How Strong Corporate Culture Contributes to Strong Brands?

07 Jan How Strong Corporate Culture Contributes to Strong Brands?

Building a “good” corporate culture has been the talk of the town or more specifically, organizations for a while now.

Why is corporate culture gaining such importance?

What does corporate culture have to do with brand-building?

In this article, I am about to state how strong corporate culture contributes to strong brands.

Corporate Culture- Definition

I know what you are thinking. Ping-pong or foosball tables, casual dressing, paid vacations or something much like Google’s work culture. Corporate culture is the foundation of an organization that is structured with its core values, ethics, goals, business approaches, beliefs, and strategies. A strong and healthy corporate culture defines the brand identity and raises the productivity of an organization.

Great brands are built from inside out

It starts by instilling a great corporate culture. Big brands like Nike, Google, Apple, etc. did not become what they are today by mere advertisements, PR or logos. They cultivated a brand-led culture within their company that gave their employees a purpose and their customers more value. Those who think brands and culture are two separate entities are hugely mistaken. A strong and powerful brand is built on the foundation of a strong culture which constructed by maintaining consistent core values, listen to your employees, treating employees as you treat your customers, prioritize employee needs and personal goals, pave way for employees’ professional growth and by being transparent. After all, it’s the basic mantra that companies with strong culture have happy employees, thus happy customers.

Importance of brand and culture alignment

Sequencing your brand-building efforts with your company culture is highly crucial. Any misalignment of these two can lead to a huge disaster. If as a brand, what you depict in your ads, logos or PR is not what you practice inside your company, then customers may quickly sense this difference and drop further business plans with you.

There are no set rules for developing a good corporate culture. Every organization has a different culture. The importance of corporate culture should be to produce happy and engaged employees who work towards the organization’s goals and achievements. This can happen only if you align your company culture with your brand culture.

Building a strong brand-led culture

With my years of experience in working with numerous companies, I have understood that there are a lot of misperceptions among the leaders in building their brands. I have this simple solution for them- Redefine your brand based on this brand-culture fusion circle.

What does this brand-culture fusion circle denote?

Brand culture fusion circle

• Embracing your core values

Your organizations’ core values are not something documented for show-off. Your core values must depict in you and your employees’ thoughts. You do what you see. It takes time to seep in values deeply inside of you. So, display your core values at a visible area of your office space and engage your employees in activities that boost their morale and instill these values in them. Let everyone act and behave accordingly that aligns with your core values. Make it a routine until these values are infused inside of you and your employees.

• Practicing your ethics

Company ethics are of crucial importance. You as a leader may be abided to them, but are your employees too? Ethics should be seen in your daily activities and your employees must practice them until becomes a habit.

• Evolving as a leader

As a leader, everyone looks up to you. You play a major role in inculcating a brand-led culture in your organization. Being a leader, you should understand your possibilities and capabilities. You start to delegate others for works that are out of your possibility limits. Once you realize this, your leadership becomes an expression that others follow.

• Culture= Environment

Once these three principles are followed, your organization will drive on brand-led cultural values. These values can be sensed and perceived in your office environment. For e.g., let’s replace this culture of rewarding your employees for their work achievement with the core value achievement. This will encourage your employees to not only work for themselves, but the fulfillment of the organizations’ core values, purpose, and vision. You can witness as your employees thrive towards your organizational goals and customers achieve more value and see you as a unique brand with a unique identity.

• Act. Behave

Maintaining this redefined culture in your organization is now a joint responsibility. Your culture must be perceived in your thoughts, actions and behavior and that is when it concretes a strong corporate culture and a strong brand.

Now that you have comprehended as to how strong corporate culture contributes to strong brands, it’s time for you to act fast. Being one of the best corporate trainers in India, I can help in developing your brand that aligns with your culture. Let me know by commenting on the below section or tap here.