Your brand beyond your product or service

Handmade means more

All right. You have your brand all figured out. You have your logo, and hopefully a style guide to make sure all of your digital and print assets look uniform to make sure your audiences receive the right message. You have it all figured out. Or do you?

 

“You mean there’s more branding to do?”

Yes, there is more work, my friends.

The fact of the matter is, convincing people to buy your product or service isn’t just about having the best advertising or website or even the best product or service anymore. Subconsciously and consciously, consumers are evaluating how your brand aligns with their values, beliefs and lifestyle. For your organization, the brand culture you create is essential to selling your products and services.

Establishing a brand culture is done by identifying core beliefs and values and then living and breathing those values. Every. Single. Day.

 

 

Identifying your company and brand values will:

Create actionable opportunities to share

You may already have important core values identified. An example of an actionable opportunity created by your organization’s values is an expressed commitment to sustainable practices. What does this look like in action? This could take many forms, but perhaps you do recycling drives at your offices or stores, or make an effort to use recycled products. This is not only an opportunity to get employees (who also share your organization’s values!) engaged, but to also show your audiences that you live the values your organization says it has.

Guide campaigns

Gone are the days of coming up with an ad with hopes of it going viral. When you have a well-established brand culture, you can create campaigns and advertisements based on their alignment with your core values and beliefs.

Make Mom's Day, Handmade Means More

Take, for example, the 2016 Mother’s Day campaign from LUSH Fresh Handmade Cosmetics. In LUSH’s “We Believe…” statement, the company talks about inventing their products using only the freshest ingredients and making their products fresh by hand…oh, “and making our mums proud.” For Mother’s Day, people can hand make a card for their mother(s) and share them via social media. It is simple and clearly aligned with LUSH’s established beliefs.

Help identify and target your audience

This one is pretty simple. The primary target audience is people who share your organization’s values and beliefs. Your audience will see that your organization has created a culture based on values and beliefs the organization follows and its employees live.

Winning brand culture

Want to talk about how to establish a winning brand culture (and get all of the high fives)? We’re available, so get in touch.