Last week, I asked if you had a 360-degree view of your brand and we identified that a brand is like a three-legged stool.
To review, the three legs are:
- The company’s vision of the brand
- The consumers’ vision of the brand
- Where your brand sits in the marketplace
As promised, in this post we’re going to explore the first leg of the stool – the company’s vision of the brand.
This is your take. How do you perceive the organization today? What do you want it to become?
If you don’t get this right, you’re sunk. In the simplest form – a brand is your promise to the world. To your employees, your vendors and your customers. It is you standing up, hand on heart and pledging something.
And then keeping that pledge.
But if you aren’t sure what you should pledge then you probably stumble around like most companies, changing taglines and strategies on a whim (or the cycles of the sales seasons). What’s the end result? Confusion. Mistrust. Skepticism. High turn over (internal and external) and shaky relationships.
On the flip side, when you get this part right, you’ll be amazed at the results. Decisions become easier. Employees know which direction you want them to pull. Your messages and behavior align.
So what do you need to discover your brand? There are three key elements to this. The who, the when and the catalyst.
The who:
First you recognize that there are many different perspectives and you need those voices around the table. This is not something to be decided on a senior management retreat. You have to include the many viewpoints throughout your company. A good way to do that is to assemble a branding team that includes your entire senior management team and representation from each department.
The when:
To understand your brand and to grow into the company you have the potential to be, you need to see yourself as you are today. And you need to have a vision for where you want to take the company in the future.
The catalyst:
You cannot accurately describe the outside of the bottle from the inside. You, your senior management team nor your employees can be objective about your own company. You need an outsider to help you navigate the waters, ask the hard questions, point out the elephants in the middle of the room and challenge your assumptions. Find someone who has a branding pedigree – meaning they’ve successfully done it for others.
Answering questions about what you love to do, what kind of work energizes your team, where you can provide the most value, why you do the work you do, and what values you are not willing to compromise on are all good conversation starters. The answers will begin to build the cornerstone to your brand. At least from your perspective.
Next time…the 2nd leg of the stool. Your consumer’s vision of your brand.
