Brand & Culture: Your Winning Hand

The field of advertising and media has become even more crowded than ever before as technology continues to evolve and play a more significant part in consumers' lives. Given all the changes we've seen in the last couple of years, more than ever, we must figure out how to stand out and maximize the value of our marketing.

?The notion of culture is not something most think of when discussing the brand, but when you think about it,?brands are built by so much more than ads and public relations. Likewise, culture involves so much more than perks and parties. And somehow, strategy becomes the catch-all for everything.

?Research from Korn Ferry's Hay Group division found that the alignment between strategy and culture is more often the exception than the rule. The division's study found that 72% of respondents agreed that culture is extremely important to organizational performance. However, only 32% said their culture aligns with their business strategy. This disconnect likely comes from a view that sees company values only affecting corporate reputation and employee recruitment.

The growing number of articles examining concepts?such as brand purpose and culture has forced companies to reconsider their respective cultures' impact on the business. “Culture is no longer seen as an afterthought when considering the business focus of an organization,” said Noah Rabinowitz, senior partner and global head of Hay Group’s Leadership Development Practice. “Culture is the X-factor. It’s the invisible glue that holds an organization together and ultimately makes the difference between whether an organization is able to succeed in the market or not.”

?Brand strategist Denise Yohn introduced me (along with many brand strategy professionals) to the concept of "fusion" in her book by the same name. She delves into a different idea of workplace culture - one that is less about benefits and more about creating engaged team members who will work together to produce the results that will be focused on your strategy, ultimately building a great brand.

?In her book Fusion, Yohn notes the lack of brand culture alignment described in the Korn Ferry research as a chicken-or-the-egg problem. "If business leaders don't see how culture impacts business performance, then they don't operationalize -- that is, put into action and use -- their core values throughout the business and, therefore, they don't see any definitive results from them."?

?As market saturation has made it increasingly difficult for any company to sustain product leadership over time and differentiate its brand on product features or performance alone, a definitive brand identity expressed through superior guest experiences can help build long-term customer relationships and maintain higher profit margins.?The opportunity is to move from talking?about values to embracing?them to drive brand performance.

You must operationalize your brand.

Yohn states that when culture and brand are completely in sync, their alignment is manifested visibly in four primary areas: purpose and values integration, employee experience/customer experience integration, internal brand alignment, and employee brand engagement.

VALUES INTEGRATION

The most important question an organization can ask - and answer - is why it exists. Having a purpose can sustain a company even through a very dark time. The notion of a brand purpose seems to have become one of the most current buzz phrases, but with good reason. In our competitive environments, we battle daily for the entertainment dollar. As brands, we need to play an irreplaceable role in the lives of our guests. We must live out that purpose so that guests will not be easily lured away by more deliberate competitors. I've been in the boardrooms of companies that aspire to be leaders in profitability and yet promise exceptional service. These two concepts (business goal vs. brand promise) can become quite disconnected and cause confusion for managers, front-line team members, and guests.

Finding your purpose doesn't have to be a socially or environmentally focused exercise (as we see from companies outside of our industry). Your purpose won't necessarily dull your ability to create higher profits. Finding your purpose can be an examination of the foundation of the company or undergoing the Five Why's exercise, or even the Porras and Collins Random Corporate Serial Killer game, which challenges you to consider what would be lost if your company ceased to exist and why it must thrive. Once found, codify your company's higher purpose in a statement describing the impact you want to make inside and outside your company.

TEAM MEMBER BRAND EXPERIENCE

I believe the most significant opportunity we have is integrating team member and guest experiences. When that is done, the part we seem to struggle with the most - creative and graphic expression - becomes much more manageable.?

Ultimately, you want to create a brand experience for team members, from how they are hired to how they are onboarded and trained to how they do their jobs and interact with guests and each other. In essence, "you engage your employees in the way you expect them to engage your customers," says Yohn. You must design the team member experience with the principles you use to create the guest experience and ensure the workplace embodies your brand attributes.

INTERNAL BRAND ALIGNMENT

Internal brand engagement is seemingly often equated with the amount of swag given to team members or the scores given to us during an annual survey process.

Brand alignment is bringing the brand strategy into focus through team member communication, education, and enrollment of your team to refocus efforts on creating positive business results through delivering the brand promise to guests at every level of the organization. Correctly done, this process and outcome of everyone sharing a common understanding can be contagious. This is done by clearly articulating the brand positioning to everyone inside the organization and ensuring stakeholders consistently agree on what is "on brand" and, conversely, what is not.

TEAM MEMBER BRAND ENGAGEMENT

People often confuse team member brand engagement with general team member engagement (or commitment). Engagement efforts are often designed to make team members feel satisfied with their benefits and environment so they will be encouraged to do a great job. Team member engagement generally manifests itself in relationships with co-workers, how they view their jobs and careers, and their participation in work activities. These efforts may vary in success, but unless intertwined with the brand values, they will not encourage team members to create the type of guest experience that will advance the brand. Team members who are engaged with?the brand will think and act "on brand."

Team members become your best brand ambassadors because their belief in the brand promise is deep and emotional. They make decisions by considering what's suitable for the brand in the long term rather than choosing what will produce short-term results.

When you think about it, we're all in the experience business. We all work hard to deliver exceptional experiences, but sometimes we miss. When that happens, you need a strong brand culture to win back guests.

Companies that successfully combine their culture and brand find the two inextricably woven into the entire organization. When describing the culture and the brand, you will notice a single set of values. Leaders will act and make decisions in a consistent manner. But, more importantly, the difference between the company's claims in its communications and how team members live out the culture is minimal. The bottom line is that the company has differentiated itself in a way that creates value.

If you're a marketing leader, I challenge you to take the next step in your brand development today. Fusing your brand and culture cannot be delegated to human resources OR marketing. You must be the champion so the entire organization can accomplish the vision. As Yohn professes, "Culture doesn't eat strategy for breakfast. It doesn't eat it for lunch. Culture makes strategy possible." Like two atomic nuclei in a nuclear reaction, "when fused, your culture and brand create an unmistakable, unbreakable source of sustainable power for your business."?