Retail Observer

RETAILOBSERVER.COM FEBRUARY 2023 46 Steven Morris On Brand W henever a company decides to invest in evolving its brand, there's often an unspoken desire that's driving the decision. What the leaders are really wanting to create is a re-vitalized brand that will attract the right customers, more revenues, and ultimately greater profit. But that isn't the whole story. Enter the "virtuous brand cycle." The hope is that an evolved brand will more clearly articulate a company's essence and its value to a given set of people (called prospects). Once evolved, it's hoped that the brand will more effectively communicate what the company stands for, why it makes its products, how it creates value for the customers and how it serves them. By "evolving your brand," I'm not talking about updating the logo. I'm talking about updating the company's heart and soul – all of the ways its values speak (loudly) to the customers, and how they're being lived internally. By evolving the brand, we discover more clearly what we stand for, so that we can persuade our team to rally around that self-definition, embody it in how they work together, attract the right customers, and ultimately create the company's unique market position. Distilled down to business terms, an evolved brand is a fusion of the organization's driving beliefs, its "operationalized" values (employee experience), how it serves its customers (customer experience), and its market position and reputation (business experience). When the evolved brand is fully baked into the company's heart and soul and orchestrated in its image and behaviors, it becomes a magnet that will attract more of the right employees and customers. In a nutshell, a well-orchestrated, well-managed evolved brand ultimately enables more profit. THE WORLDS' MOST POTENT TECHNOLOGY An evolved brand enables a company to tell its story more effectively, and storytelling is the most advanced technology there is. Great stories, well told, tap into the listener's intellect and emotions and harness a heartfelt response. Great stories transform our reality by allowing us to see the world differently. Every story, including the stories in our heads, shapes our view of the world. Stories transform us because we're wired for stories and we're wired for compassion. By our nature, we're both thinking and feeling beings. And in the marketplace and everywhere else, we make decisions with our minds and we act with our hearts. We know this because a well-told story that moves our hearts taps into the compassion and care of our human nature. When someone tells us a great story, we feel connected to the story and the teller. Stories with care at their core transform and transport us. We carry those stories in our hearts and minds (our major decision-drivers). A great brand evolution boils down to this: we want a better brand because we want more profit. And to get more profit, we need to infuse more care into our organizational drivers and the stories we tell. Assuming we aren't just out to swindle our customers, greater care leads to greater profits. Genuinely caring for our customers attracts more customers to care for, which creates more profit. And then you can reinvest those profits in innovations that will serve the customers with even greater care. But profit is the fuel that sustains your company and how it cares for its people. When profits droop, companies tend to start cutting corners on caring, and a vicious cycle begins. WHAT IS PROFIT FOR? Profit is the non-negotiable growth fuel that allows us to serve more people better. • Profit is the nourishment that allows us to invest in our people. • Profit is the sustenance for innovation and customer care. • The better you serve your people (customers and employees), the more profit you'll make. The more profit you make, the more you can invest in innovation, nurturing your relationships, and attracting more of the right people. It's a virtuous cycle, because it's centered around care and service. It's a cycle, because it's self-perpetuating. This virtuous cycle is at the heart of every caring business. And it's freely available for every business to choose. Steven Morris is a brand, culture and leadership advisor, author, and speaker. Over his 25+ years in business he's worked with 3,000+ business leaders at 250+ global and regional companies. Discover: https://matterco.co RO BRAND CARE PROFIT: A VIRTUOUS CYCLE

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