Does branding impacts organizational culture?
Know how branding could impact the culture throughout the organization either good or bad!
Unfortunately still in the 21st century many startups don’t understand the value of design & branding for a business.
Alot of design influencers had already said some 100’s of times that design means identifying and solving the right problems — It’s not just limited to the artistic side of it.
But still many people don’t have the idea about the true power of design. Especially in rapidly developing countries like India.
Anyway, our topic for this article is about the impact of branding on organizational culture! Is it really that impactful for startups?
For that let’s talk about 3 things in this article:
- What is branding?
- What are the outcomes of the branding?
- What’s the impact of branding on culture?
And additionally we will also discuss about, at what stage of the company the branding must be included?
So are you ready to dig deep? Let’s dive in!
What is branding?
To understand the branding clearly, we must talk about What is the meaning of a Brand!?
Marty Neumeier the author of amazing books about brand and brand psychology had given the very simplistic and apt description about the brand — “ A brand is all about persons gut feeling, if a community of people have the same kind of feeling about the organization, it turns out to be a brand.”
Now, you understood what is a brand! The description about the brand had made it simple to make you understand about the concept of branding!
What is branding? Branding is very well structured and proven process to build out a great and most human centric brand personality that communicates the vision, mission & values to the people both verbally and visually.
It’s the process that help you to build most authentic brand that speaks amazing and most delightful language to your users!
I hope you got some clarity about the brand and branding now!
Don’t worry if you still have any confusion. Next question will give you the 100% clarity of what it really means when we talk about branding!
What are the outcomes of branding?
We understood about the Brand & what is branding from above explanation! Now, it’s most fun part! The outcomes of branding.
What do you actually get out of the process of branding?
There is actually a huge value that is attached to the branding. We can’t say that we got one thing or two things out of branding.
There is a lot of value you can absorb from branding exercise. Let me jot down the outcomes one by one below.
Outcomes of branding:
- The first and foremost that branding can help is to get clarity. About the product, customers, vision & purpose.
- Branding can help you understand the customers & their needs with empathy.
- It helps you to set the clear direction towards the future of the company.
- You will derive the clear and on brand communication language that speaks directly to the customers.
- It helps to understand the core offering of a business.
- Branding can help to set the brand’s personality by giving your brand the right look, feel, tone & voice.
- It can help you to understand the Unique Value Proposition about your product and brand.
- The process can change your overall mindset about your business and help you to see your company as a brand.
- You can clearly understand and articulate your vision, mission & core values with the help of this process.
- Finally, it helps you to set the 360 degrees communication system of your brand — verbally & visually.
It’s not just about only the customers. Branding process is also about the employees, stakeholders and all the connected people.
It can just transform your culture from deep within the organizational level. It’s just that powerful.
What’s the impact of branding on culture?
From the above concepts I’m sure you had already understood what impact the branding can have on a company culture.
But still let me give you few insights in my words.
The branding as it’s highly collaborative exercise, right from the beginning it started impacting and changing the mindsets of the stakeholders.
The same impact falls on the cultural level!
Branding make all the multi disciplinary teams speak the same language about the organization both internally and externally.
It builds trust at your employee level and helps them be productive and clear about their contribution to the success of the organization.
It helps to build most consistent visual aesthetics that appears more credible throughout the organization.
Branding can help to integrate the sense of belonging into the minds of each and every employee working in the organization which literally build highly positive and very productive environment!
At what stage of my business, I must think about branding? I know you have this question still in your minds. Let me answer it below.
At what stage of the company, the branding must be practiced or included?
Well, to give you the straight answer, I could say — the sooner the better.
It’s always great if you can bring in the branding and it’s outcomes right from the idea stage of your business.
Because, there is one quote — “You can’t make first impressions the second time.”
Your goal must be delighting your customer right from their first interaction with your product. That is only possible if you consider branding perspective into your business right from the start.
If you can make your first impressions, you had already build the credibility in the minds of people which means your 50% job is done!
Hence, it’s always advisable to include branding & design thinking right from the beginning if you are really passionate about build an unicorn.
Takeaway
In the 21st century, the game is all about building unicorns. You must strive hard to appear the best in the eyes of your customers.
There is no place in the world for the good brands. The competition is all in between the best and the best!
If you are serious about building an unicorn, you must consider it and include the branding and design thinking right from the beginning.
If you want me to help you with crafting your brand experience, write me about your product and vision to ramesh@bykeera.com
You can also follow me on social media — Instagram & Linkedin
