The most successful brands have a clear identity and a clear concise message. Sometimes business owners can be tempted to be all things to all people and this is where brand confusion can occur which creates all manner of problems. These problems are amplified if the business owner chooses widely divergent activities. I have seen numerous examples of this including an NLP trainer, that then presented himself as a hypnosis trainer, a speed seducer, a 3 P’s trainer etc. It was almost impossible to keep up with the different identities. Another example is a business owner who presented as an IT company, a media company, a photographer and then a spiritual guide! There’s nothing wrong of course with having different interests, in fact its in my view quite healthy, BUT its far better to separate out interests as it dilutes the overall messages and often creates confusion for the public.
Sometimes this is a status seeking behaviour and sometimes its done simply through a basic lack of awareness. This confusion is compounded then the internet is filled with a trail of websites often with “old news” and events from days gone by. This lack of paying attention is more common than you might imagine and often enthusiasm trumps basic business sense. The brands that have the greatest longevity and standing always have a clear message and are easily recognizable. Smart business owners appreciate that if they want to develop a new unrelated business, they do so with a totally new identity in every sense.
I have had to consider this with my own work. “Nick Kemp” is the central theme for therapeutic and training work. I have other totally unrelated interests and those are done under an entirely different identity with different social media platforms. This sends out a much clearer message to the world at large.
