When October rolls around, most people fear things that go bump in the night. But for marketers and brand leaders, the real terrors don’t hide under the bed… They lurk in the logo files, color palettes and outdated marketing materials.
Every brand has a few skeletons in the closet. However, when your brand identity starts to haunt you, it’s time for a little ghostbusting. Many companies are hesitant to invest in change or brand updates, focusing on how they might lose customers, donors or employees.
On the flip side, fear will end up costing you much more, and your reputation will be for whom the bell tolls. Here are the five brand identity nightmares that keep us marketers awake at night – and how to ensure your marketing efforts don’t fall victim.
1. The Dusty Relic
Once upon a time, your logo was fresh, your tagline clever, your website cutting-edge. But years pass, trends evolve and suddenly your brand is a long-lost book shelved and collecting cobwebs. The Dusty Relic haunts companies that haven’t evolved with their audience.
When your marketing materials look outdated, your target audience or target market will move on to competitors better reflecting their expectations.
How to wake up: Embrace change, or at least a conversation. A brand refresh isn’t a betrayal of your roots. It’s a renewal of your relevance through effective branding. It engages both loyal and new audiences. Keep your core values strong, but continue to evolve to maintain relevancy across every marketing channel.
Resolute tip: Have your senior leadership or marketing team write an obituary for the company. Our team recently did this as a creative way to define our legacy and update our brand position.
Ask yourselves, what do you want to be most remembered for years from now? What would you hope customers say about you? Yes, it seems morbid, but it’s an exercise that brings clarity, creativity and emotion to a brand refresh process.
2. The Mirror of Lies
Don’t be your own worst enemy! The Mirror of Lies reflects a polished, inspiring brand promise that the internal culture can’t live up to. Employees know it. Customers sense it. And soon, credibility crumbles.
How to wake up: Align your external identity with your internal reality. From leadership to the front lines, make sure your culture embodies your brand values. Plus, core values need to be more than an HR document. They need to live and breathe on your website, job postings, social media, presentations and more.
Resolute tip: Yep, we did this at Resolute, too! By bringing our core values to life in both our visuals and messaging, our brand identity now tells our story. The results are clear: top-tier candidates are drawn to our culture, making recruitment more efficient and effective. Meanwhile, our clients connect more deeply with our purpose-driven approach.
Your brand identity isn’t just what people see. Experiences attract the right talent and the right opportunities. Make sure it’s a cornerstone (not a gravestone) of your overall marketing strategy.
3. The Talking Head Terror
It’s easy to get lost in the corn maze that is the current media landscape. A brand without regular media training risks turning spokespeople into the Talking Head Terror. Unprepared or inconsistent responses can twist even simple messages into confusion, cringe or controversy. One misphrased quote, stammered interview, or defensive tone can haunt your reputation for months.
How to wake up: Don’t let your story turn into a horror show! Invest in regular media training and mock interviews. Teach spokespeople to stay on message, respond with clarity, and turn tough questions into opportunities. Prepared voices are confident voices—and confidence builds trust.
This preparation is essential for effective branding that reaches your target markets consistently.
Resolute tip: Earned media is an extremely valuable marketing channel. Resolute’s media training services help teams turn interviews into opportunities. We help make every spokesperson become a brand ambassador who reinforces your brand strategy. Don’t let unprepared voices waste your hard-earned media placements.
4. Weak Calls to Action
Not every brand nightmare is dramatic. Some of the most damaging “misses” are small, subtle, and often invisible (until they snowball). These seemingly minor flaws can sabotage an otherwise brilliant marketing campaign.
For example, content without clear next steps leaves audiences confused. Something as simple as “Learn More” that leads nowhere or “Click Here” without purpose can kill engagement.
How to wake up: Tell your audience exactly what to do next. Whether it’s signing up, downloading, or exploring a product, make sure the destination delivers on the promise.
Resolute tip: Don’t be afraid of A/B testing different calls to action to see what resonates best with your target audience. Small optimizations can dramatically improve conversion rates and strengthen your overall marketing strategy.
Take a page from Skittles’ playbook. The brand literally asks users if they want to “experience the rainbow.” This popup doesn’t just verify birthdays, it creates anticipation and reinforces brand personality before users even enter the site.
5. The Denial Demon
Humor, humility, and accountability are powerful (yet sometimes overlooked) parts of a brand’s humanity.
The Denial Demon lurks behind polished campaigns and corporate jargon, whispering that mistakes didn’t happen and ignoring warranted feedback. It’s a missed opportunity to be human, relatable and build trust.
Remember, silence can be deafening. We aren’t suggesting responding to every negative, trolling comment on your social media. We are saying to take ownership, laugh at yourself, and avoid small issues that could be full-blown nightmares that damage your brand identity.
How to wake up: Admit mistakes when they happen and take visible steps to correct them. Brands that embrace accountability build resilience and keep the Denial Demon firmly at bay.
Take the recent Cracker Barrel rebrand, then walk back as an example. Now, we don’t recommend a brand reversal for negative comment on social media. After rolling out a new logo to extreme backlash, Cracker Barrel made the decision to return to their former logo and brand identity.
Let’s be clear. This move is not always the solution. Here’s what Cracker Barrel did right. They listened, they took accountability and they immediately created content embracing the “failed” rebrand.
Resolute tip: Review your marketing efforts quarterly to ensure your brand identity remains consistent, relevant, and aligned with your business goals. Dedicate time to studying emerging social media trends, platform updates and shape-shifting best practices. Invest in your own company or branded photoshoot.
Don’t let your brand become a haunted house of mixed messages. A strong brand identity is alive! It evolves, listens, and reflects the people behind it.
Sweep out the cobwebs, keep your visuals and messaging aligned, and let your authenticity lead the way. Happy branding… and beware the skeletons!
