I was reading Richard Florida’s latest book Who’s Your City? and really liked the chapter on how the Big Five personality types (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism) cluster geographically by region and in doing so, create geographic personality-scapes that one should be aware of when choosing a place to live. In other words, if you are a high Agreeable you will eventually feel out of place in a high Neuroticism place.
One of the most satisfying applications of corporate brand strategy is in helping hospitals define their proposition and orient themselves to a promise that sets them apart from others in their networks. This is far more than renaming, re-skinning or capital campaign sloganeering. In
When I got tired of asking my clients “who are you?” I started asking them “why are you?”. What’s the reason you are the way you are and do what you do? Then things started to get interesting. I’ve found that one of the best ways to answer that question is to go back to the earliest beginnings of the organization - the moment of conception if you will – to understand the formative values and beliefs. More often than not, those values are still operating in some measure, deep in the reflexive culture, and may be the most authentic thing to build the brand on. The creation story, linked to the present, can be a powerful credibility builder, especially inside the organization where employees are the first to apply the “stink test” to things like a new brand promise. (Read on …)
In my last post I argued that real brand strategy is too big, too important and too much work to be expressed only through a creative brief that goes to communication specialists, design firms, public relations types and advertising agencies. In Part One I proposed the Organizational Brief, in which the implications of the brand are fully explored across everything you do, not just marketing. In Part Two I propose the Experience Brief in which the real work of the brand – the experiences that it creates – are explicitly identified and managed throughout the organization.
The creative brief. What a curious way to cap off a brand strategy initiative. You mean you’ve spent months asking yourselves and others who you are, how you are different and what your unique opportunity is in the market, and the ribbon you tie around it is a creative brief to inform the design of the visual identity? What about the 900 other ways in which your brand will be experienced, expressed and supported? What about the Organizational Brief™? (Read on …)
While corporate brands rely on current equity, the best brand strategy will be built on the equity you can create in the future. This idea usually makes organizations nervous as they quite rightly measure the risk of going live with a promise they cannot fulfill. In my view, it’s best to explore the far corners of where your brand can take you and to work towards that vision with the help of your customers.
Corporate values are sets of beliefs that shape behaviour in organizations, and they strongly determine internal and external perceptions. In several projects linking corporate values to brand and organizational change, I’ve been working with a three-tiered model of values, which is helping to make the job of managing values a bit easier. (Read on …)
“The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavour to be what you desire to appear.” Socrates’ insight is as true for organizations and their brands as it was for the virtuous individual he sought to instruct more than 2000 years ago. This simple idea, also summed up in the iconic: decide who you are and be that thing, is a powerful reminder of how to order your priorities. The common trap, of course, is not getting beyond appearances. So often, too much focus is put on building media attention, advertising impressions and unaided awareness; and on proclaiming through logos, taglines and marketing messaging, that you are who you say you are.
The Marketing function has pretty much had a lockdown on developing and managing corporate brand strategy in recent memory, but there are reasons to believe that this might be changing. Human Resources is emerging as the group to watch when it comes to implementing the most meaningful aspects of the brand. (Read on …)
If you’re part of even the most average organization, you probably know a fair amount about your customers. You probably know a lot about what matters to them, what they think about you, and how much they are willing to pay to buy to what you sell. But how much do you know about what your employees think, what matters to them and how far they are willing to go to defend your brand? Chances are you’ve got an employee satisfaction survey that HR does every year or so, and you’ve got a few programs in place to communicate more openly; but do you really know the effect that implicit corporate values are having on your ability to deliver on your brand promise, or for that matter on your basic corporate responsibilities? (Read on …)
There is a shift underway in how people are talking about corporate brands; a shift that is going to result in the next generation of branding. After years of brand being the big idea, leaders want more. They’ve got their new identities, taglines, brand evangelists and guidelines, and they’ve even done some training on “what does the brand mean for me.” But there is something missing… (Read on …)
Why is it that the big brand idea so often fails to reach the salesforce? It’s puzzling and it’s something that I’m paying extra attention to in my work these days. If the proposition doesn’t help them sell, there must be something wrong with it. If it could help them sell and they’re not using it, then it either hasn’t been brought to life for them or they’re being rewarded for doing something else. Either way, it’s not a good situation, especially in business-to-business, where the salesforce is so important. Try an experiment. Ask someone in sales to describe you organization’s unique, persuasive difference. If it takes more than ten words, I’d be concerned. (Read on …)