Start with WHO as well as WHY

Your brand essence and company culture should work hand in hand to give customers and colleagues a true understanding of who you are and what you stand for.  If you get that bit right, then as long as you have services and products that are a good fit with your brand, then generating turnover and making profit becomes the easy part.

I have spent a lot of my career creating brand awareness for clients by talking to their customers and understanding what my clients do well, why people like them and why customers are happy to come back time and time again.

Across a diverse range of sectors from international white goods manufacturers to high street retail outlets to niche high-tech manufacturing and service companies, the result is invariably the same:

People buy from people.  They rarely make the buying decision based on features and benefits of products, they buy the ‘feel’ or essence of a brand, the customer experience and the relationship that is built around the transaction.

I have always been a fan of Simon Sinek’s work, Start with Why, however, having now completed a series of Brand Discovery sessions with a variety of clients from different sectors I believe that there is more…..

Your brand essence is the intangible feeling that people get when they work with your company.  It is what differentiates you from the company next door or in the next town who provide the same service or products.  It is what makes your company unique – and I use that word deliberately, because your brand essence is a combination of your WHO and your WHY – it is personal and unique to your company.

The WHO is key – it represents the personality characteristics that define how your purpose (WHY) is represented – both internally and externally.

It is commonly cited that Apple’s WHY, or purpose is that they believe in challenging the status quo and thinking differently. I ask you to consider how a CEO who is curious, determined and tenacious might approach this business purpose compared to somebody else who is creative, passionate and supportive.

The who determines how the why is actioned and therefore together they define the essence of the brand.
The WHO defines the WHY.

When your CEO or leadership team changes, your WHO changes, and so does the approach to how your purpose is achieved.  The perception of the company by employees and customers will change over time as things are done differently, even though your WHY remains the same.

One of the most impactful results of discovering your brand essence is in recruitment and the creation of an authentic company culture.  Once you have taken the time to discover your brand essence and identify the associated brand values the best way to ensure that it is sustained is to share and embedded it across all your company activities.  Make sure that current and potential employees understand who you are and what approach you take to achieve your business purpose.

The Virgin group do this brilliantly – a visit to the group recruitment page gives you a clear idea of Virgin’s WHO as well as their WHY.  In fact they actively discourage people who are not a good fit with the type of people they like to employ.

Your WHO defines your WHY – please make the time to discover the true essence of your brand and ensure that colleagues and customers understand the uniqueness of your company. If you need help please give me a call

Do you agree with my thinking?

Please share your thoughts on how the WHO of your organisation defines your WHY, and how it differentiates you from competitors