25 ways to screw up your brand

To help answer those questions, here’s a rundown of common ways firms undermine their own good names. Take a look, and see whether you’re committing any of these major blunders.

1. Pick a boring name. Your business name is meant to set you apart, to be different from your competitors’. So why be “Italian Restaurant” when you could be “Maggiano’s”? With a unique name, your brand has the opportunity to set out its definition to the public. When you pick a boring name, you miss out on that opportunity and sell yourself short.

2. Don’t know who you are. It’s near impossible to successfully communicate your brand when you don’t know what it’s about. Is your brand the grocery store with the best prices or the upscale market with the most hard-to-find specialty goods? When you’re not sure, your potential clients won’t be, either.

3. Don’t communicate it to the company. Left to their own understanding, no two sales reps will present your company in the same way, and that means regular misrepresentation of your brand.