2. Lose sight of your aspirations

An entrepreneur should have a very long vision for his company. He should have in his mind that his startup will be with him forever. And then he should develop the branding strategy. Aspirations are like fuel for an organization. It helps in defining the architecture of the brand.

For example, Virgin started out as a small record company in 1970 built on a unique set of principles: value for money, quality, innovation, fun and a sense of competitive challenge. Today, Virgin has evolved into a multi-billion dollar international investment group. It has kept its ideals intact in all sectors — whether it’s travel, mobile, lifestyle or entertainment. They create the same brand experience for their customers everywhere.

1. Break your promises

If companies don’t deliver on their brand promises, their customers will hold them accountable. An entrepreneur must make a brand promise after pondering over it.

For example, Path, a social network had in its mission statement “the social network “should be private by default. Forever. You should always be in control of your information and experience.”

Yet they were found collecting contact information from their user’s iPhones without consent. They had to apologize later for their mistake and correct the error. This could have been avoided if the company had kept its brand promise.