Do you have a Strong Brand-Culture Connection at your Organisation?

Strong Brand-Culture alignment is crucial for building organisational trust and business growth… yet so many leaders struggle with this – or have yet to make the connection!

In this series on Brand Culture Strategy, we break down the basics over 3 articles:

1. Why your Organisation needs a strong Brand-Culture Connection
2. How to assess your current Brand-Culture Connection strengths and gaps
3. Guidelines to building a better Brand-Culture Connection at your organisation

#2: Do you have a Strong Brand-Culture Connection at your Organisation?

In the first article of the Brand Culture Strategy Series, we talked about the work we do with organisations on how their people connect with and communicate the company brand, and how they align the culture to that brand, in order to build internal confidence and external trust.

Now that you understand the importance of a strong brand-culture connection as the foundation for your organisational strategy, business plans and people growth, how do you know if you have a strong brand-culture connection?

During our discovery phase with a new client, we typically take them through a Brand Culture Strategy Checklist, to quickly identify some of the potential strengths and gaps in how clearly their people and stakeholders see and communicate ‘who we are’ and ‘what we stand for’ as an organisation.

NWC’s Brand Culture Strategy is built on 3 Pillars: Brand Culture Clarity, Brand Culture Engagement, and Brand Culture Expression. Below are some sample questions from our checklist, to get you thinking about how strong your organisation’s brand-culture connection really is.

Pillar 1. Brand Culture Clarity – How clearly is the Brand and Culture positioned?

• Is the company Brand underpinned by clear and meaningful Culture messaging, such as organisational Purpose and Values?
• Do you have clearly defined target markets and audiences, including internal teams and stakeholders?
• Do you have a clearly defined value proposition for each of those audiences?
• How consistently is the Brand and Culture messaging brought together and repeated across all platforms?

Pillar 2. Brand Culture Engagement – How meaningfully do your team members connect with the Brand and Culture?

• Are they clear on what it is?
• Have they been given opportunities to personally connect with it?
• Have they built a clear and communicable ‘Team Identity’ in each team, that is connected to the core brand but meaningful and specific ‘on-the-ground’?

Pillar 3. Brand Culture Expression – How well do your people communicate the Brand and Culture with others?

• Do staff feel empowered to confidently and consistently communicate the brand externally with stakeholders, in a variety of settings?
• Have staff developed their ‘personal brands’ in order to build trust with stakeholders and audiences, as they communicate and build relationships?
• What about your leaders – do they have strong ‘leadership brands’ representing the organisation?

Remember, these questions offer just a snapshot – there may be other strengths and gaps you are not recognising at your organisation! To dive deeper, you can try the online checklist or request a Brand Culture Connection Discovery with us.

Stay tuned for the third and final article in the Brand Culture Strategy Series: Guidelines to building a better Brand-Culture Connection at your organisation.