The danger of ignoring your brand/culture gap

We get it. Identifying the priorities in your marketing budget isn't easy. Is this the year for the website, search, SEO, video, social, PR, influencer, etc? There is a lot to consider.

We do know that pushing more people to look at a shaky foundation is a risk. Successful companies are especially prone to brand/culture gaps. It can look a couple of ways:

• Your culture is vibrant, but your brand is dated
• Your brand makes claims your culture can't yet back up
• Your identity is fragmented across platforms

It is important to prioritize a long-term investment like branding among pressing shorter-term marketing concerns. As your culture evolves and becomes increasingly out of line with your brand, these three significant and immediate problems surface.

Talent attraction

Every business we talk to has talent attraction as a goal. But, it is difficult to attract the best talent if searchers don’t even read the job description. Their perception of your organization matters. You are looking for employees who match your values. Remember, values might be the first brand touchpoint. But searchers also see your organization through narrative, symbol, and artifact. Your values must weave through the whole brand for them to choose you. They don’t only live on an About Us page on your website.

Talent attraction will always be problematic when your culture and brand are misaligned.

Employee morale?

Growth causes pain. A work culture is constantly stressed by the push and pull of values and practice. New people can amplify this. Changes in strategic direction can amplify this. Sometimes, values drift just because you lose sight of them temporarily. An ambitious organization will need help realigning culture and brand periodically. The risk of delaying is too great.

• Can you afford to lose your best people?
• Can you afford for them to check out?
• Probably not

Consumer skepticism

Any gap between who you say you are and how you present yourself will be greeted skeptically. There are so many examples of bad corporate behavior that businesses don’t have much leeway.

Dissonance is perceived as deceit. And you might not get a second chance.

While these are serious problems, they are good problems. Your culture and brand are out of alignment because you are growing and dynamic. It is normal and exciting.

We would love to help you think through your issues, whether we partner on something as simple as a strategy workshop or a complete brand refresh. Remember that the cumulative effect of Apple’s rigorous attention to culture and brand is a $1T company.