ICTworks by Inveneo

Mistake No. 1:Equating branding with communications.
Yes, branding includes communications. But if your branding strategy is
all about messaging and advertising and nothing about business strategy
or people, then you won't be able to deliver on your communications. If
you have lousy customer service, telling people it's great will only
drive customers away faster. But investing
in training and infrastructure to improve service will enable you to
market your great service and still look yourself in the mirror As more
information about companies and products is available online, a great
company and product are your brand's only defense.

Mistake No. 2:Branding on price.
Don't do it. Basing your brand on your low price is a race to the
bottom--and someone will always beat you there. Even if your prices are
the same as your competitors' prices, you need to give clients
compelling reasons beyond price to buy from you. The difference between
the product offered by Morton Salt and a supermarket's house brand? Not
much. The difference in pricing? Fourteen percent. That margin
is due to how well Morton has built up the intangible parts of its
brand. Establish trust with your customers, and you can breathe a lot
easier when the newest competitor undercuts your price.

Mistake No. 3:Changing your promise.
Like a dog sniffing at a fire hydrant, every time a new marketing vice
president is brought into a company, there's a risk she'll try to
change the brand, or put her mark on it. While your brand promise
should be relevant and up-to-date, making a wholesale change from, say,
being the educational leader to being the innovation leader will only confuse your market.

Are
you ready to change your tagline or logo? Companies get tired of their
own marketing way before the market does. (You live with it day in and
day out. They see it only once in a while.) Remember when Jack in the
Box killed its ping-pong-ball-headed CEO? Customer sentiment brought
him back, but the company was smart enough to do so in a new, updated
way. Whatever you do, don't let your visual brand identity and
messaging force changes in your brand promise (see Mistake No. 1).

Mistake No. 4: Overpromising.
The least expensive way to brand yourself is to have your customers do
it for you. How do you get them to become evangelists? By
underpromising and overdelivering. Fight the temptation to sound better
than you are: Promise what you can deliver, then do it to the nth
degree. Are you the fastest? Then don't give customers a long
voice-mail message to listen to before they can act. Are you the
friendliest? Don't let your employees bad-mouth clients behind their
backs. Are you the coolest? Then make sure your lobby looks awesome and
has wow power.
Alongside this advice, I recommend that you focus your brand
message--don't try to be all things to all people. Figure out the most
compelling part of your promise and build that up, rather than try to
communicate 10 different elements of your brand promise.

Mistake No. 5:Me-too branding.
I can't tell you how many entrepreneurs have said, "If I only get x
percent of the market, I'll be rich." You have to give consumers a
compelling reason to give you their business to get that percentage.
You can't expect to siphon off business from the market leader
without a substantive reason. Don't try to be like other companies: Be
yourself. There will be a subsegment of the market that likes what you
do better than what the market leader does, and that's the percentage
of the market you can skim off. Instead of emulating competitors, be
different. If you're competing against Starbucks, zig when it zags.
Make your décor unique, encourage customers to play board games, roast
beans on site or have coffee-tasting parties. Get your own buzz on.

Steer
clear of these mistakes, and you'll be well on your way to branding
nirvana--being known for your compelling and differentiated value.

Lynn Parker is co-founder ofParker LePla, a brand strategy consulting firm in Seattle. She's also the author ofThe Reluctant Entrepreneur, and co-author ofIntegrated BrandingandBrand Driven.