You have a new product. You’re counting on it to be a hot commodity. So you’ve devised a new brand identity to go with your new product: A name, logo, look, message and materials. Beyond that, you’ve named and trademarked three innovative features of your product in order to further differentiate it from competition.

Sounds good, right? Not necessarily. You may be brand-happy. Brand-happy, the state of branding everything we touch, is so prevalent in business today that it’s seen as an automatic reflex of good marketing. But approached with aggregate business objectives in mind, building new brands may not always be a good business move. Before you decide to add and support a new brand in your marketing mix remember:

1) The premise. Customers are confused. Customers are so bombarded by new products, features, services, companies and promises it’s becoming extremely difficult for them to tell one from another. Within many companies, even the sales force can’t clearly discern the products they’re selling!

2) The goal. Finding a unique spot in the customer’s mind, a solid, distinguishable-from-competition area of the brain where you form an indelible impression.

3) The reality. You are selling to human beings, and homosapiens – even with the most advanced craniums on the planet – only have the capacity to remember a finite number of things. If you have a corporate brand, 12 product brands with eight unique features each and a story to support each, how much can you expect your customer to digest, let alone buy into?

4) The assumption. You do not have the financial resources of Proctor & Gamble, Ford Motor Company or Coca Cola, all of which can afford to build multiple brands and accept the cost of their possible failure. (Of course, if you are, we’d be happy to talk with you.)

Undeniably, you can identify with the premise (after all, you’re a customer too). It seems, however, that the more the confusion, the harder we try to distinguish ourselves by heaping brands with new names, images and trademarks onto the top of the pile. Many times being brand-happy does more to perpetuate the premise than meet the goal.

Instead of perpetuating confusion, reverse the trend by simplifying your branding strategy.

The cure for brand happiness: SIMPLIFY. Instead of perpetuating confusion, reverse the trend by simplifying your branding strategy. While all companies have a unique set of circumstances, we suggest critical choices be considered for the sake of marketplace clarity. Sound painful? Not any more than a root canal without anesthesia, but it may be necessary if you want long-term smiling customers.