THE BUSINESS OF BRANDING

Company Culture

WORDS: Brenda McNally & Pat Kinsley

You've researched the market and developed an exciting product or service. Then you established the values that make your new brand unique and you invested in a distinctive logo – a visual design to match your brand values. Now all that remains is for the marketing or advertising people to generate consumer interest and watch as your new brand conquers the competition, right? Wrong!

Your company culture – the internal relations and how management structure communicates is just as important. If you want to be special, distinctive, and compelling in the marketplace then you need to create something special, distinctive, and compelling in the workplace. To do this, successful brands always have a power couple; HR and marketing because they know that your people are your brand.

Although a great deal of time, energy and resources is spent creating memorable brands that capture consumer interest and add value to company marketing strategies. If you really want to make your brand stand out and win strong brand fans, then your internal brand communications need to be as meaningful as your external branding eg. you've got to live your brand.

Read more about Company Culture in the Winter 2010 issue of WMB, on newsstands now!