Myth #2 Your Branding Design Stem’s From What you do!

What do all successful companies and powerhouse brands have in common? They attract strong investors, ideal customers, and high-performing talent alike. Why? Not because they named themselves Apple or because of what they do or sell.

The sole intention or purpose of a business is not, and cannot be, just about making money because people are fundamentally driven by something bigger than themselves, by the greater good and contribution — by a greater purpose.

As leaders, one of our most important jobs is to connect our people to their greater purpose because when an authentic purpose and vision permeates business and brand strategy, coupled with decision-making, the personal and collective good become one and the whole organisation performs at a much higher level — and you attract and retain a lot more of your ideal customers.

Related: How Leaders Drive Profitability With a Strong Brand Vision Statement

Vincent Perriard explains in the video below on how you can avoid an existential crisis amongst your employees and and build a more compelling brand that is easily understood.

In our digital age, all B2B or B2C organisations must have a highly customer-centric mindset underpinned by a really compelling purpose to succeed long-term and thrive. However, for this to occur every stakeholder internally and externally, from leadership to general staff, customers and investors must connect with a central authentic brand tenet, purpose and vision which all are irresistibly pulled towards.  

Research and consistent high performance, culture and profits prove that customers are psychologically more attracted to a brand that has a strong link between core brand values and consistently positive customer experiences while also contributing to the greater good. The products and services you offer must be embodied in a brand ethos, driven from your brand strategy, that is very compelling emotionally and rationally and lived authentically internally and externally in everything you do — all of which initially stems from the mapping out and codification of your brand in the form of your brand strategy.

Related: How to Use Brand Values to Drive Unwavering Customer Trust and Commitment

Brigid McMullen, Managing Director of The Workroom, stated how “Putting the brand at the heart of your business takes a big vision and ambition. You need to stand for something above and beyond transactional relationships.”[1]If you want to be top of mind you must put your customer first, regardless of whether your organisation is B2B or B2C. If you compromise your principles it hurts your brand promise, and you set a harmful precedent that could be catastrophic to future success. More often than not, the companies that succeed have their integrity firmly intact because the steps taken to implement a brand strategy were methodical and thoughtful. If you hope to build trust, every stakeholder must exhibit a similar understanding of what drives your company.

Myth #3. Design Powerful Visual Branding Symbols to Win Customers

To an extent some of this belief is true but not in its entirety when taken out of context because strong symbolism and visual assets take their direction from your brand strategy. They are not effective when created in an isolated vacuum of subjective design.

According to Warc, brand leaders and custodians need to be mindful of their brand’s very essence when designing their brand identity. The companies that succeed ensure their design is resilient and relevant enough to stand the test of time and evolve naturally with careful nurturing and evolutive management. As people start feeling an emotional bond with your brand, your visuals must not only support them, but be fully congruent with your brand strategy. Having, “powerful visual symbols can become highly recognizable brand properties, able to absorb multiple meanings. Brand Strategy is thus coded into the image itself and can sustain interpretations by different stakeholders more easily.”

Related: Use Psychology in Your Brand Strategy to Create Irresistible Brand Experiences and Increase Sales

It’s essential you don’t confuse this approach and think it’s the most influential part of your brand strategy. There is a lot more to it than stunning creative visuals because if the beautiful imagery doesn’t speak from the heart of your brand strategy — your brand purpose, vision, mission, promise, personality and values, it still won’t deliver the commercial imperative.

All stakeholders involved need to understand and resonate with the collective vision and purpose of your brand to deliver a successful outcome. The image alone is a byproduct of the emotional bond you’re working to build. The visual identity, logo, signature colour palette and brand guide are not the first steps to building a successful brand because they take their direction from the outputs of fully mapping out your brand in the form of your brand strategy — which must come first.

According to Forbes, “Most entrepreneurs and small business owners don’t think about their brand image until there’s a problem with the image they’re developing.”[4] Why is that? Because they never fully understood their brand vision, mission, or purpose, the foundational elements of your brand strategy. Your customers can quickly identify a lack of authenticity and transparency so you never achieve one of the most essential factors in building loyalty amongst your customers — credibility.

Related: Design Is NOT Branding: 10 Things Every Business Owner and Entrepreneur Should Know

Salesforce is a great example of a company that’s made design an integral part of their brand strategy. For readers not familiar with the business, they’re a cloud computing company based in San Francisco that have a suite of products to help streamline a workforce. They provide a CRM  solution for small, midsize and enterprise with a focus on sales and support helping you manage client relationships and help you collaborate internally with your colleagues.

Salesforce are very clear about their mission – to help businesses achieve success by using their easy to use innovative software that is forever evolving.

According to Tenfold The company often posts articles featuring tips on marketing and sales. However, they know any material relating to software can be a bit of a humdrum to read for the non-techie so they supplement these articles with infographics and imagery that is simple to understand, engaging and useful for the reader. Where did this marketing initiative stem from? Their brand strategy of course.

Another excellent example of a company that utilizes powerful imagery to differentiate their brand strategy is Apple. The company started as a B2B brand for the professional creative sector long before it became the mighty trillion dollars B2C brand it is today. That initial positioning in the creative professional sector has added to its brand status today as a consumer brand. Their advertising always made use of persuasive messaging and imagery that correlated directly with their brand vision, mission and brand purpose. Take their 1997 Think Different Television advert for example.

Notice how they didn’t use it to sell you a specific product, or features and benefits, because it was created to inspire their ideal customers to buy into the philosophy of what Apple stood for and this belief is still evident today.

Myth#4. Your Company Culture and Branding Strategy is a Separate Design Process.

If you’re unsure of what brand culture is, then check out the video below before reading on.

In the bestseller ‘7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ author Stephen Covey talks about the importance of being principle-centred and explains with easy-to-understand clarity what characteristics determine success. Many of the habits discussed share similarities that coincide with building successful brands. If you think about it, a brand is a humanised entity, created so we can relate to it because humans project humanistic behaviours onto inanimate objects and experiences to make sense of the world around them and connect.  Covey states how you need to begin with the end in mind. A fact directly related to building an effective brand strategy.

“To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination. It means to know where you’re going so that you better understand where you are now and so the steps you take are always in the right direction.”[6]

When an organization reaches peak performance, you will often find that their employees share a conscientious work ethic because of a learned set of beliefs. An authentic company culture, not only gives you a tremendous competitive advantage it drives purpose, performance, productivity and purchase.

Related: The Age Of Internal Branding And Selling It From The Inside Out

If you want to build a thriving company brand culture, you too must begin with the end in mind and stay true to core your brand values — assuming you’ve fully identified, mapped them out and documented them so they’re a constant beacon underpinning your business decisions. Your marketing strategy is a by-product of your brand strategy, taking its direction from your inherent brand DNA — mapped out and documented in your brand strategy.  If internal culture is part of your brand differentiation then your whole team is part of the brand, a living expression of your brand so are an integral part of your reputation and competitive advantage too. Your team are your brand ambassadors but only if you brand induct and empower them to be champions of your brand.

Salesforce are very clear about their mission – to help businesses achieve success by using their easy to use innovative software that is forever evolving. Cindy Robins VP of employee success shared five lessons of what they’ve learned to achieve a great company culture.

1. Be Intentional – From the beginning, the CEO was intentional about creating an Ohana Hawaiian culture which means family
2. Be Transparent – It establishes the trust you need to be successful
3. Champion Equality for All – Equal Rights, Equal Pay, Equal Education, and Equal Opportunity
4. Give Employees a Purpose Beyond Profit – All employees are encouraged to give back to non-profits and NGO’s
5. Focus on Well-Being – You can only take care of your customers well if you take care of yourself first.

To be truly successful your brand and company culture need to work together in harmony and this all stems from your brand strategy — not your logo, name or design!