Company brand – is it your problem?
Surely that’s why you have a marketing team – so you don’t have to concern yourself with thinking about the brand or it’s development?
Well, it depends on what you believe your brand is.
If you believe your brand is your logo, colour schemes, fonts and tone of voice, then it’s understandable that you’d want to leave that to your marketers.
But if you believe, as many business leaders are coming to understand, that your brand is your reputation, then it might spur you to want to be a bit more involved in how your company presents itself.
Brand reputation and leaders
If your reputation is intrinsically wrapped up in your brand success, then making sure that your senior leaders are actively involved and aware is crucial. Your brand can be a powerful tool if it’s used well, and that requires your executives and leaders to live and breathe everything that your brand stands for.
At a time when consumers have more choice than ever, when the tender process is getting more and more competitive, a powerful brand can make all the difference. A strong brand increases a company’s meaning and presence within the marketplace and can lead to winning greater market share and margin.
Your executive team is a crucial asset in cementing that reputation. They’re the face of your brand, they build and maintain relationships with clients and partners, and they lead the way when it comes to creating new products, services and processes that help your organisation succeed.
But what do these leaders do with all this power? How do they leverage their role as leaders to create brand success for your company? And most importantly: What can you learn from this?
Here are three ways executives can drive positive outcomes for your brand:
1) It's not only about the words they share.
Your leaders are in a crucial position to model your brand and its values, and it’s this modelling that will bring about brand success, both externally and at every level of the organisation. They have a strong influence on how others perceive your company, so it’s important that they are both credible and consistent in their communication of those values. However, it’s not just about what they say; leadership is also about demonstrating values in behaviours that show up every day. For example, if you’re building trust with customers and employees as part of your corporate culture, then your leaders need to consistently demonstrate honesty and integrity in their relationships with others.
2) Modelling brand values from the top means being authentic
Authenticity is key when modelling from the top because authenticity breeds trust—and customers want to do business with brands they trust. This becomes especially critical when you’re trying to build brand loyalty or enhance customer loyalty through word-of-mouth marketing strategies because one dissatisfied customer can spread negative word-of-mouth faster than any advertisement ever could!
3) Employees look to their leaders
When employees look to their leaders for guidance, leadership skills become a critical component of your brand. Employees will follow the example you set for them. If you’re well-liked and respected as an individual, they’re more likely to trust what you say and do—even if it might not be something they agree with or want to do themselves.
If leadership is important in terms of reputation and success, then why aren’t more companies putting resources into developing their executive teams? The answer is simple: it’s expensive. Leaders need training programs that are targeted specifically at developing their skillset until they’re confident enough in those areas that they can teach others how to do them as well. And when it comes right down to it, organisations know that this kind of investment could pay off huge dividends down the line—but these investments take time before there’s any return on investment (ROI).
But if those leaders are the ones modelling the brand across the organisation, not investing in this area could be just as costly.
Your executives have the power to make or break your brand
Executives have the power to make or break your brand, inside and outside of the organisation. As the face of your company, executives are often seen as an extension of your brand’s values by others. They set the tone for how employees behave and act — whether it’s in their everyday work environment or at industry events.
In fact, executives are so influential that research has shown that when people experience a positive interaction with an executive, they’re more likely to want to continue interacting with that organisation. And of course the opposite is even more powerful. If someone has a negative interaction with a senior leader in a company, or even a negative impression of a leader, it will taint their view of the entire organisation.
Brand Success and your leaders
Ultimately, your executives, as leaders of your comapny and how people percieve it, will either be your brand’s best asset or its downfall. The team that ultimately advances your company’s goals and objectives, that consistently meets client and partner needs, and that sets the standard for innovative products and services, will be the team that leads your brand to new heights. Remember that, as a leader and owner of your brand – instilling the importance of modelling brand values to your leadership will be key to brand success.
If you need help articulating your brand, or finding leaders who effectively model your brand’s values, we’d love to talk to see what we can do to help.
