Why everyone needs a brand culture

Brand is the most overused and most misunderstood word in the last 5 years. The dreaded 'B' word! It sends shivers down creative's backs and sends young marketeers rushing into Borders to research missing chapters. Every company large and small thinks they are a brand and that by using that word as leverage, the tills will starts ringing. Unfortunately it's only the tills at Borders that are opening and closing with repetitive aplomb. Branding is a word too commonly referred to by advertisers and marketing people alike, but what does it actually mean? How can you get it? And most importantly; how will it benefit your business?

Let's first get one thing clear - a brand is not your logo or your tagline. Those are important tools you use to express your brand. That is Mechanical Branding - but not the brand itself.

A brand is a unified, singular understanding of what your organisation or company is about and how it is unique from the key audiences' points of view. In English - it's why a potential client or employee would choose you over your competitor. What makes you stand out from the rest? What's it like to do business with you? It is you standing up, hand on heart and making a promise. And then keeping that promise. In a nutshell a brand is nothing but a promise of consistency delivered through communication. This is where a brand culture comes in to play.

To deliver the promise of consistency there has to be a structure and a culture that everyone in your organisation or company buys into and agrees that it defines their actions and business momentum. This has to be bought into from the top to the bottom, from the CEO to the Receptionist, from the way the telephone is answered, the music on the answer phone, the production of the company brochure, the articles you write on blogs, and so on and so on. It is a repetitive consistent delivery of information and communication that defines the company's creed and promotes the core values.

This creed is the cornerstone of the brand proposition and should be the anchor to business development. Great brand culture is a like a franchise, it is easy to replicate and roll out because everyone knows what it is and how to implement it. And in doing so with repetitive consistency the world sees your brand promise as a true unshaken deliverable, therefore promoting truth and confidence in the brand, whether that is a product, company or service.

So why do most companies need a Brand Culture?
Well if you don't implement one, how do you know what you stand for? And if you don't know the how can the rest of the outside world buy into a company that doesn't know who or what it is? Marketing isn't rocket science, despite the huge section in Borders informing you so. People do business with people, or we certainly like to think we do. People buy into confidence and what is projected; it makes the purchase and decision less risky or flawed. A well-defined Brand Culture that is well implemented and communicated delivers a solid business platform in which someone will make decisions based on what is known. After all business is all about getting someone to purchase a product or a service based on information delivered. A brand culture is ultimately a persona with a promise. If you don’t have that, then how can you expect someone to buy off you?

So next time you're pass through your office and you hear a phone unanswered for a dozen or so rings, think what message or signal that has left to the person on the other end? Next time you go to a meeting, look at the other person's shoes, are they clean? Are they polished? If they are not, what does that say about the person and the company he represents. If he can't take care of a small detail like that will he care as much for your business?

We are what we present, and what we present is what others will define us by. We buy into a culture and the brand persona on so many different levels. But large or small, multi-national or a sole trader we ultimately make a promise that has to be projected clearly, believed and finally delivered in a variety of communication channels whether it's print, web, mechanical or human.

Berry Burgess: Managing Director of Armadillo Creative Permanent Link to this post

Seven ways to create a sustainable business

The evidence is everywhere. If we don't treat clients with respect, we lose them. If we take non-renewable resources from the planet, they run out. It's time to look past our financial bottom-line to see how to create a truly sustainable business.

For me, it always hits me when I buy paper. Do I get the budget $4 ream or spend a couple of extra dollars on the eco-friendly, post-consumer-waste, recycled stuff? Sure, "What's one ream of paper ?" I say, but what if every business says that and leaves it up to someone else to make the difference?

The challenge is not just to run a profitable business but to run a sustainable business - a business that gives back the resources it uses. Assessing your business with a triple bottom line looks at its environmental (planet), social (people) and economic (profit) impact, and it's just as relevant to soloists as it is to large corporations.

Now you may not be ready to go solar, but here are seven simple things you can do to reduce your business' environmental impact and create a more sustainable business.

Consume less

1. Switch off the lights, the computers, the fax and the photocopier at the wall at the end of the working day. If you're not ready to harness the sunshine, then get supplied with green power. Put on a jumper rather than the heater. Open the window rather than cranking up the air-conditioning. In the heat of the day, have a siesta, take a long lunch or adopt a more European work day.

2. Get on the phone. Can that meeting be conducted by phone? Do you need to take the car or can you hop on the bus or carpool? What's the impact of your air travel? If air travel is essential, buy some carbon offsets for your business.

3. Embrace working from home. Reduce your travel and doubling up on equipment and resources. Or share an office space with other soloists. When sourcing equipment and services, consider buying local to reduce travel miles.

4. Use less materials. Do you really need to print that? Do you need the glossy promotional materials? Could you 'go digital' instead? Consider ways of standing out from the crowd without producing endless bin fodder.

Reduce waste

5. Recycle. It's now easy to use recycled paper, envelopes,pens, equipment, furniture and clothes. Keep the flow happening by recycling your own resources. Choose lunch on a ceramic plate or get your takeaway coffee in a ceramic mug.

6. Do no harm. Be aware of the potential harmful effects or by-products of the production processes you use. Are your raw materials contributing to rainforest loss or river pollution in the far off place they are produced?

7. Increase lifecycle. What about the lifecycle of your products? Are you buying equipment for life or something that will need to be replaced or upgraded in 12 months? Are you producing high-resource, short lifecycle products to make a fast buck? Or are you creating products that will last beyond the season, the fad or the warranty?

We have the opportunity as soloists to make immediate changes to create a sustainable business, so our business reflects our values and the world we wish to live in. We may be only one business but together we make up a vast chunk of the workforce and can make a difference. Permanent Link to this post

How to develop good teamwork - Neil Thompson

There are very many factors involved in the development of a good team. However, here we shall concentrate on three in particular, namely: communication, team balance and leadership.

Communication is clearly an important part of interpersonal interaction and, of course, teamwork is all about interpersonal interaction. Open communication is a fundamental part of good teamwork in so far as it allows team members to understand each other's point of view, to share ideas, to express feelings and to articulate plans. Poor communication can be a major barrier to effective teamwork. Wrestling with the complexities of communication is therefore part of the challenge of developing an effective team.

The balance of a team involves having people whose experience, skills, perspectives, interests and contributions complement one another, rather than duplicate or counteract each other. For example, it is no good having a team full of creative people who have lots of new ideas, but do not have the people who have the stamina and stick ability to see those ideas through to completion. Similarly, a team that is full of people who are steady, strong workers but have little spark or creativity, will also be impoverished by comparison with a balanced team. If it is not to become stale and sterile, a team needs people who are prepared to risk conflict by challenging existing norms and assumptions, but, by the same token, a team also needs it's peacemakers. Differences between team members can, in themselves, lead to conflict but the diversity of the team and the balance that this can achieve, will generally more than make up for any such conflicts.

Leadership refers to the ability to create and sustain a positive working culture to motivate or even inspire staff to play their part in creating a work environment in which there are high standards of practice, a high level of commitment and a positive approach. A key part of leadership is 'vision'. This refers to the ability to keep a clear focus on what the team is trying to achieve, what its objectives are in terms of its overall strategy and aims. It is very easy for a team of people who are under pressure from various directions to lose their focus on what the team is all about and what purpose it is intended to fulfil. A good leader is somebody who not only keeps a clear focus him- or herself on the team's purpose and direction, but also ensures that that vision is shared by the team members and that they are not allowed to drift too far away from it. A good leader is somebody who promotes high morale by playing a key role in creating an atmosphere in which staff feel valued and supported. This helps to prevent such problems as gossip, rumour-mongering and backbiting, which can be so detrimental to a team's functioning.

Effective teamwork therefore depends on a good leader, the right balance of the right people and the channels of communication remaining open between them. If these three core ingredients can be brought together, then there is every chance of a very effective team developing. Permanent Link to this post