The Art & Science of Crafting Powerful Brands & Cultures
co-authored by Amanda Rock, Nick Rock, & Tino Chow
“Your brand is rooted in your mission, vision, and values, and these typically begin with the founder's ideals and connect with your audience's deepest values.”
Companies evolve over time, but the most trusted brands don't happen by accident. The best brands are carefully crafted from the inside out.
The truth is your company has a brand and a culture, whether you've intentionally built them or not. We believe a brand done right is a powerful tool to lead your team and develop your culture, and investing the time to carefully craft it is one of the best decisions you can make for your business.
Brand is an alignment tool and a culturally-rooted story.
There are so many ways to think about brand. Maybe you already have an idea about what it is – the colors and logo that represent you, the promises you keep to customers or your company's reputation.
These are all helpful elements, but we say brand is more than all of that; it is a powerful alignment tool and a culturally-rooted story, especially for companies that invest in a greater purpose. Your brand is rooted in your mission, vision, and values, and these typically begin with the founder's ideals and connect with your audience's deepest values. As an alignment tool, your brand actively tells a cohesive story through everything you do.
Brand is a verb, not a noun.
It's a set of behaviors aligned with your core identity. It's how you treat your customers, how you conduct your business, and how you care for your employees.
Brand is the north star that guides every decision you make, and it's not just about how you present yourself to your customers and stakeholders. A well-crafted, thoughtfully aligned brand is a vital piece of any business, and when done right, it's a powerful tool for leadership and culture building.
Your brand reflects your company culture.
When we talk about brand, we also have to look at company culture. In 2019, BambooHR Research surveyed over 1000 small and medium-sized organizations on the subject, and it's no surprise that an overwhelming majority -- 94% -- said "company culture is important to an organization's success."
Culture is a series of intangible qualities built from workplace relationships and how individuals connect to form a team. And if you don't intentionally build the culture, it will develop and shift on its own, especially when someone joins or leaves the workplace.
Here are 3 ways to craft your brand and culture.
Whether you intentionally built it or not, culture will organically develop over time through hundreds of daily interactions among your team. Left to form on its own, your company could wind up with a culture that's disorganized, ineffective, or -- worst of all -- straight up toxic, but it's never too late to invest in a culture that only strengthens your brand.
First, remember that your company's culture is driven by relationships.
Good leaders know it's not just about hiring people who are a good "culture-fit," but also accounting for what already exists. Consider the team you have from a "culture-add" perspective, one that's inclusive and welcomes everything each person brings to the table.
Second, learn the value of critique.
While we all would love a neat formula for culture building, business school ideals don't work with real people in all their complexity. You have to build trust, create space to learn and dialogue, and always be willing to let people poke holes and find the gaps to make your culture better.
Finally, codify, codify, codify!
Collaborate with your team to co-create the values you want to embody, then write them down and make these values part of your everyday operations. Choose to lead by example and have accountability in place. When leaders are held accountable, they will create a culture where employees live the values. This may sound like rigidity, but having clear direction will actually free your team up to live out your values in their own unique way.
Good leaders know good cultures begin with them.
Crafting a brand and culture takes time, space, curiosity, and listening. Brand is a tool to build the culture, but it also reflects the already existing culture. In this tension, we can craft meaningful brands and cultures instead of attempting to manufacture them with a formula. It's a lot of open-ended work, but it's worth doing so you and your team can follow your north star together.
We'd love to help you co-create a brand and culture to carry you into the future. Set up a call to find out how we can help.
