to know why they should buy from you rather than from your competition. They require clear and consistent brand messaging that’s as easy to understand as it is to share with others.

Rather than diversifying (and running the risk of diluting your messaging to the point of irrelevance), it is often wiser to refocus your existing brand on the specific needs of your ideal clients.

2. You Lack a Clear Value Proposition


Disney is the happiest place on earth. BMW is the ultimate driving machine. Charmin is squeezably soft. Successful brands are those whose value propositions are imminently knowable.

You may be getting your brand and messaging in front of thousands of eyes every day, but if the brains behind those eyes don’t immediately understand why they should buy your product or service instead of your competitors’, then that exposure is essentially worthless.

A strong value proposition isn’t necessarily about having snappy taglines though.

It’s about clearly conveying the thing (or things) your brand does better than anyone else. And it starts internally. One thing’s for sure: if your employees can’t articulate your value proposition, chances are your customers can’t either.

3. You’re Copying the Competition


Although Uber and Lyft are nearly identical in their pricing and ride-sharing capabilities, the difference in brand value is no small indicator that Uber has developed a strategic advantage.

To stay afloat in the midst of heated competition, many brands attempt to mimic the success of their competitors by adopting similar business and branding strategies.

In the worst cases, short-sighted tactics like these can result in a pricing war that weakens both brands and undercuts their long-term value.

Losing focus and chasing the heels of your competitors can have serious consequences. Brands that do so risk succumbing to endless promotions, discounts and special offers.

To avoid adopting a damaging copycat approach, brands like Lyft have learned to educate customers on their competitive differentiation.

Shared core values and purpose-driven branding are the type of meaningful differentiators with which customers identify.

And getting your customers to identify with your brand on a deep and meaningful level is the best way to set yourself apart from close market rivals.

4. You’re Failing to Stay Relevant


When it comes to branding, relevance can feel like a fickle pursuit. The problem is too many brands conflate staying abreast of trends with relevance. Nothing can cause your brand to lose focus more quickly than the relentless pursuit of trends.

Relevance is not the same as trendiness. A brand is relevant when it fulfills the needs of its target audience. The minute your products or services no longer do that is the minute your customers start looking elsewhere.

Relevance is a characteristic worth pursuing, but only insofar as it is the byproduct of being a useful brand with which your customers can identify. In mistaking trendiness for relevance, too many brands lose sight of who they serve and why.

By remaining focused on your target audience—that ideal customer with a distinct need for your unique product or service—you’ll always be relevant, and in the process outlast the ebb and flow of ephemeral trends.

The Takeaway

Reactive diversification, weak value propositions, copying the competition, failing to stay relevant—all are symptoms of a brand that has lost its way.

Whether you’ve forgotten who you are as a brand, or lost sight of who it is you serve, the consequences are the same.

If you recognize any of these symptoms in your brand, best to take a step back and try and identify where you’ve gone wrong. It’s rarely too late to refocus your efforts and implement the type of critical course correction that can keep your brand in business.

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A prolific blogger, speaker, and columnist, Brian has two decades of experience in design and branding. He’s written for publications including Forbes, Entrepreneur, Inc. Magazine, Fast Company, HuffPost, and Brand Quarterly.