You like to party on the weekends. You have a few hobbies. People generally find your conversations interesting. Does that mean your business has a personality? Absolutely not. We’ve been forever stuck in an age where the status quo has been upheld by major corporations. Be professional. Be proper. Do what everyone else does, but better. This makes companies boring. Each brand has the same personality and nothing ever changes. Being boring isn’t always bad, but you may be boring your clients and employees.

Relevance

Boring companies think they’re extremely relevant and up with the times. They often don’t update their messaging or style to fit with their new target demographics. Boring companies may run ads mimicking popular social media trends after they’ve dipped in popularity. This can come off as tone deaf or cringey.

Culture

Boring companies typically don’t have good company culture. Companies with good company culture have high employee retention rates. Conversely, companies with a poor company culture have low employee retention rates and lower productivity. Your office doesn’t need to look like the inside of a Barstool Sports to have a good company culture. Good culture can come from hiring the right people, having shared interests, and relying on teamwork and cooperation over strict metrics and punishments. 

Fun

Remember that whole Wendy’s Twitter tone shift from 2017? If you don’t, here’s the rundown. Wendy’s had very cookie-cutter corporate social media. When they hired a new media manager, their entire tone shifted. They began poking fun at Twitter users frequently and it snowballed from there. That’s a perfect example of having fun. Fun is all about challenging the norms, being creative, and encouraging people to experiment. It worked out for Wendy’s back in 2017 and basically revolutionized how corporations view social media. Boring companies don’t experiment and try to uphold the status quo. 

Followers, Not Leaders

Similarly to not experimenting, boring companies tend to follow their competitors. This leaves them constantly behind the ball and never really growing. Instead of playing everyone else’s game, invent your own. Boring companies are followers, be a leader. 

No Vision

Every company has a mission statement and vision in their business plan. What matters is if those words have weight or not. A company that doesn’t have an inspiring vision that guides the daily work of its employees makes a company boring. Hear my take on the importance of core values here.

If you found yourself thinking that this might be your company, take some time to reflect. Go back through this list and see what changes you can make to your business to be less boring. Being less boring will help you retain more employees, increase productivity, and draw in more customers. If you’re looking for more business insights, you can visit both my blog or the J&R blog that covers a larger variety of branding, business & marketing topics.