Values That Brand Us

Unless you’ve been living in the backwoods, you’ve heard the term “cancel culture”. Some of the unlucky ones have even experienced it. Divisive as it might sound, it also heralds a distinction with what today’s consumers are willing to pull out their Apple Pay for. Today’s patrons are helping rethink and shape a company's values and mindset.

And that’s a good thing.

As unsure or unsettling as it may feel to some companies that consumers now have a multitude of options to shop from, rising up to the challenge can actually broaden your appeal. By thinking differently, much like Apple, your business can help create a more true connection to the people who support you.?

But remember, creating connections doesn’t just affect the end purchaser. It begins ultimately with your employees. The melding between how consumers see or hear about your internal workings and their experience upon purchase, means there needs to be seamless consistency between how you treat people internally, and the way you promote externally.

High-caliber employees are attracted primarily by a culture they want to spend time in. These elevated employees can help lead to a 33% revenue increase for your company alone.

Hence the reason we believe that there is an untapped symbiotic relationship within most businesses — that of the CHRO/CPO and the CMO. Transparency vs. the person behind the curtain reigns supreme. So much so, that if your employees aren’t “feeling the love”, then your deep pockets are probably packing more lint than loot.?

Getting these two leaders together will help build a stronger, more authentically rich culture that aligns ALL of the company values, and makes sure the “love” is distributed both inwardly and outwardly. By pairing Head of People with your Head of Marketing, you can help build a community of consumers that see and feel that you are who you say you are. This builds trust, which builds engagement, which builds sales. Not to mention, by leveraging 2 budgets into sharing costs that help shape the brand, you’ve not only increased your reach, but you’ve actually saved some money too.

Cha-ching—it’s simple math. Treating employees well = better sales.?

Think that your end consumers don’t know what is happening there? They can simply look at your Board of Directors or your leadership team and suss out, are you REALLY walking the walk or are you skipping over your alluring advertising persona?

Wear your values on your sleeve. Eat, breathe and live it from the first interaction you have with a potential new employee until their retirement party. Get creative and excited about onboarding and offboarding rituals and everything in between. By caring for your employees, they in turn, care for you AND the product or service they are helping create. They become your key evangelists, wearing your swag proudly, and spend their money there whether they have an employee discount or not.

Henry Ford was one of the first proponents of this leadership style—forging the 8-hour/5-day work week on September 25, 1926. His explanation was simple: he believed? his employees needed time with their families. Along with other benefits such as higher pay rates and profit-sharing, Ford became an early activist of conscious leadership. And the fact that his loyal employees not only had the time, but the funds to purchase a Ford vehicle for their off-time pursuits, helped build Ford’s legacy.

So if you’re ready to follow Ford’s lead and desire design strategies that help elevate your internal branding or want to engage in how to leverage experiential design within your workforce, please reach out to us. We’d love to chat about how employee engagement matters for everyone involved, especially you.

Article Authored By: LISA HARDY ?? , Chief of Design & Brand Strategy

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