FitzMartin
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Your brand is a reflection of the soul of your company—it’s the very essence of who you are. In the words of Bill Taylor in the Harvard Business Review, “Your brand is your culture. Your culture is your brand.”
If you stop to think about it, you can probably think of some great brands that have a great culture. You’re probably thinking about companies like Chick-fil-A, HubSpot or Apple. So how did these companies build a truly great brand? By first building a truly great culture. Creating a great culture is not easy work, but it easily could be the most profound work you ever do. By setting a positive, empowering work culture, you can enrich the people around you inside and outside of work, all while motivating them to actively engage in their work product.
Here are two non-negotiables for great brands that have a truly great culture:
Commitment to Core Values
A company’s core values should be far more than just a well-worded list to hand to new employees during onboarding or a pretty illustration to hang on a wall. To create a great culture, a company must reflect its core values and approach each and every decision—from hiring new employees to adding new products or services to the type of customer service the company provides—with those core values top of mind.
When a company embodies its core values, people take notice. A clear and concise set of core values that are lived out each and every day by a company can inspire employees to take their jobs more personally and work harder. Everyone is inspired when they feel that they are taking part in something meaningful, and that includes customers and prospects, too.
Engagement of Employees
It’s easy for company leaders to focus almost exclusively on keeping their customers happy, but an often overlooked yet extremely significant factor in a company successfully keeping its customers (or reaching new ones) is its employees. Your employees are an extension of your brand. Frankly, you should view your employees as your brand ambassadors, and if they are unhappy or unengaged, it won’t go unnoticed by your customers (or your prospects).
The troubling reality is that most companies have low employee engagement. Research states that approximately 70% of employees are disengaged. This disengagement results in upwards of $223 billion in lost revenue every year. There are, however, a number of ways companies can avoid this disengagement. It starts with what we already talked about above: defining and committing to core values. In addition, it requires investing in a healthy and enjoyable work environment—one that clearly illustrates that the company cares about its employees.
When a company has clearly defined its core values and employs those core values in a way that engages its employees, it becomes easier to unite everyone around a common mission. That includes alignment of your team—from sales and marketing to management and operations—and unification of your customers and prospects as well. A great culture attracts employees, and a great brand attracts customers.
