Is Your Brand Holding Your Business Back? 7 Signs You’ve Outgrown It

You’ve spent years building a business you’re proud of. The team’s grown, the clients have got bigger, and you’re doing work that would have seemed a world away when you first started.

But recently it feels like your growth has started dragging its feet.

You’re still flat out and nobody seems to be sitting around twiddling their thumbs. But why does it feel like things aren’t moving like they should be?

There are plenty of reasons a business can hit a growth plateau, from changing markets to increased competition. But there’s one culprit that often gets overlooked.

Your business has grown up. But your brand is still stuck in its teenage years.

And when the two fail to add up, it can become harder to attract the right customers, communicate your value and keep growing.

You may have outgrown your brand if it no longer reflects what your business offers, attracts customers you no longer want to target or leaves people struggling to understand what makes you different.

Here are seven signs your brand might be holding your business back.

1. Your brand is still living in the past

Think back to when you first launched. I bet that logo felt like the best thing since sliced bread. And the website? Probably got another admiring glance every time you opened your laptop.

But a lot has changed since then. Your business has grown, your ambitions have got bigger, and your brand needs to keep up.

If we’d stuck to exactly how we did things when Giant Peach first started, we’d probably be in a bit of trouble ourselves.

There’s nothing wrong with being proud of where you started. Just don’t let it stop you moving forward.

2. You’re attracting the wrong customers

Your ideal customer isn’t necessarily going to stay the same forever.

When you launched, your branding and messaging were probably designed to appeal to a particular type of customer. And for a while, that worked brilliantly.

But as your business grows, your expertise develops and your ambitions change, the people you want to work with can change too.

If your brand hasn’t kept pace, you might still be attracting the customers you were targeting years ago, while the opportunities you’re now looking for pass you by.

Your brand needs to reflect not just who your business has become, but who it’s trying to reach.

3. Your marketing needs to get its story straight

Out in the wild, your brand should be telling the same story wherever people come across it. 

Your existing customers know how good you are. They’ve worked with you, seen what you’re capable of and probably sung your praises to a few people along the way.

But someone discovering your business for the first time? They’ve only got your marketing channels to go on.

And if they’re having to play detective to figure out what you actually do, click through six different pages of your website to find what they’re looking for or hunt down a way to get in touch, you’re not exactly rolling out the welcome mat.

And the same goes for when visual brand identity becomes a bit of a pick ‘n’ mix. A different font here, a new colour there, and a sales deck that looks like it belongs to another business entirely.

Your visual brand identity should have a personality of its own, with a clear visual identity that carries through everything you put out into the world.

Good branding is all about alignment. It’s about making the dots feel effortlessly connected. And that coherent brand experience will give your audience every reason to stick around.

4.Your team isn’t particularly proud to show you off

The biggest red flag of them all. Your employees know your business better than most and they know exactly what the business is capable of and the quality of the people behind it.

So when they’re reluctant to share the website or use the official sales materials, that’s a pretty telling sign your brand isn’t doing its job.

If the people closest to your business don’t feel your branding represents it properly, there’s a good chance they’re seeing a gap between who you’ve become and how you’re presenting yourself.

5. You’re starting to look a lot like everyone else

Here’s a little test. Cover up your logo and take a good look at your website. Does it still feel unmistakably yours, or could you swap in a competitor’s name and nobody would bat an eyelid?

There’s nothing wrong with keeping an eye on the competition. But if you’ve all ended up with the same website, the same promises and an identical obsession with being ‘customer-focused’, somebody needs to break the cycle.

6. You’re finding it harder to communicate your value

You’ve spent years getting better at what you do, winning bigger projects and building a business with plenty to shout about. It’s just a shame your brand is still introducing you like you’ve only just got the keys to the office.

If your brand isn’t giving people a reason to choose you, that slightly cheaper competitor suddenly starts looking rather tempting.

7. Your website isn’t doing your business justice

There’s something slightly tragic about a brilliant business being let down by a website that hasn’t had a proper look in the mirror for years.

Think of your website as your business’s first proper introduction. It should show people what you’re capable of, help them find what they’re looking for and leave them counting their lucky stars they stumbled across you.

How do you know if your business needs a rebrand

Before you rush off to redesign your logo, it’s worth understanding what’s actually holding you back.

Taking a good, honest look at your brand can reveal quite a lot. How your business presents itself, whether your messaging makes sense and if the people you’re attracting are actually the ones you want to work with.

You might discover your positioning has become a little muddled, your visual identity isn’t doing you justice or your brand simply hasn’t kept up with the business you’ve become.

Sometimes a full rebrand is the answer. Sometimes a few well-considered changes can make all the difference.

And if you’re not quite sure where to start, that’s where we come in.

Time your brand caught up?

At Giant Peach, we bring strategy, branding and digital together to help ambitious businesses build brands that look the part, feel like them and are ready for wherever they’re heading next.

Let's get your brand pulling its weight