Drowning in a sea of sameness
Powerful corporate brands are courageous, creative, and committed. Unfortunately, too many companies rely on conventional wisdom and are risk-averse when it comes to their brand. They play it safe, are afraid of rocking the boat, and of making bold statements of who they really are. They want to be all things to all people. Too often decisions are a group consensus and become watered-down ideals, pleasing everyone in the room, but resonating with no one. Using generic statements and business jargon, they just create mediocrity and drown in a sea of sameness.
Many leaders think of brand development as a one-and-done event. Too often, they are afraid of being their real selves and hide vulnerability, wearing a corporate veneer, that needs to be penetrated. They need to reveal their true beliefs and feelings, what’s in their heart and soul, to bring out their humanness and relatability. We look to leaders for clues and guidance in their behaviors, signaling what they and the brand stand for, and what makes them special. Courageous and transformational leaders can be a beacon for helping shape transformational and courageous brands.
Corporate vs consumer brands
Let’s clarify. Corporate brands refer to the overall image and reputation of a company. Corporate branding concerns the company as a whole and its relationship with all stakeholders, employees, customers, investors, suppliers, and community members, where it operates. On the other hand, consumer branding is concerned with the individual products and services a company provides and its relationship with the end consumers.
Branding a corporation is much like a Rubik’s cube, multi-dimensional. Think about how each brand attribute relates to your key audience, which are many, and how your relevance intersects with their needs. When branding a company, you must delve deeper into all the elements, especially purpose, values, positioning, value proposition, and sustainability.
Today a powerful corporate brand must have three integrated strategy pillars:
- Humanness — your core beliefs: purpose, vision, mission, and values, and the associated behaviors and mindsets that become the code for your people and culture. When it comes from your heart and soul it’s powerful.
- Sustainability — environmental, social, governance, and economic plans, actions, and outcomes, for contributing to a better world where all people and the planet thrive.
- Brand fundamentals — marketplace positioning, your promise, your value proposition, and your personality.
Corporate branding is a long-term investment. Done right, it creates a strategic competitive advantage, stimulates revenue growth, and increases a company’s valuation. So, how do you do it right? Here’s our formula — five imperatives for differentiation and attraction that, when done with conviction, will differentiate you in the marketplace and attract the employees, customers, and investors you need.
Brand building takes savvy and insights, balancing today’s reality with tomorrow’s aspirations. It requires courage, creativity, and a commitment to nurture and constantly refine.
Our five imperatives to help you transcend the ordinary
1. Reveal your humanness and sustainability
Customers want to buy from, employees want to work for, and investors want to finance companies they believe in. You need to create brand believers by stating your core beliefs, what’s in your heart and soul as a human being. It’s counter-intuitive for many leaders and organization. It’s an introspective process —you must open up, and be vulnerable to find your truths. It’s a reflective process — a complete 360° immersion to reveal the collective beliefs held and lived within a company. People have a need to believe and trust.
It starts with your purpose, the fundamental reason you exist, the difference you’ll make in the world. It comes from within, it’s not manufactured. It doesn’t have to be a lofty statement, but it must resonate and have absolute meaning, felt throughout your organization, and only then will you have a chance for the world to feel it. You’ll need to define it for each audience, insuring connection, and inspiration.
Born from your purpose, your vision is how you’ll bring it to life, especially how all people and the planet will benefit from your existence.
We all have a belief system, stated or not. Your values are your guiding principles that inform your behaviors, actions, decisions, and mindsets. It’s important to completely own and personalize your values to the business, to be distinctively yours. And how you live them daily is what counts. People today want to engage with companies that share their same values. They are the basis for how people will experience you. At Baker, we call this your ‘humanness’.
The world has changed and not for the good. Your customers, employees, investors, and all of your stakeholders have new expectations of you to be part of the solution, not the problem. They want to know and see your ambitions, commitments, and actions towards meeting their own needs without compromising the ability of future generations as they relate to environmental, social, and economic goals. Business strategy and sustainability strategy must merge, so organizations are best positioned to create long-term value, not short term focused solely on maximizing profits. Your sustainability strategy has become an integral component of your corporate brand.
2. Establish your DNA — bond your brand, humanness and sustainability
This is a rigorous look outward to garner the insights to discover your competitive advantage. It’s critical to state your brand fundamentals with the same intentionality that you stated your core beliefs. From your positioning in the marketplace, to your value proposition to your customers, to your personality, it’s all a part of your special brand formula.
Our approach to corporate brand strategy goes beyond your competitive advantage in the marketplace. It must be relevant to the needs of all of your stakeholders. When you bond your humanness, sustainability, and brand, you create a combination of rational and emotive attributes that become your DNA. No other company can claim the same genetic makeup. It has surprising power when applied with bravery and thoughtfulness. We call it courageous corporate branding.
3. Express yourself with passion and distinction
It’s hard to standout in today’s chaotic and oversaturated world. It’s imperative that you express yourself with passion and distinction to achieve the high bar you’ve set. People don’t interact with your strategy — they react to how you express it and how they experience it. Now that you’ve established the foundation of your corporate brand, here’s where we make it tangible — where your audience can see it, hear it, and feel it.
Words matter. Don’t apply generic labels to your brand and values. Write them with meaning and authenticity that comes from the lexicon of your culture. Describe your values with distinction, along with their behaviors and actions. This is often a missed opportunity to add deeper connection and pride in your employees, have differentiation in the marketplace, enhance your attraction to all stakeholders, and amplify your brand.
Brand strategy guides the brand expression. From your voice to the brand line and story, to the brandmark and logotype, color, typography, and layout, to the imagery and icons. The brand expression must be masterfully crafted considering all the channels and experiences in which people will interact with your brand.
4. Energize your people, align your culture — live it
Top performing companies are fanatical about shaping an energized and unified culture and inspiring their people with a framework of meaningful purpose, clear vision, authentic and actionable values, and solid business strategy. They make the investment, knowing it will pay dividends.
Winning organizations put their people first. They understand that if they take care of their people, their people will in turn take care of the business and give it their all. These organizations are human-centric in their mindset and being, highly valuing and enabling their people to be their best. They design an employee experience where people can connect with each other, and are valued and respected. They create a culture where every employee can pursue what motivates them in their work, giving them the freedom to be themselves and be their best, while feeling safe.
Operationalizing your beliefs and brand throughout the organization is key for your success. Every leader, manager and employee needs to understand how the purpose, vision, and values connects them with their work and how they live it every day. Employee management and reward and recognition are also crucial.
A great culture needs continuous engagement, constant listening, active feedback, communications, and conversations.
5. Create meaningful, emotive experiences — feel it
Corporate brands need to take a cue from consumer brands.
Technology and the pandemic have changed our expectations for how brands interact with us. Customers and all stakeholders want human and personal experiences from your company. For too long there’s been a disconnect between what a company delivers and what the customer wants.
It’s no longer enough for a brand to offer a great product, service, or technology at a fair price. Those are table stakes in every industry now. Customers now expect brands to demonstrate a multifaceted understanding of who they are as individuals. They want to be engaged at the right moment, in their preferred channel, with exactly what they’re looking for.
This is about personalization of message and interaction and meeting the customer in the right moment and connecting with them to create a human, empathic experience. It’s the intersection of your customers’ and stakeholder’s needs and emotions, with your beliefs, value proposition, and shared purpose. It’s about how you make your stakeholders feel — about your company — and about themselves.
Why invest in a courageous corporate brand?
The potential benefits are many.
Deepens your connection with customers
People want to buy from, and affiliate with companies they believe in. You’ll create brand believers, life-time loyalists.
Differentiates you in the marketplace
All your attributes: core beliefs, brand promise, and your sustainability, are your unique identity, unlike anybody else.
Enhances your reputation
Living your beliefs, consistently doing for the greater good, and delivering your benefits to all, goes a long, long way in how you are perceived.
Establishes premium pricing
Being trusted, consistently delivering on your promise, and creating positive experiences, allows you to charge your worth.
Attracts and retains top talent
Employees want to work for companies they believe in. Companies that are convicted in their beliefs, put their people first in all aspects of the employee experience, offering them opportunities for growth are the desired companies to work for. They attract and keep their tribe.
Aligns your culture and energizes all your people
Employees that are aligned by a shared purpose and vision, feel a collective courage, autonomy, and desire to achieve something remarkable, are the lucky ones.
Drives company financial performance
An aligned and energized workforce with a clear and compelling brand and business strategy typically outperform their peers.
Informs your business and sustainability strategies
When your mindset is driven by value creation, guided by your brand and beliefs, your strategies and desired outcomes will be apparent.
Serves as a guide to integrating your ESG program
It’s in your collective heart and soul to make a positive impact where all people and the planet benefit.
Elevates your relevance to all your stakeholders
Companies that seek a better way to serve all of their stakeholders by creating value in every domain will be rewarded.
A courageous corporate brand can be a game-changer when you make the right investment. It can create great tangible, measurable, long-term value for your organization. The ROI and the benefits will be significant.