Corporate Culture and Brand Building
How having a strong culture can better position your brand
If you asked most people, branding consists of visual representations. It might be in the form of a logo, packaging, or any graphics that represent a company, organization, product, or service. While these elements are all important to creating consistent branding, they really only scratch the surface.
The truth is, strong brands are often backed by well-defined and established corporate cultures.
If you have a strong corporate culture, then chances are you have a team in place that has ownership in not only what they do, but also how they do it. This leads to improved productivity, enhanced service, and overall better experience for the consumer.
It would be easy to say that building a corporate culture is all about keeping employees happy. While that is a large part of it, you won’t get very far with the occasional pizza party and free-dress Thursdays.
The key to defining your culture is all about having a purpose – understanding and believing in your core values, and more importantly, your promise behind the brand. But in order to get to that point, you have to first understand who you are, what you stand for, and what you hope to achieve.
And just like having pizza parties alone will not work, putting up a bunch of motivational posters is not the answer either. You know who you are.
In most cases, it starts with attracting the right people for the right job. Chances are, though, that attracting the right people can only happen if you have an established culture already in place. It’s kind of a “cart before the horse” thing: tricky, but doable.
Don’t get me wrong, having small perks like the before mentioned pizza party or a free dress Thursday is a great way to build moral, but establishing a culture needs to go much deeper.
Here’s an example: if you want a casual work environment that promotes creativity and sharing of ideas, make sure you promote casual attire and an open door policy. If you want your team to act like adults, treat them that way. Make sure you are not micro-managing their every minute of every day.
In the end, having a strong corporate culture is essential in having a strong and successful brand. No, it’s not easy, but it is worth the effort when you have a team of people all working on the same page and towards a common goal.
For more information on definining your corporate, give us a call or shoot us an email. We would love to learn more about you, your company and how we might be able to help.
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RUSSO is a strategic branding agency that uses consumer insight to change the conversation; forming emotional connections with the target audience. To learn more, click HERE to subscribe to our podcast.
