Brand Identity and Culture – Who Are You to the World?

If you ask most people what is a brand, they will point to a logo or tagline. But brand identity is far more than a visual or a phrase. A brand is shorthand for what your company represents in terms of its services / products (such as innovation, quality, variety, lower cost), the organization’s values (donates to nonprofits), how it conducts business (strict ethical codes, how it treats its employees), and how it treats its customers (friendly, rapid response, problem resolution). In other words, your brand identity reflects your company’s culture – attitudes, beliefs, behaviors – and therefore what people can expect to experience when they have contact with your brand.

What do you want your brand to convey about your business? Just as importantly, do you know what prospects, customers, colleagues, and competitors think about your brand (images, words, beliefs, feelings)? Companies with successful brands ask these questions again and again; then they act consistently to reinforce the brand identity they have created. What are you doing to communicate and reinforce your brand?