Why defining your brand could be the single most important thing you could do for your company

As companies grow, the number of employees on their payroll do too.

Each employee brings with them a unique set of beliefs and characteristics which they deploy in the organizational setting.

Uniqueness and individuality when directed create a rich and vibrant culture that can spur a company to many great achievements.

If undirected, and left to their own devices, they can be self-destructive however and cause a company’s culture to fragment and eventually implode.

Defining and articulating your brand can prevent this
What a well defined and articulated brand will do is bring discipline to culture and an organization at large.

Take Mercedes Benz for example. What the brand fundamentally stands for is “German engineering, luxury - excellence in every respect.”

When a brand is defined and understood in such clear terms, it leads to behaviour across the organization that is consistent. You can imagine how meticulous the focus on building well engineered cars at Mercedes might be – or ensuring they offer luxury no other vehicle can or does. The importance of consistent behaviour within an organization cannot be emphasised enough. There is a simple reason for this. When behaviour is consistent, customer experience is too - and that leads to increased loyalty, profit and ultimately value to a firm in the long term.

A well defined brand will guide every single aspect of a firm’s decisions
Let’s look at Mercedes again. Do you think they’d ever put out a car that compromised design and engineering principles? Not on your life. Their brand doesn’t permit it – not their factory engineers or quality control technicians.

However the power of a well defined brand is that it influences more than just the products a company puts out. It influences – whether at a conscious or unconscious level - every single aspect of a firm’s activities: the type of people it hires, the suppliers it does business with, the areas in which it invests – even its location and choice of office environment and décor.

Why is it important for every single aspect of a firm’s activities to be aligned? Because together they make up what is its competency – or organizational advantage. And without an advantage a firm will not survive in the long term. It will simply be overcome by a competitor who might do what it does – better.

How to define your brand and what it stands for?
There are many excellent tools you can use. One that I’ve found very useful was developed by Jean-Noel Kapferer.

Kapferer is the father of the Brand Identity Prism. Why I love this tool is because it takes a holistic view of the brand – marrying both its internal and external aspects.

According to Kapferer a brand consists of several facets – physique, personality, culture, relationship, customer reflection and customer self image. The synthesis of each of these elements is what gives rise to its “Essence.” Or, what make it what is – and drives its success.

Physique relates to the perception people have of the brand and what it is in a tangible sense. For example, Mercedes is a luxury German car.

Personality relates to the characteristics of the brand if it were a person. The personality of Virgin for example might be thought of as cheeky (as opposed to friendly) and fun.

Culture relates to the internal brand environment - the principles that people have chosen to adopt to govern the way the way they approach their work every day.

A firm’s culture might be one of excellence (Mercedes), continuous improvement, innovation (Google), thrift or even teamwork and cooperation. Culture is one of the most important (and often overlooked) aspects of a brand as it directly determines a firm’s output and the quality of the products it will ultimately produce.

Relationship relates to the personal equation between a brand and its customers. A relationship can be described as personal and discreet (an upmarket wealth management company), formal, legislative (many Government Departments have this kind of a relationship with their customers), comforting (chicken soup) or mentoring (life coach).

Customer Reflection is the general perception people have of who a brand’s customers are. This is important due to its associative benefit (do I relate to the guy who I think uses the brand?). The Customer Reflection is not the Customer Target – it is the generalization people make about who a brand’s users are. For example, you may think people who buy an expensive whisky like Chivas are rich. They may not be. They may aspire to be seen that way however.

Finally Customer Self Image is the image actual customers have about themselves. The way they think and feel is important to the brand, because if it doesn’t complement their self-image in some way it will not succeed in creating an enduring relationship.

Why Kapferer’s Brand Identity Prism works so well
Kapferer’s Brand Identity Prism is a complete tool that takes into account both the internal and external aspects of a brand. It not only helps the user define the brand’s Essence, but also its Position.

This is something many advertising agencies don’t get - the difference between Essence and Position. Essence is about the fundamental idea that drives the brand and its success. It is most useful to a brand’s internal audience (staff) – as it gives them focus and ensures their actions are aligned and in step with the brand and what it fundamentally stands for.

Position, on the other hand, is what a brand communicates to its external audience (primarily its customers) through advertising, PR and so on. Position clarifies who the brand is targeted at, how it is different and why its audience should consider its purchase.

What Kapferer’s model does is take both Essence and Position (both complex ideas, not always easy to articulate) and bring them together in a simple, clear and concise framework. It is the simplicity and clarity that the framework offers that is its genius and the reason for its widespread adoption by people with an interest in brands worldwide.

You can read more about the Brand Identity Prism at http://www.12manage.com/methods_kapferer_brand_identity_prism.html

Have you defined and articulated your brand yet?
If you haven’t, there’s never been a better time to do so. You now have the tools, the know-how and the reasons why you shouldn’t delay the exercise a day more.

Defining and articulating your brand is the first step to ensuring it’s understood by both staff and customers alike. After all, if they don’t get your brand – who will?