Let’s say tomorrow, Satan materializes in front of your office. He says he wants to make you a deal. For 500 bucks, he’s going to put you on TV! That’s right, TV! The thing you never thought you could afford is now affordable! All you have to do is sign on the dotted line.

Before that happens, I’m writing this to save your soul. If you take that deal, you’re going to regret it later on. Because there is actually something worse for a company to have than a bad branding idea:

Using a template to tell the story of your brand.

Here’s the deal. Right now, there are countless companies who let you “do it yourself” by choosing from a number of pre-designed templates and inserting your logo onto it. Want a website? Just put your logo on a web template! Want a logo? Just choose from a database of pre-designed ones!

I cannot think of a bigger waste of money than paying to look like someone else. A bad branding idea can do that. But a template practically guarantees that.

When some company offers you a template for you to plug your logo into, whether that’s a TV ad or a web site or any other piece of communication, it’s important to know what you’re giving up. And what you’re giving up is strong, customized branding. You know – that thing that stirs emotions in people, creates differences in the consumer’s mind and inspires them to take action. But hey, who needs that, right?

For example, let’s take a look at SpotRunner, a service that lets advertisers select a generic commercial from its library, slap a logo on the ad and target customers by demographics, networks and neighborhoods.

At first, it’s easy to see why a small business would be lured into doing this. For a relatively low cost, they can gain entry into the TV world. There’s just one slight problem. SpotRunner offers absolutely no differentiation for building an effective brand. None. Nada. Zip. Some may say, “Yeah, but $500 for a TV spot is an incredible deal! How can I pass that up?”

I’ll give you three reasons why you pass that up. 1) If you’re a small business, every dollar counts and $500 is still a lot of money to waste for looking like everybody else. 2) You may not even need to do TV. 3) There are myriad of low-cost tactics available to you that offer greater customization and potentially much better results. Podcasting. Viral marketing. Guerilla marketing. Sharing images and messaging through mobile phones. Posting a video online through YouTube. And so much more. Everybody needs an amazing brand, from the local restaurant to the local furniture store. But you don’t need anything close to a multi-million dollar ad budget to achieve that.

I suppose it’s predictable that a branding guy like me would hate the concept behind a template-friendly company like SpotRunner. But here’s the thing. I’m not threatened one bit by SpotRunner. I just think it’s a horrible idea for building a brand. And it’s going to cause some very misguided businesses to value price over quality, strategy and having any kind of unique message.

Was I this way when TIVO came upon the scene and appeared to “threaten” the existence of ad agencies? No. All debates on TIVO and how it relates to the ad industry aside, I can appreciate the value TIVO brings to consumers in making the TV-watching experience more enjoyable.

On the other hand, a service like SpotRunner puts canned ads on TV, which is just more crap for consumers to watch. Consequently, the advertising industry gets an even worse reputation, if that’s actually possible.

Simply being on TV, the web or any other kind of media is like buying a ticket to a rock concert. It only provides you admission to join the crowd. It doesn’t mean you’re going to get a backstage pass and special attention.

If you don’t mind looking and sounding like other people, go ahead and make that deal with the devil.

Just wanted to let you know what you’re getting with that handshake.

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