Why AI is bad news for brand
This story begins with a marketing manager. Let’s call her Sarah. Every day she finds herself inundated with content requests.
On one side, she’s got people across the organisation asking for her team to knock up assets they can share. On the other, her boss is asking her increase brand awareness with more content. It’s impossible to do it all.
Suddenly, people start talking about using AI. It sounds promising. Getting a machine to generate content so everyone has time for everything else. Say goodbye to the pressure to constantly be creating.
So, everyone starts using AI to generate images and text that they can share with the world. And Sarah quickly starts to get a knot in her stomach.
Sure, everyone’s creating more content, faster – but none of it is on brand. It’s Americanised, robotic words and not-quite-realistic imagery.
Sarah is fictional. But she represents the position many marketing and brand teams find themselves in.
With AI growing in popularity, there are more ways for people to create their own marketing materials. And that’s bad news for brand consistency.
Why AI isn’t the solution you might be hoping for
AI promises gigantic benefits. It’s faster than any person could be and possesses a wealth of knowledge. And it’s now accessible for almost everyone thanks to tools like ChatGPT, Bard and Midjourney.
Humans are lazy – so having a tool that does the hard work for us is attractive. Add in limited time and rising pressures, and the rewards of productivity promised by AI become even more desirable.
But, for brand performance, it’s crucial any content you put out conveys the right messages and associations.
Unfortunately, most AI tools don’t understand the nuances of your brand. They don’t know the specific language to use or the colours you want to include in your imagery.
And even if they can create on-brand content, you’re reliant on users to give it the right prompts to get there. Too much is left to risk.
For brands that let AI run amok in their organisation, you’re likely to experience these side effects:
- Loss of your unique identity. The purpose of brand is to differentiate you from your competitors and connect with audiences. But if everyone is using AI across the marketplace, we’re likely to see a rise of generic content. You’ll lose that spark that makes your brand special.
- Muddled branding. When AI isn’t programmed to your brand guidelines, it’s likely to generate something off-brand. It means you’ll see differences between your brand materials. This creates confusing experiences for your customers and undermine their trust.
- Lack of marketing oversight. With AI able to generate so much, so quickly, it’s incredibly difficult to get sight of it all. Central marketing teams will struggle to know what’s been generated, when – which can lead to total chaos and nasty surprises.
Two bad choices
The answer seems simple – just tell everyone not to use AI!
But the chances are, if people are considering AI, it’s because capacity is an issue.
If you outlaw AI, you’ll need to stick to your old processes. Typically, this means everyone relying on creative teams to create everything. But with more content required than ever, as well as all the other work your team needs to do, it’s impossible.
The result is a lengthy brief process with a slow turnaround. Everyone has to wait and everyone gets frustrated. In that frustration, they’re going to turn to work-around solution like AI – whether you allow them to or not.
You won’t be able to stop it – and in some cases you won’t even know it’s happening.
What's the solution?
Of course, none of this is to say organisations should completely abandon AI. It has real, tangible benefits like can be incredibly impactful to many departments.
But you do need to protect your brand.
Which means giving people another way of getting content. Fortunately, there are tools out there that make it easier for your organisation to self-serve their marketing needs. And that’s without relying on AI.
So, your team doesn’t have to worry about managing endless requests, nor do you lose sleep over people creating off-brand, robotic content with AI.
Here’s what to look out for:
- An easy-to-use solution. The reason people use AI is because it’s easy, so you need a tool that’s equally as effortless. Look for tools that anyone can use, without marketing experience and technical skills, so everybody can use it effectively.
- Embodying your brand guidelines. If most AI can’t grasp the nuances of your brand, you need something that does. So, seek tools that pin down everything that makes your brand – including colour palettes, logos, fonts, styles and even tone of voice. You’ll never have to worry about inconsistency again.
- Fit for all your needs. Organisations must put a lot out of content into the world – social media posts, newsletters, flyers, business cards and beyond. You’ll know the common design requests your team receives, so look for a tool that caters to them all. It’ll help you to reduce capacity while ensuring individuals never have a reason to look elsewhere.
With the right solution, you can get the benefits you want from AI but without leaving your brand in danger.
RightMarket can protect your brand against AI while allowing to leverage the productivity boost.
With easy-to-use templates that fit your brand guidelines, it gives your users a one-stop shop for their design needs, so they’re less tempted to rely on AI.
And if they do try to use AI-generated wording, our Tone of Voice Assistant will provide real-time guidance to make sure your brand personality is protected.
We even have an in-platform AI Content Writer that can help them come up with great copy, fast – all while keeping them on brand.
Better yet, it means they can self-serve their design needs. So you don’t have to worry about endless requests or managing capacity.
Book your demo today to find out how RightMarket can protect your brand.
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