There is a general misconception that companies create their own brands. This simply is not true. A brand is created by the way others perceive your company, its products, and the services it offers. A brand becomes the way they feel and think about you. Even though companies don’t create their brand, they influence it by their actions.
To illustrate, let’s examine two examples, Volkswagen and Kia. Volkswagen launched the brand strategy “working with you” in 2013. Their goal was to establish the idea that they were meeting their customer’s needs. When news hit in 2015 that they had installed a cheat emissions devise in their U.S. vehicles, the once premium car manufacturer quickly lost credibility and confidence in consumers and their customers. Their customers no longer felt like Volkswagen was “working with them.” They perceive the brand as cheaters and dishonest. Not only have they experienced significant job cuts over the last few years, but they have lost revenue as a company. In 2016 sales in the United States dropped 8% in one year.
On the flip side KIA was a brand known for their low-priced and unremarkable cars. After years of effort to influence a shift in brand perception, their business decisions helped make them become a reliable, major player in the auto industry. They focused on improving craftsmanship and manufacturing reliable cars. KIA is now ranked by J.D. Power as No. 1 in new model reliability, the first non-luxury brand to make the list since 1989. Consumers are confident in the KIA brand and trust that they will have few problems with their purchase. This has resulted in a revenue increase of 112% over the last ten years.
So which would you rather be, a Volkswagen or a KIA? Knowing your brand perception, and how to respond to it is important to stay relevant in today’s markets. You must also recognize that the way your brand is perceived changes over time. Reasons for this include market changes, shifts in customer base, or changes in your own business decisions and strategies. As shifts occur, a strong brand marketing team will recognize, measure, and evaluate when their efforts are not paralleled with the perception others have on the brand. Brand evaluations can be done by your internal marketing team or by a third party and should be completed at least every ten years OR when the business is experiencing a significant shift or focus. This will help your brand stay competitive.
In 2015 MarketStar was facing major changes in customer base, and as a result our business strategies and objectives were also changing. It was time for our brand to flex. The Brand Marketing team took these key steps in evolving our brand. Looking back on the last two years, we can say that we were successful in staying relevant in our changing business.
Evaluating “Who are we now?”
One of the first things we at MarketStar did was evaluate “Who are we now?” This was accomplished by interviewing our own employee base (at all levels) and our customers with a series of questions. This helped identify not only who we were, but we’re not. When going through this process, companies need to prepared and accept that “who you are” might be different than who you thought you were.
Though we were doing some things well, what we found wasn’t all roses. Our identity was missing a backbone. We discovered that MarketStar’s message was muddy, inconsistent, and not matching what others thought about us. We weren’t always being authentic. What’s more, we weren’t consistently celebrating the real heroes—our people.
1. Establishing a Foundation
When MarketStar was founded in 1988, the company established pillars—or values—for us to operate under. Over time, those values had become somewhat diluted and not talked about internally or externally. MarketStar’s Four Pillars of Spirituality, Family, Career, and Community became the foundation of our new brand strategy. This was absolute key to our success.
We blasted the Four Pillars messaging on our walls, in new employee training, and in our pitch decks for potential customers. We believed that if we could not only say that these were our company values, but SHOW it and LIVE it, then that would fundamentally shift our brand perception … and it did.
Out of this effort, MarketStar Cares, the charitable arm MarketStar, was born. We established a regiment of charitable company-wide activities and initiatives that our employees (and clients) could be a part of. In the fall of 2015 our employees donated over 27,000 food items to local schools to give to less fortunate students. In 2017 donations increased 33% with over 36,000 food items. Employees began to see that MarketStar does care about the communities we live in and they began to feel part of something bigger. Improved leadership trainings and opportunities arose, and Employee Action Committees were instituted. These trainings and committees provide a way for employees to feel empowered by owning initiatives to grow programs and make changes.
These are only a few examples of the many ways MarketStar honors its Four Pillars. Everything we do as a company lives on this foundation. When establishing your brand foundation, stay true to it. When you begin to dilute it and stray from it, your brand could be in jeopardy.
2. Providing Consistency and Authenticity
When a company’s messaging becomes inconsistent, so does that brand perception. Companies also can’t fool their customers, consumers, or employees for too long when they aren’t authentic. We found that our messaging and voice was inconsistent, confusing, and at times we were trying to portray us as a company we were not. Our next step was to include in our brand strategy consistency and authenticity in our messaging. This was an essential task. We established and enforced a new brand guideline that gave us one clear voice and tone and a seamless visual identity.
We became much more deliberate in visually communicating who we were through colors, typography, and imagery. The use of stock photography to represent our people was ceased, and every image of a person now includes a MarketStar employee. The rewards of this have been two-fold. It accomplishes not only authenticity, but it also celebrates and highlights our people.
And celebrating our people, feeds the service-profit chain.
3. Believing in the Service-Profit Chain
When employees feel valued and happy, they work harder and better for their customers. In turn, their customers are happy. Celebrating and valuing employees has a real ROI attached to it. In 2015 when we were experiencing major business changes, internal morale was at an all time low. In order to create a strong internal brand and culture, we recommitted ourselves to investing in our employees. We instituted monthly shout-outs, invested more heavily in award recognition programs and leadership career development paths, and provided a consistent array of perks and benefits to show appreciation to our employees. We believe in the service-profit chain, and not because it sounds like a great idea, but because our numbers show it’s true.
Our company morale scores in the Employee Satisfaction Survey (conducted annually by external sources) improved on average by 10% since 2015. As our employee morale increases, our client satisfaction and bottom line also improve. Our net promoter score tells us that 83% of our customers say they would recommended us to their colleagues and peers, and client attrition rates have decreased approximately 50% resulting in millions of dollars in revenue for MarketStar.
Like KIA and MarketStar, you can influence your brand and bottom line with a clear brand strategy and demonstrating actions that support that strategy. If your company is experiencing major business shifts, or it has been a while since you have looked at your brand, it’s time to reevaluate who you are and make adjustments. As you evolve your company’s brand, consider the steps we took to improve ours—establish a foundation, provide consistency and authenticity, and invest in your employees.
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