Yesterday I caught up with Jim Prior of The Partners (http://www.the-partners.com/), who I was lucky enough to interview for RARE Business. We were chatting about the book, the philosophy and the future plans that we are currently developing (more on that later).
Anyway, our chat got round to branding and what that means for business, building connections with customers and future growth.
Now, when it comes to branding The Partners are leaders in their field. Over the last 25 years, The Partners has been the most creatively awarded agency in the UK (Design Week League Table November 2009) and offer brand consultancy and design services to national and international clients, including Vodafone, Deloitte, Aviva, Astra Zeneca and The National Gallery.
Suffice to say that when they talk about branding it’s worth listening to.
What Jim said, and it is something that I have written about here and here before, is that its not enough for businesses to think about their brand as just being a logo or a smart piece of design or a letterhead or a great new slogan but it is something that has to run right through your business.
So much so, that when The Partners are now asked to consult on new (re)branding projects they look to make sure that any major rebrand is accompanied by a significant internal or culture change programme. This is to make sure that any change in the brand is completely embedded and reflected into the company, its people and in the way they do business, interact with each other and their customers. Why? Because they believe that it is the only way that a brand change will be sustainable and really drive new growth and customer relationships.
After all, if you want to deliver a consistent customer experience, there’s little point having what you say that you do or stand for not being echoed by what you do or say both internally and externally.
From my point of view, I would suggest that what you say and do internally is probably as important, if not more so, for your brand than anything else.
It’s a bit like the picture above……Brighton rock is Brighton rock on the outside and on the inside. But, its the lettering inside that really defines what is Brighton Rock and what is not.
So, is your brand ‘printed’ on the inside of your business? If not, what’s the main challenges to making sure your brand is reflected both inside and outside of your business?
Thanks to atomicShed for the image.
