One of the lessons from Dick Bruso’s weekend workshop in branding was the importance of consistency in a brand image. A brand is a promise. Customers recognize the brand not just by the name of that organization, but by the shape, color, size and location of the brand logo.

Many small businesses and independent entrepreneurs are sloppy with their brand image. They buy a QuickPrint business card, use stock paper from Kinko’s and download a standard template for their blog or website. Nothing matches. There is no brand consistency. Not so with large corporations. Their brands are instantly recognizable and consistent. Coke uses the same shade of red on its cans of soda worldwide.

But what about a company which owns an image in its market, but other companies, in other markets, use the same name and project a very different brand image?

Consider my employer, Hewlett-Packard. Legend has it that Bill & Dave decided whose name was to come first by tossing a coin. Heaven knows the confusion if the coin had come up tails! Anyone care to explain what acidity and alkalinity has to do with computer equipment? But were they aware that since the 1880’s the British had been slathering their breakfast sausage with HP Sauce?

Of course, overlapping corporate logos with very different brand images are usually not a problem. No-one would mistakenly pick up a bottle of sauce instead of a computer. Although I’m sure some computer user in the UK must by now have spilled HP sauce on their HP computer.

Another computer company, my previous employer Sun Microsystems, competes for people’s attention worldwide with a British Newspaper and a brand of French detergent.

Trouble is caused when previously unrelated markets collide, as seen in the Apple vs. Apple controversy which pits Steve Jobs against the Fab Four.

Try as they might, companies will run into potential brand confusion, as these examples of various companies other than Hewlett-Packard who use an “HP Logo” show.

The 800-lb gorillas of the Fortune 500 probably don’t lose sleep over this (unless they work for McDonald’s who are famously aggressive in closing down any enterprise started by descendent’s of the Clan McDonald anywhere, any place, at any time.)

But for small businesses it should be a matter of some concern. If you are starting a small company and someone else on the web has one with a similar name, be sure to aim for maximum consistency with your logo, printed matter and other branding elements.

However, the ultimate validation of a brand’s popularity might be when your customers start tattooing it on their bodies. Here’s a couple of examples from competing side of the computer industry.

One can only wonder what would happen if they started dating.