1. Your brand name is too limiting. Often, the names of new companies reflect what they sell, where they’re located or who they were founded by. These names are easy to outgrow. If your aspirations, offerings or competitive positioning has changed, you need to rebrand.

2. You’re losing sales to lower-priced competitors. Products and services that are perceived as a commodity almost always have to compete on price. A strong new brand can elevate your offering when it's based on a highly differentiated, benefit-driven positioning.

3. Potential customers are confusing your business with a similar one. Try this test: Enter your brand name as a search term in Google. Do the top results show competitors’ sites as well as your own? If so, your name is not distinctive enough in your industry, which could lead to confusion among customers. It could even mean that your competition is benefiting from your marketing.

4. You’re expanding into a different category. Be wary of line extensions. If your new product is not closely linked to your current offering, you could damage or dilute your brand. Generally speaking, if you’re entering a different category, you should create a new brand. This will protect current brand perceptions while staking out new territory with the new brand.

5. You don’t own the trademark on your name. A surprising number of small business owners fail to trademark their company or product name before going to market. Your brand name is capital—intellectual capital. Own what’s yours. If your brand name is too descriptive to register as a trademark, or worse, if some other company already owns it, you need to rebrand.

6. You hardly ever hear anyone compliment you on your brand name. The first reaction to a brand is emotional, not rational, even for business-to-business brands. Customers are human, after all. By engaging people emotionally, you create a connection and the opportunity for persuasion, and then you can support your offering with rational reasons to buy.

7. Your brand name isn’t memorable. Are you finding that people have to be exposed to your name several times before they remember it? A powerful name—one that’s highly distinctive and elicits an emotional response—can earn a place in the memory bank with a single exposure.

8. Your brand name does not relate to your brand promise. Your brand name should be like a one-word advertisement. If it doesn’t connect directly or indirectly to your brand promise, you’ve squandered an opportunity to predispose someone to your message.

9. Your brand name has no mystery. A name should pique interest, not attempt to tell your entire story. A little mystery in a brand name grabs attention and adds impact and memorability. As long as there’s a connection to your brand promise, an intriguing name compels people to want to know more.

10. Your brand has suffered significant bad PR. From Phillip Morris to Altria. WorldCom to MCI. Blackwater to Xe. When negative perceptions about a brand are pervasive and intractable, it pays to wipe the slate clean with a new brand name—and then, of course, avoid the kind of bad behavior that destroyed the original brand.