A brand is a company’s OS.

Think of your brand as your company’s Operating System, your OS. Why you exist as an organization should guide every decision you make. In today’s world, purpose can no longer just be something used in marketing but rather it needs to be infused into how you treat your employees, how you sell, how you develop products and services. If it’s only marketing speak, imagine how people will react when they learn on Glassdoor that you treat your employees differently? Or when a salesperson visits them and how they are treated or sold doesn't align with what they’ve been told by your marketing about your business? Call it what you want, but your brand is your OS - let’s identify why you exist and then how we can infuse that into all you do.

Your brand is your product and your product is your brand.

This builds off of “brand as OS” above. While we use brand to identify purpose (your org’s unique purpose in the world) we know that purpose is only as good as the product/service a company delivers. Your brand comes to life as your product/service, inclusive of all touch-points in researching, considering, purchasing, servicing, etc. Are your products and services delivering on your brand purpose? Is your brand setting the right expectations for the products and services you deliver?

Brand and performance, not either/or.

Communicating brand to the market helps your audience set expectations for what to expect when interacting with your organization, be it through the purchase, the product/service, or post-sale. It helps them understand why you do what you do and why they should have affinity towards you. I often think of brand communications (PR, content, advertising, etc.) as building predisposition towards your organization; whether they’re in the market for your products/services today or in the future, help them understand why you do what you do so you’re in their consideration set when the need arises. This will help your performance channels (advertising, sales, lifecycle, etc.) be that much more effective and efficient. At that point you won’t have to sell them on why they should choose your brand, they’ll already have those ideas in their mind. For the same reason, you won’t have to chase your audience as hard (or spend as much to attract them), as they’ll already be familiar with you. Do you want to get people to care about your products/services or do you want to chase the cheapest lead?

People care how the sausage tastes, not how it’s made.

We are fairly irrational as humans as to how we make decisions, no matter how reasoned we may like to believe we are. When learning about a product or service, we want to know “what’s in it for me?” and that benefit largely drives our decision making. Will this service help me find a car I’ll love? Will this make me more confident in my appearance? Will this give me a greater chance of becoming a parent? These are all questions I have found people want answers to in my career that outweigh how the brand helps them achieve that goal. We care less about how a product/service actually does something (how the sausage is made) and much more about how it will benefit me (how the sausage tastes). Are you communicating the right benefits at the right point in your customer's journey?

Empathy rules.

Whether you’re managing people or selling to them, demonstrating a level of empathy will always help you win. For brands it means demonstrating that you understand what your audience is going through, what they need, what matters to them - and that you’ve built products/services to address these needs. Are your customers needs (whether they know them yet or not) guiding your brand? The same applies when managing people. Be an active listener. Show your teams that you care about them - not just as employees but as people. Challenge them and help them grow. Be present.