lly or in pieces through your employees. This has created challenges with both employee communications and made it tough to work with external consultants such as advertising and public relations agencies and design firms.

If these symptoms exist throughout your organization, don't despair.

First and foremost, don't surrender to the temptation of the quick and easy fix to your Web site, marketing collateral system, brand identity, or packaging design.

Don't run the risk of applying

Marketers charged with achieving return on investment and marketplace performance in today's competitive landscape know that powerful, relevant brands make the difference between success and failure. Keeping brands up-to-date requires constant vigilance because quick fixes to tactical elements rarely offer long term rewards that lasting brands provide.

The power of observation can reveal volumes about the relevance of your brand today. Consider these top ten symptoms to decide if it is time to re-evaluate your brand.

1. Your sales and marketing people are producing their own marketing tools or selling pieces. If corporate-produced materials exist, they're not always used. You may feel that you are over communicating, yet under-delivering. As a result, brand consistency is suffering.

2. Your brand's marketing tools don't seem to express what the brand truly stands for.

3. You worry that the brand may be losing its external appeal that in earlier days felt much stronger. Perhaps it's simply become dated.

4. Brand awareness is low among your target audience. The target market has a hard time explaining what you do when asked.

5. You want to attract a different market segment than you've targeted before (e.g. a younger clientele, more established firms, international versus domestic, etc.)

6. Your business is expanding into a different type of product or service area (e.g. a company expands vertically along the value chain.)

7. You've acquired or merged with another company and have two or more brands that don't make sense from the perspective of prospects, customers, investors, or other key audiences.

8. Your company has hired a new CEO with different objectives for future growth.

9. The competitive terrain is more intense, and it is more difficult that ever to differentiate your superior products and services from others.

10. You do not have a well documented brand strategy. The brand has always been conveyed verbally or in pieces through your employees. This has created challenges with both employee communications and made it tough to work with external consultants such as advertising and public relations agencies and design firms.

If these symptoms exist throughout your organization, don't despair.

First and foremost, don't surrender to the temptation of the quick and easy fix to your Web site, marketing collateral system, brand identity, or packaging design.

Don't run the risk of applying

o re-evaluate your brand.

1. Your sales and marketing people are producing their own marketing tools or selling pieces. If corporate-produced materials exist, they're not always used. You may feel that you are over communicating, yet under-delivering. As a result, brand consistency is suffering.

2. Your brand's marketing tools don't seem to express what the brand truly stands for.

3. You worry that the brand may be losing its external appeal that in earlier days felt much stronger. Perhaps it's simply become dated.

4. Brand awareness is low among your target audience. The target market has a hard time explaining what you do when asked.

5. You want to attract a different market segment than you've targeted before (e.g. a younger clientele, more established firms, international versus domestic, etc.)

6. Your business is expanding into a different type of product or service area (e.g. a company expands vertically along the value chain.)

7. You've acquired or merged with another company and have two or more brands that don't make sense from the perspective of prospects, customers, investors, or other key audiences.

8. Your company has hired a new CEO with different objectives for future growth.

9. The competitive terrain is more intense, and it is more difficult that ever to differentiate your superior products and services from others.

10. You do not have a well documented brand strategy. The brand has always been conveyed verbally or in pieces through your employees. This has created challenges with both employee communications and made it tough to work with external consultants such as advertising and public relations agencies and design firms.

If these symptoms exist throughout your organization, don't despair.

First and foremost, don't surrender to the temptation of the quick and easy fix to your Web site, marketing collateral system, brand identity, or packaging design.

Don't run the risk of applying

r. Perhaps it's simply become dated.

4. Brand awareness is low among your target audience. The target market has a hard time explaining what you do when asked.

5. You want to attract a different market segment than you've targeted before (e.g. a younger clientele, more established firms, international versus domestic, etc.)

6. Your business is expanding into a different type of product or service area (e.g. a company expands vertically along the value chain.)

7. You've acquired or merged with another company and have two or more brands that don't make sense from the perspective of prospects, customers, investors, or other key audiences.

8. Your company has hired a new CEO with different objectives for future growth.

9. The competitive terrain is more intense, and it is more difficult that ever to differentiate your superior products and services from others.

10. You do not have a well documented brand strategy. The brand has always been conveyed verbally or in pieces through your employees. This has created challenges with both employee communications and made it tough to work with external consultants such as advertising and public relations agencies and design firms.

If these symptoms exist throughout your organization, don't despair.

First and foremost, don't surrender to the temptation of the quick and easy fix to your Web site, marketing collateral system, brand identity, or packaging design.

Don't run the risk of applying

red or merged with another company and have two or more brands that don't make sense from the perspective of prospects, customers, investors, or other key audiences.

8. Your company has hired a new CEO with different objectives for future growth.

9. The competitive terrain is more intense, and it is more difficult that ever to differentiate your superior products and services from others.

10. You do not have a well documented brand strategy. The brand has always been conveyed verbally or in pieces through your employees. This has created challenges with both employee communications and made it tough to work with external consultants such as advertising and public relations agencies and design firms.

If these symptoms exist throughout your organization, don't despair.

First and foremost, don't surrender to the temptation of the quick and easy fix to your Web site, marketing collateral system, brand identity, or packaging design.

Don't run the risk of applying

lly or in pieces through your employees. This has created challenges with both employee communications and made it tough to work with external consultants such as advertising and public relations agencies and design firms.

If these symptoms exist throughout your organization, don't despair.

First and foremost, don't surrender to the temptation of the quick and easy fix to your Web site, marketing collateral system, brand identity, or packaging design.

Don't run the risk of applying scarce marketing dollars to achieve inadequate performance results. Instead, take the time to craft a well articulated brand strategy to guide and integrate all of your future marketing communications. If you need outside counsel, engage proven brand strategists and other relevant experts to help you consider the broader brand implications before you try to fix any problematic marketing vehicles.

In doing so, you'll address issues in a winning way and give your brand its best shot at earning a firm position within the hearts and minds of the consumers you depend on for your long term success and the employees who serve as your brand ambassadors every day.