When it comes to their website, branding, marketing, advertising and sales, a lot of businesses don’t see the full picture of how their company should play together. It’s about more than just using the same tagline, color and logo everywhere. It all starts with brand alignment and authenticity.
Brand Authenticity
Who is your brand and what does your organization stand for? The answer to this question is the most foundational piece of your marketing and sales. Discovering the truth requires the business to dig deep and ask “why did we start doing this to being with? What problem are we trying to solve?” And guess what, if you find the answer is just that you wanted to make money, you’re in trouble. People can see through that.
In a world where being genuine is so rare, it’s amazing how people can spot inauthenticity. You might see some success capitalizing on a trend, or the latest and greatest thing, but if you can’t say, “this is how we are helping, this is how we are righting a wrong in the world” then you won’t make genuine connections and build trust with customers and your success will peek. Inauthenticity will also seep into your internal culture.
To create a solid foundation for your organization, you have to build a brand that stands for something. As I’ve said before, for those who haven’t thought long and hard about their company values, it’s not an easy task. For those who have, I would challenge you to revisit them and see how your organization has evolved.
- Are you still enforcing your values?
- Is it still the compass of your company?
- Does it go into your hiring decisions?
Having this solid foundation will help inform your marketing and sales strategies. If it’s done well it should help you:
- Clarify your target audience
- Connect with your audience through messaging
- Inform your sales team on how to speak with potential customers
- Inform where the organization is going
Over the years, we have seen businesses that “get it” and have seen lots of success. And we’ve seen our fair share of those that “just don’t understand” and continue to struggle. There are varying reasons for this, but at its core, it usually comes back to the fact that they had a brand alignment issue.
To move forward, you have to be willing to take an honest look at your organization and see where the communication, message and vision could be improved.
