news & insights

And why they all lead back to brand…

We spoke to more than 100 businesses last year. Different industries, different sizes, different stages of growth.

The same challenges consistently surface.

What stood out wasn’t a lack of vision or capability. It was an increase in friction. Sales conversations becoming harder. Marketing activity increasing without a corresponding lift in results. Confusion in the market. A sense that the business had evolved but the business narrative, and the way it was being represented, had not fully caught up.

When you push past the surface symptoms, the same underlying business challenges appeared again and again. And in almost every case, they traced back to one root issue: brand clarity.

Not brand as visuals or messaging. Brand as a strategic system – shaping perception, pricing power, internal alignment, and long-term growth.

WHAT WE CONSISTENTLY SAW ACROSS 100+ BUSINESSES

• Differentiation that existed operationally, but not strategically
• Capability and quality outpacing perceived value
• Teams lacking a shared, practical understanding of what the business stands for
• Brands lagging behind how the business had evolved
• Digital touchpoints telling inconsistent or conflicting stories

HERE’S WHAT WE ACTUALLY HEARD.

1. “We can’t clearly explain what makes us different”

This was (and always is) the most consistent theme across conversations.

Leaders were confident their business was different. They could see it in how the work was delivered, the quality of thinking, and the outcomes for clients. But when asked to articulate why a customer should choose them over the next best option, the answer wasn’t clear enough.

What this sounds like

“When I’m out in industry, how do I describe us and what we do?”
“We lack clear differentiation.”
“We’re blending in with competitors.”

The business cost

When differentiation is unclear, price becomes the default comparison. Sales cycles stretch. Margin comes under pressure. Decision-making shifts away from value and towards cost and familiarity.

What helps

The most useful starting point isn’t internal messaging, it’s customer language.

Ask 5–10 customers why they actually chose you, in their words. The language they use to describe your difference is often more accurate and more compelling than anything you would write internally.

Then test it. If you removed your name and logo from your website, would someone still recognise the business based on how it describes itself? If not, the difference exists operationally, but not strategically.

2. “We struggle to charge what we’re worth”

Many businesses felt they had outgrown their pricing.

Capability had increased. Work had become more complex. Clients were larger. But pricing conversations hadn’t shifted to where they needed to be.

What this sounds like

“We want to move upmarket but keep getting price resistance.”
“We need a premium feel to match our quality.”
“We’re not known as the premium option in our category.”

The business cost

The obvious impact is margin compression. The deeper cost is strategic. Price-sensitive clients are harder to service, less loyal, and limit the business’s ability to reinvest and grow

What helps

Premium pricing comes from perception.

Look at brands in your category that successfully command premium pricing. What signals are they sending that you’re not? It’s rarely just about polish. It’s about clarity, consistency, and positioning.

Ask yourself: does your brand create the perception of premium value, or are you asking customers to pay premium prices for a brand that signals mid-market? If the brand signals mid-market, the market will price you accordingly.

3. “Our team doesn’t describe the business consistently”

Businesses were experiencing inconsistency internally. Lack of a shared understanding of the bigger picture, missed opportunities when it came to understanding and leveraging organisation-wide capabilities, and challenges with cultural alignment. Almost every business had values documented somewhere. Far fewer had a shared, practical understanding of what those values meant in action.

What this sounds like

“Team members don’t understand or embody the brand.”
“Values exist on paper but not in practice.”
“We can’t clearly communicate our offering.”

The business cost

Misalignment creates friction. Teams debate decisions that should be straightforward. Execution slows. Inconsistency erodes trust externally and confidence internally.

Different teams tell different versions of the same story. New hires struggle to confidently explain the business. Talent attraction and retention suffer.

What helps

Clarity can’t live only in leadership decks or marketing documents. It needs to be built into how decisions are made, how people are onboarded, and how the business talks about itself day to day.

A simple test: ask five people across different teams to describe, in two sentences, what you do and why you’re different. Compare the answers. The gaps show you exactly where alignment work is needed.

Workshops create alignment. PDFs do not. If brand only lives in marketing, it can’t do it’s job.

4. “How we look and sound no longer matches who we’ve become”

Many businesses had evolved significantly over the past few years.

Their offering was more sophisticated. Their clients were more demanding. Their expectations of themselves had shifted. But their brand still reflected an earlier version of the business.

What this sounds like

“We want something more grown up.”
“Our logo doesn’t reflect the company we’ve become.”
“We’re the best in our industry but we don’t look like it”

The business cost

A credibility gap. Prospects form judgments before conversations begin. Opportunities are lost not because the business can’t deliver, but because it doesn’t signal that it can.

Internally, this also affects pride and recruitment. It’s harder to attract senior talent when the brand doesn’t reflect the reality of the work.

What helps

Audit your highest-traffic touchpoints: website, LinkedIn presence, proposals, sales decks.

Do they reflect the business as it is now, or as it was when they were created?

Many businesses tinker with individual assets rather than addressing the underlying positioning. They redesign the website without clarifying the message. They refresh the logo without updating what it needs to represent.

Visual change only works when it’s anchored to strategic clarity. Fix the foundation first.

5. “Our digital presence doesn’t represent us”

The most common trigger for engagement was a website project. Almost never was the website the real issue.

What this sounds like

“We’re building a website, but we haven’t done the pre-work.”
“Our website doesn’t reflect our current business.”
“Our digital presence is outdated.”

The business cost

Your digital presence is often the first and most frequent interaction someone has with the business.

If it’s misaligned, it works against sales, hiring, and marketing simultaneously. Sales teams position the business as premium while the website signals budget. Marketing attracts one audience while the site appeals to another. Inconsistency creates doubt, even when the work itself is strong.

What helps

Most digital problems are positioning problems.

Before designing anything, the business needs clarity on who it’s for, what it offers, and why it matters. Once that’s clear, design decisions become far simpler and more effective.

It’s also important to remember that the website isn’t isolated. If someone finds you on LinkedIn, lands on your website, then receives a proposal, those experiences should tell the same story. If they don’t, you have a brand consistency problem – not a website problem.

A website should reinforce the story, not try to invent it.

THESE CHALLENGES ARE CONNECTED

When differentiation is unclear, pricing comes under pressure. When internal clarity is weak, execution becomes inconsistent. When positioning lags behind business evolution, presentation and digital work struggle to land.

Many businesses try to solve these issues in isolation. A website one year. Messaging the next. Visual updates when there’s budget.

The businesses that make real progress treat this as a foundational issue, not a series of projects. They invest in clarity first, then implement it consistently across every touchpoint.

After working closely with more than 100 leadership teams, the pattern is clear: brand strength isn’t a “nice to have”. It’s a commercial advantage.

If you’re seeing these symptoms, a simple diagnostic can quickly reveal where to focus for maximum impact. Take the Brand Strength Quiz to see exactly where the gaps are in your business.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What are the most common brand challenges businesses face as they grow?

The most common challenges are unclear differentiation, weak premium perception, internal misalignment, and brands that no longer reflect the reality of the business.

Why does brand clarity affect pricing?

Pricing is driven by perception. When brand positioning is unclear, customers default to price comparisons rather than value.

How do you know if your brand no longer fits your business?

If your capability, clients, or ambition have outgrown how you present yourself, there’s likely a gap between reality and perception.

Is a website problem usually a brand problem?

In most cases, yes. Websites struggle when the underlying positioning isn’t clear. But other considerations such as user experience and conversion optimisation are also important.

What should a business fix first: brand or website?

Brand should always come first. The website should bring to life the strategy and identity.

Written by: Jodie de Vries
Published: February 4, 2026