A Misalignment of Brand Expectations

Intro, Part 1 – Corporate Brand Personality

You walk into the reception area of a large management consultancy firm you are hoping to partner with. The décor is refreshing, sophisticated and high quality with fresh flowers, glossy brochures and an open, welcoming reception desk. Just as you would expect from their branding and advertising. Clearly this company has invested heavily in its office furnishings, the impression it wants to give to clients, and its overall brand image.

Behind the reception desk are two receptionists, having a chat, seemingly indifferent to the fact you are there. After a few seconds too long, you are met with a smile-less face from one of them, indifferent in her approach, wearing clothes that are out of context with the professional environment. It feels like you are an inconvenience to her as she eventually looks up at you. ?And then, “yes, can I help you”? Even though she has seen you only last week, she shows no sign of recognition.

Which is the stronger, more powerful and memorable message of the consultancy firm brand? Which one do you take away with you, perhaps subconsciously, and potentially talk about with colleagues and friends? ?On the other hand, which is the one most heavily invested in? I would guess the most memorable one is the attitude and behaviour of the receptionist. Why? Because it’s more personal and seemingly directed at you. You feel insignificant, unimportant, under-valued, and it therefore has an emotional impact on you, that sticks. These emotions are guaranteed to cause us to feel negative energy from our surroundings. I would also suggest that the most heavily invested in are the office surroundings relative to the amount invested in the training of the receptionists. Overall your experience of the brand is likely to be largely negative.

This is a simple, non-sophisticated example; however trust and respect in your corporate brand today does not come from your logos, advertising and sponsorship. It comes from the people within your organisation and how they communicate in all forms, to all stakeholders. That is quite simply your strongest brand messaging today and in the eyes of your customers and stakeholders, your people are your brand. Yes of course you need the heavy investment in your websites, advertising and all your marketing collateral, which serves to create the expectation and lays out the value and guarantee of quality in the brand. The true brand value though is in the experience your clients and customers take away with them and ultimately remember and talk about.

This book will follow the roadmap below, taking you from where you may be now in the corporate world, to where you need to get to with regard to real elements of corporate branding. ?Running a small consultancy and training business that focuses totally on and specialises in the people element of the corporate brand, I and the team have had the privilege of working with many global organisations in most sectors, across 28 countries and 5 continents, and many different cultures. As such, I have attempted to provide you with real-life experiences you can relate to, challenges that our clients have been up against for you to familiarise yourself with, and solutions for you to refer to so that you can address your needs in your own business. ??Whilst I do not focus on how you create your corporate imaging and logos, nor the entire customer experience program that some specialist brand agencies will provide, I will help you to maximise your investment to a level that you may not have achieved before. This book will help you to align people behaviours with your brand, enhance the personality of the brand and sustain this to a level that creates positive authentic impact every time any stakeholder interacts with or experiences your organisation.

The destination = maximised corporate brand investment & positive customer experience.

(I'll be releasing my entire book in bite-sized chunks like this through the next few months).

Copyright Lesley Everett 2024