Excuse me, but you’re stepping on my brand message. DID YOU HEAR ME!

Scenario: You’re walking down a crowded street with your brand message plastered across a sign you’re holding. Everyone walks past you without even looking you in the eye. And BAM–someone accidentally bumps into you at which time your sign pitifully falls to your feet. Now people are stepping on it and you are screaming at them to stop stepping on your brand message. Don’t they know how important it is?

They’re stepping on it for a reason. Perhaps it’s not clear what you offer them. Maybe it’s not what they need. And, well, you’re screaming at them. Whatever the reason, they’ve got way more important things to do with their day.

Many times, companies will scream their brand message at prospective clients and usually these businesses go unheard. The reason these businesses go unheard could be for several reasons:

* Their brand message isn’t clear and their target doesn’t understand what is being sold to them.

* The brand message doesn’t illustrate that it will fulfill a need the target market has.

* The brand message isn’t what their target audience is looking for.

* The brand message is over-the-top and boisterous.

Here is an excellent example of how screaming your brand message at your prospects will scare them away:

There’s a mall I go to where little booths are set up along the center of each floor. The booths feature all kinds of things such as hair accessories, cell phone covers, sunglasses, hair straighteners, or novelty items. And the people who run those booths I try to avoid like the plague. No offense to them, but many times, when they’re selling their products they’re way too pushy and that is not how I like to be approached.

For example, the people who sell hair straighteners in this particular mall literally attack like a pack of wolves (note that my hair is clearly already straight yet they feel the need to straighten it). You’ll see me glued to the wall mission impossible style as I try to sneak past them without being noticed. They think that by physically getting in front of me and snapping their straighteners at me that I’m going to be interested. Wrong.

When you’re working on creating a clear brand message, you must never scream at your target audience. They won’t hear your brand message and in some cases, you’ll scare them away. No one wants to be screamed at or attacked with a brand message–even if it is online and not in-person. If you’re screaming at your target audience and they’re not listening, it’s time to step back and reevaluate what you offer your customers and how you offer it to them. When you get clear on how you fulfill customers’ needs, you may notice that your brand message has been way off.

So, be aware of your marketing strategies and materials and know that screaming at your target market–whether online or in-person–is not going to get them to listen. And understand that when you’re being ignored, it’s time to reevaluate your brand message and marketing materials.