Retail Observer

RETAILOBSERVER.COM JUNE 2023 46 D uring a recent debrief session on a client company's culture, one of the leaders said, "Our culture is so important that it makes our brand work. It makes our company work! I really don't know who we'd be without our culture." I'm constantly beating the drum about this. When a company's culture is well-aligned with its brand, it can operate as a whole system with visible integrity. Here's how your brand and culture can become "Wonder Twins": • The brand defines what the company believes. The culture lives those beliefs. • The brand creates interest. The culture creates trust. • The brand shapes the company's image and stories. The culture makes them believable. • The brand invites and engages customers. The culture serves them and takes care of them. • The brand makes promises that create customer expectations. The culture delivers on the promises. Think of it like this. If your brand and culture aren't integrated, your company is likely to be saying one thing and doing another. For example, HR will feel free to create policies that go against your customer-service norms. Your innovation team could create products that drift from your brand position. Your marketing team might make promises that the product team isn't prepared to deliver on. In short, your brand is everything your company does. Customers trust companies where there's a tight integration between the brand and culture – because it projects a certain trustworthiness – it tells us that they're "walking their talk." And trust is the ultimate social and emotional currency that all businesses deal in. No trust, no employees. No trust, no customers. No trust, no sustainable business. FIVE BENEFITS OF A WELL-INTEGRATED BRAND AND CULTURE: 1. You'll attract the right employees and customers. Companies that know what they stand for and effectively communicate their brand's values, purpose, voice and tone, position, and reputation attract like-minded people. They magnetically draw customers and employees with similar values. 2. You'll build customer trust. Trust is the social and emotional currency that all businesses deal in. Without it, companies either don't win or they quickly lose customers. When a company's culture delivers on its brand's promises, it creates customer trust. How much do you trust Twitter, Facebook, or Cryptocurrency, given the present news? 3. You'll future-proof your company. Because markets shift and economies change, having a strong, trusted market position is essential for your long-term success. Brands that have a trusted, reliable market position stemming from a well-integrated brand and culture can weather storms more effectively than those that don't. 4. You'll connect your employees with your customers. When customers can see, hear, and feel the care your employees put into their customer interactions, they're more likely to trust the employees, and therefore your brand. With a robustly integrated brand and culture, your customers will see inside the organization, which will build authentic connections leading to customer loyalty. 5. You'll increase innovation. Companies that can innovate effectively gain a competitive advantage in the market. And teams that are aligned around the company's values and purpose are more effective at working collaboratively to solve the customers' problems and deliver on their unstated needs and wishes. If you fail to integrate your brand and culture, your company will function in silos. This can result in conflicting messages from marketing and customer service; HR recruiting team members who don't share the same vision as the leadership; and the product team developing innovations that aren't aligned with the directives of the customer experience team. Your company is too valuable to operate in parts and pieces. You can't expect your collective success to be predictable, if you're operating in silos. Stop working in parts and pieces, and start integrating your brand and culture to build a sustainable business. Our clients are often struck by how many elements of their company will shift when they've completed the integration process in a thoughtful, inclusive way, and the marketplace reaction begins to show how the effort was well worth it for the benefits. When the integration is complete, your brand is clear and your culture is strong. Now you can trust everyone on your team to do the right thing, and the customers can trust your integrity. People trust companies when they sense that there's a clear alignment in what they're hearing, seeing, and experiencing. This is equally true for your customers and your present and prospective employees. Long- term business success results from integrating your brand and culture so they work in synergy. STOP OPERATING IN PARTS AND PIECES 5 benefits of integrating your culture and brand Steven Morris On Brand 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

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