That haircut. You know the one. You were convinced it was going to make you look edgy. You were convinced it was going to make you look cool. You were convinced it was going to make you look like you could pass as the bass player for Green Day.
But it made you look like you lost a bet.
Welcome to the awkward chasm between intention and perception.
Brands fall into the same trap all the time. Loudly declaring they’re “innovative” while sending invoices via fax. Plastering “people first” across their website while ghosting customer emails. There’s a real dissonance between the message and the experience.
And, spoiler: the experience always wins.
You Can’t Not Communicate
Even silence is a brand signal. So is a wonky website. Or a pricing model that belongs in a museum. Every touchpoint your business has with the world is a message. Whether you meant to send it or not.
That means your signage, your onboarding emails, your refund policy, your team’s LinkedIn etiquette are all saying something. The question is whether those things are in tune with your intended message or actively sabotaging it.
Mixed Signals Kill Trust
Imagine meeting someone who says, “I’m chill” but keeps yelling at the barista. Brands do this all the time.
Claiming “we’re customer-first” while making it impossible to talk to a human.
Calling yourself “cutting-edge” while your tech wheezes like a 2007 PowerPoint.
This is where credibility quietly slips out the back door. Don’t forget: you’re being judged by what people experience.
Your Brand Isn’t a Sticker
Let’s make it crystal clear. Your brand is not a logo, not a tagline, not a stock image of three people awkwardly high-fiving next to a whiteboard with the words “continuity through change” written on it.
So, what is your brand? Your brand is:
- How your product works (or doesn’t)
- How your people behave when no one’s watching
- The gap between your promises and your actual delivery
If your message doesn’t align with your reality, no amount of Instagram reels or glossy brochures is going to cover that up.
Everyone’s Watching
People are savvy and can spot a mismatch from a mile away. After all, they’ve been marketed to since they were toddlers. They’ve been well trained to pick up on branding that doesn’t add up.
And when those people pick up on brand signal dissonance, they scroll. They bounce. They tell their friends. They go away.
But when it does add up, when the signals match the message and the birds are chirping because there’s harmony in the world, that’s where trust is built. That’s when people stick around.
Make the Message Match the Meaning
This is where brand strategy comes in. The real kind. The kind that isn’t congested in a fluffy word smog.
A solid brand strategy helps align what you say with what you do. It gets everyone inside your business working off the same sheet music. It makes sure the service, the pricing, the team, and the content are all singing in tune.
When Amplify Branding + Communications helps businesses define their Brand Idea, we’re drilling down into the guts of what makes your business tick and making sure that essence gets across loud and clear in every channel.
Because when your brand is sending mixed signals, people don’t hear what you said. They hear what you accidentally showed them.
So, What Signal Are You Sending?
If you’re not sure, you’re not alone. Most businesses are so caught up in saying the right things that they forget to check what the outside world is actually hearing.
Ready to clear up the noise?
Get in touch with Amplify to find out how brand strategy, idea development, and comms planning can help you align your brand signals with what you really stand for.
