What do you stand for?

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Branding (and Employer Branding for the HR profs) is a big deal these days.

On some level every business has a brand (intentional or not) but now business owners and leaders are beginning to understand what it means and how their brand impacts on their customers’ perception of the company, right through to attracting employees that will ‘fit’ with the organisation. Business leaders are looking for ways to nurture and control (to some extent) their brand.

A brand isn’t just a logo…. It’s your reputation… your ‘promise’ to stakeholders.

It’s about asking yourself “What are we in the business of?”.

It’s about figuring out your ‘position’ in the marketplace. Are you at the competing on price end of the spectrum, or are you appealing to peoples’ values with your cause?

And does your imagined brand position actually fit with how you’re perceived in the marketplace; how the media portrays you; how your customers see you and how your company actually acts?

Are you paying lip service to an empty brand statement or are you really living it? Virgin’s promise is to “Give big companies a run for their money and have fun doing it”. Brilliant.

Think about what your promise is, think about what your three core values are and think of your slogan, or a single organising idea that sums up what you stand for. Keep these in front of you when making any decisions from employing staff, to creating your ad campaign, to launching new products, to training your receptionist, to how you answer your phone….

There’s a whole science behind establishing your brand and brand experts will talk about Brand Strategy Models, brand expression, brand architecture and so on… but the bottom line is: what do you stand for? Really?