My recent flight home on Continental was great, like it always is… Continental consistently delivers a good experience. This got me thinking about the importance of consistency and specifically about a time when my colleague, Patrick, and I were meeting with a prospective client.

During this meeting, we asked a lot of questions about the prospect’s business, the
current challenges he was facing, and the solutions he was considering. He asked us
a lot of questions about our company, Brand Integrity, and organizational branding.
After about an hour of this back and forth, he asked “If there is one thing that I
need to take away from this meeting about brand-building, what would it be?”

Patrick and I looked at him a bit perplexed. His question seemed so simple to us.
We were both shocked that we had not been asked it before. He pressed on, “What is
the one thing that matters most to ensure a company can build its brand to drive profits?
Is there one thing?”

Patrick and I looked at each other and back at the prospect. Then we each got a piece
of paper and wrote that one thing down. Both of us passed our papers to the prospect
and, sure enough, we had written not only the same idea, but the exact same word: consistency.

Consistency
is so important to a strong, sustainable brand that I always tell clients and leaders
“consistency is king.” Consistency is so important, I had it personified with an image
in my book. The king is a reminder that if you want to develop a strong brand for
your company, then employees must be in a position to consistently deliver results
for customers. Without consistency, your company won’t be able to drive the experiences
employees and customers want and will end up being another one of the masses rather
than a “king” ahead of all the rest.

Does your company lack strategic direction? Does the path you’ve set change with the wind based on the hidden agendas of your leaders or market and competitive fluctuations? If so, and you’re frustrated enough, it might be time to consider a different approach. A brand strategy might be just what you’re looking for. A brand strategy is the process of aligning what you say (mission, vision, values) with what you do (delivery of behaviors and experiences) in order to positively influence what others (employees, customers, the market) think.

To successfully implement a brand strategy, you must understand the four realities
of branding:

First Reality of Branding: The brand is not a part of the
business, it is the business
Every employee interaction within your company impacts the brand. Each
one makes it either easier or harder for you to keep and recruit great people and
good customers. These interactions directly affect costs of payroll and customer sales,
which dramatically influence cash flow for operations. The most successful, future-looking
companies (whether large household names or privately held neighborhood shops) recognize
that the brand is the playing field for the game of business.

Second Reality of Branding: A brand is about experiences,
not logos and taglines
Your brand is a people strategy, rather than a marketing strategy. The
purpose of a brand strategy is to influence what people think about your company in
ways that cause them to take the action your company is looking for and the only way
to influence what people think is to manage the consistent execution
of employee behaviors that will drive customer experiences.

Third Reality of Branding: The little things that you do
CONSISTENTLY are much more important than the BIG things you say!
No one is really listening when you tell them how your company is the industry
leader in “blah, blah, blah.” Or that you are experts in delivering “blah, blah,”
and are known for incredibly high-quality “blah.” Even if you think they’re listening
to your salespeople or advertising message, do you really think they’re hearing it?
Don’t count on it! People judge a company by the experience they have or someone they
know has. So why do so many companies still waste outrageous amounts of money on advertising
and marketing tactics rather than focusing on the experiences that are most relevant
to their target customers? Well-planned and executed experiences provide reasons for
customers to believe what companies want them to believe about their products. The
reality: You’re better off doing a few things well all of the time than doing a lot
of things mediocre some of the time. Consistency is king!

Fourth Reality of Branding: A brand strategy is the single
most important differentiator between a good company and a great company
Great companies have people and processes that make them great. For any
company in any industry, this fact remains true: your competition cannot easily replicate
your people (human capital) or processes (quality assurance, innovation, customer
service, etc.). They can (and probably will) copy your marketing message, but they
will not be able to consistently deliver the same experiences without your people
and processes. Since this is the case, why not focus energy on talent management and
process improvement?

Build and sustain a difference in the market by:

1. Determining the experience your customers want.
2. Finding the right people to deliver that experience.
3. Ensuring your people have the right operational processes to efficiently and effectively
   deliver experiences for your customers.

Companies that define a strategy to drive their culture will win more, lose less,
and make more money.

To read more about how to build and define a strategy, pick up a copy of my book Achieve
Brand Integrity.