Benefits Of Brand-Culture Integration

During a debrief session on some culture-belonging work I do for an experience brand, one of the leaders said, “Our culture is so important that it makes our brand work; It makes our company work. I really don’t know where we’d be without it.”

This reminded me of something I beat the drum on constantly. When the company culture aligns with the brand, it operates as an integrated system.

Here’s how the brand and culture team become “wonder twins.”

• The brand defines what the company believes; The culture lives those beliefs. 
• The brand creates interest; The culture creates trust.
• The brand shapes its expression and stories; The culture makes them believable.
• The brand invites and engages customers; The culture serves and cares for them.
• The brand makes promises which create customer expectations; The culture delivers on them.
• The brand attracts the right customers; The culture builds trust and loyalty.
• The brand carves out a market position; The culture secures it.

Going a bit further, here are some critical benefits of brand-culture integration:

1. Attract the Right Employees and Customers. Companies that know what they stand for and effectively communicate their brand values, purpose, voice and tone, position, and reputation attract like-minded people. This magnetizes both customers and employees with similar values.
2. Build Customer Trust. Trust is the social and emotional currency all businesses deal in. Without it, companies either don’t win or quickly lose customers. When a culture delivers on its brand promises, it creates customer trust.
3. Create Brand Differentiation. When the culture operates uniquely, it produces a reputation that aligns with your external brand. When employees understand and embrace distinct organizational ways, it creates a distinctive and differentiated value for customers. 
4. Connect Employees with Customers. When customers can see, hear, and feel the care employees put into customer interactions, they are more likely to trust them and, therefore, the brand. With a robust brand-culture integration, customers see inside the organization, which builds authentic connections leading to customer loyalty.
5. Increase Innovation. Companies that innovate more effectively gain competitive advantages in the market. Teams aligned around the company values and purpose are more effective at working collaboratively to solve customer problems and deliver on the customers’ unstated wants and wishes. 
6. Future-Proof the Company. Because markets shift and economies change, having a strong and trusted market position is essential for long-term success. Brands that have a trusted and reliable market position stemming from an integrated brand-culture will weather storms more effectively than those that don’t.
7. Build brand magnetism. When a team unites around a common cause (AKA Purpose) that they feel connected and committed to, which also serves their life, they become formidable — magnetic to employees and customers alike. This builds greater brand recognition and, ultimately, brand magnetism. When you do this, your company becomes unignorable to the right customer and employee prospects. 

All of this reminded me of Simon Sinek’s statement, “Customers will never love a company until the employees love it first.” 

When you see the results, building your company from the inside out is common sense. But common sense doesn’t always lead to common action. If you don’t know where to begin or how to do it, that’s where I can help.

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PS: Here’s a recent article I wrote for Modern Elder Academy’s Wisdom Well. It’s about philia, which means love of humanity. To lean into this love and its power is to lean into one of humanity’s greatest strengths.