By Debra Semans, Senior Vice President, Polaris Marketing Research

As many of you know, I teach two branding classes for the American Marketing Association: a brand basics class and a class on Internal Branding. In this position, I am often asked about the “one thing” you must do to have a strong brand or the “worst things” that companies do to hurt their brands. So here it is: Debra’s Top Ten Branding Mistakes (in no particular order):

1. Losing control of your brand. Letting your ad agency, your marketing research firm, your distribution channels, your subcontractors - just about anyone – take control of and define your brand. No one knows your brand – internally and externally – like you do. No one understands your business strategy and objectives – and how your brand fits into those – like you do. Never cede this power to another.

2. Not establishing a differentiation. Differentiation is the one thing that makes your brand stand out from the crowd and gives the customer a reason to choose you. If your brand is not differentiated, you have eliminated any competitive advantage and are well on your way to becoming commoditized.

3. Benign neglect. This is the situation with many brands today. You’re not really hurting them, but you’re not strengthening and enhancing them either. That’s why I call it benign neglect. This is possibly the most vulnerable brand state. If you’re not paying attention, you can bet your competitors are!

4. Not defining a target market. No one brand can be “all things to all people.” If you are trying to do that by avoiding targeting a specific market segment, you will end up being “nothing to everyone.” No brand can exist without a clearly defined target audience. Without this, brands lose all focus, effectiveness and efficiency.

5. Not aligning promise and delivery. The number of brands who do not deliver on their brand promise is legion. “We love to fly and it shows.” No, it doesn’t. “We try harder.” No, you don’t. Why waste advertising dollars making a promise that your organization is simply going to break? The sad fact is that not only does this waste today’s marketing budget, it can actually erode any positive equity your brand may hold.

6. Not making branding “Everyone’s Responsibility.” Marketing alone cannot continually build and strengthen the brand. If everyone in the organization is not holding the brand promise as a decision standard and a behavior guide, then Marketing’s best efforts will fall short. “If “it takes a village” to raise a child, then “it takes a company” to manage and protect the brand.

7. Changing too much or too often. Brands do not change radically; they evolve. A well defined brand with a strongly differentiated position doesn’t need to change too frequently. If you find yourself looking for a new brand position every couple of years, slow down, do some research and get it right. Then stick with it. Monitor competitors and consumers to make sure you need to change before you abandon your position. And even when you determine you must change, do it gradually so that you bring your market – and your brand equity – along with you.

8. Do not over-brand. In some companies, everything is a brand or branded. This might be because no one really knows what a brand is, it might be because the organization doesn’t have enough brand discipline to keep this from happening. The creation of new brands should not be undertaken lightly and should be done with the utmost deliberation. This is an expensive undertaking that will require resources and support for years to come. Only brand what needs to be branded.

9. Not understanding your brand from the consumers’ perspective. “We know what our customers’ want.” “We know what our customers think of us.” Perhaps the two most dangerous sentences ever spoken in a business meeting. The very fact that you are employed by the company almost pre-determines that you do not know what your customers are thinking. And the higher up in the organizational structure, the more likely it is that your perceptions are wrong. So beware and do some marketing research to be sure.

10. Not understanding your brand space. “Gerber’s Adult Foods.” “Levi’s Men’s Suits.” Many new products fail because management does not understand where the brand fits for the consumer. Understanding your brand space (in short, the areas of the market where your brand fits) can help you avoid miss-steps in new product introduction and can help you identify brand extensions that might be very valuable.

So there it is. Try to avoid making these mistakes and you will go a long way toward keeping your brand strong. We’d love to hear from you on this, so if you have other “Brand Mistakes,” please send them to me at debra.semans@polarismr.com

Debra Semans is the Senior Vice President for Polaris Marketing Research, with responsibility for Account Management, Marketing and Business Development. With more than 25 years of marketing experience, Debra brings rich and varied experience to her clients