Building a successful company isn't just about finding a consumer need and filling it. Although, that is a great start. When you look at companies who have become iconic in their fields, it is due to proper brand management as a way to express a certain culture or idea. They use this brand and its culture to select the right people to hire, how to market and advertise and even what services to provide.
Finding the idea and building your brand around it is the key to creating a feeling, an idea or an experience in the minds of customers. For example, Zappos has quickly become famous for selling a wide array of shoes and focusing on providing the very best customer service. As they have grown, they have started offering a large variety of products other than shoes. Their goal, and their branding isn't about shoes, or even online shopping. Their brand ideals are based on customer service and creating a great customer experience.
With their goals of being a company that focuses on customer service in hand, they were able to build their company and their company culture around that goal. It is reflected in their advertising, their slogan “Put a Little Zappos in Your Day”, and even their outside packaging says that the contents were “packaged with happiness”. As a company, they are always willing to break all of the rules to keep surprising and impressing their customers. They have built a customer experience that causes people to passionately tell all of their friends. They accomplish this by making their customers feel like little kids at Christmas. This is why their branding and advertising rarely even mentions what it is they sell.
So, how do you build a brand long term?
The answer – Culture
You have to define what you want your business to be about. Not just what you do, but what it is that you want your customers to feel. If you get your culture right, the other pieces will fall into place naturally.
In fact, Zappos CEO Tony Hseich has said on several occasions that as a company, they will chose not to hire employees who are qualified and able to make wonderful contributions to their company because they aren't a good fit for their corporate culture. Instead, they will hire people who fit their culture, train them and allow them to grow.
When the culture is clearly defined, when all of the employees embrace and participate in the culture, the culture becomes the brand. Not only that, it can drive the brand long-term. The reason this is true is because when a customer sees your brand, their reaction will be a reflection of how well you have sold the culture, rather than your actual product - even if your product is amazing.
Zappos is famous for their focus on customer service and I love to order from them and have recommended them to all of my friends. So, do they have great customer service? I don't know. I have never had the need to call them. However, about 80% of the time, the products I buy with their free shipping option get free upgrades to overnight shipping, and I have the product in my hands within 24 hours of having placed my order. It is like magic. And, if the shoes don't fit – the bag or box is resealable, I can easily print out a return label and they take care of the shipping fees for the return.
The brand and the culture are so closely linked. When you advertise your culture, people will believe and buy into it. If they can feel a connection with who you are as a company, they are much more likely to become brand-loyal. If you want to bring strong brand recognition to your company, start by looking at your corporate culture and building from there.
What do you think about branding and creating a culture? Let me know in the comments.
By Melissa Kennedy- Melissa is a 9 year blog veteran and a freelance writer for BusinessWorkForceBlog, along with helping others find the job of their dreams, she enjoys computer geekery, raising a teenager, supporting her local library, writing about herself in the third person and working on her next novel.
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