1. Failure to Brand the Brand-able. Many times during the discovery phase of an engagement, I’ve heard clients describe marvelous processes and technologies they’ve perfected over the course of many years and through the shedding of much blood, sweat and tears. Perhaps because they’re so close to the work, they fail to see or fully appreciate the value and uniqueness of what they have.

2. Forgettable Product Designations. What’s more memorable, the Big Ben Band Saw or the QXR-585 Band Saw? In B2B, mind share is everything. When the day rolls around when somebody needs a band saw, my guess is they’ll remember Big Ben way ahead of QXR-585. Sometimes manufacturers tend to get wrapped up in their elegant internal product classifications. Sometimes they create elaborate abbreviations, like LPSWM for “low profile stretch wrap machine.” Customers don’t care and don’t care to decode. They just want something they can remember.

3. Inconsistent Brand Presentation. A lot of B2Bs will take two years to roll out a new brand identity because they don’t want to buy new stationery and business cards, etc., or redesign three websites at the same time. But people remember images and color palettes: if they see two or three or four versions, they won’t know which one to associate with your firm and therefore will not remember any of them. Sales driven firms must overcome the problem of each sales rep putting his or her own spin on the company value proposition. Different interpretations hopelessly muddle the message, with the upshot being your firm is not clearly associated with any value proposition whatsoever.

4. Information Dumpitis. One of the most commonly repeated copywriting sins in B2B is the information dump. For some reason, firms cannot resist the temptation to pack every product feature and benefit into every Web page, landing page, blog post, email blast and article. I’m certain there are task forces at work figuring out how to do it in a Twitter tweet. In the real word – i.e., the world inhabited by customers – B2Bs are lucky if prospects can remember ONE benefit of a product, let alone 15. In branding, less is more.

5. Overuse of Trademarks. Some companies like to trademark Everything™, which can get Really Annoying™ when Customers® are trying to scan Web text for the Key Elements™ of The Message™. Trademarking everything cheapens the value of the products, services, and intellectual property of a B2B firm that truly are distinctive or unique. I think companies often slap a registration mark on the backside of a term as a way to avoid the hard work of creating and building a meaningful brand.

6. Poorly Crafted Logo. When you think McDonalds, you see golden arches. When customers think of you, what do they see? A logo cannot be derivative, boring, difficult to read, dated or confusing. And yet … the great majority of them are one or more of the above. For the market to have a clear vision of your firm, you’ve got to have a hard hitting logo: it’s the most prominent component of your entire communication strategy.

7. Weak Tagline. Taglines tend toward incomprehensible corporate gibberish, employing words like synergy and solutions and innovative. If your tagline is something like Committed to Synergistic Solutions for Innovation, please go back to the drawing board and come up with something in English – it continues to be a popular language in the U.S. B2B community.

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