Every action you take positions your brand and defines your reputation, whether you intend it to or not. So how can a growing business proactively maintain a consistent brand identity both offline and online without hiring experienced brand marketers? You can start by avoiding these two common brand–positioning no–no’s:

1. A loose connection. If your messaging says one thing and the customer experiences something else, you’ve got brand disconnect. That positions your company as, at best, confused, and at worst, dishonest.

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Pennsylvania law firm Barley Snyder had a problem with brand disconnect back in 2006. Its tagline read: “Not your usual client/attorney relationship.” But the company’s Web site screamed “traditional law firm,” from the scales of justice graphics to the leather–texture backgrounds. Barley Snyder hired the San Francisco–based consulting firm Inherent to upgrade the site’s look, navigation, content, and functionality. The result: Two Web marketing awards the past two years, and a site that been transformed from a point of confusion to a point of pride.

2. Employing a renegade sales force. Your brand positioning strategy may be rock–solid, but how well do your emissaries know the script? Often, sales reps customize materials for sales meetings, cutting and pasting from previous presentations, adding their own graphics, even creating their own taglines. “The result is a fragmented brand message that focuses more on the salesperson than on the company,” says Sandra Sellani, author of What’s Your BQ?

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