Look, you can’t cheat quality. Either you are all-in on quality or you fudge a bit, then a little more, then one day you’re not even thinking about quality.
You’re just pushing something out the door. Making a deadline.
And pretty soon, your version of quality is something that’s not very good. It’s not distinctive. It’s purposeless.
Your company’s brand is how you connect with your community. And communities you want to connect with.
Brand and culture are closely connected. It’s simple then: Good brands connect culture with community.
Think of Patagonia. Apple. Porsche. Rolex. Amazon.
They all have such a strong brand because they connect so well with their community.
These are all thoughts my friend and branding and marketing guru/mentor Josh Rowe said to me recently. Josh is marketing director at Harvard Innovation Labs, and formerly worked in marketing at Nike and New Balance.
I called him because I was really curious about how brands connect with audiences.
He told me a brand reflects what the community expects. Great brands know what their community wants.
Maybe their community wants low environmental impact. It might be technological innovation. I mean, what will you stand in a line for five hours for? For some people it’s an iPhone.
A brand’s community may want quality. Or performance.
Longevity. Sustainability. Luxury.
Josh talked about Porsche, for example. He said “Porsche” and these words popped into my head: Performance. Sleek. Engineering. Speed.
Or a Swiss watch. You expect it to last forever.
Then he asked me a question.
“You know who might be the strongest brand in America right now?”
I said I didn’t know.
“Trump.”
I wasn’t expecting that.
“They’re all in,” he said. “So much so that they are driving a Biden bus off the highway in Texas.”
I really wasn’t expecting that. But it’s true. Sadly?
Anyway, good brands do a great job connecting their culture with their community. Foundering brands don’t do that.
They just give you a product. There’s no identity. No affinity. No connection. Hello Reebok, Kmart or Oldsmobile.
Brands need to create ambassadors to survive. Your product then, is a medium to connect your culture to a community, often through ambassadors.
Good companies have brand values. What are your brand values? How do you deliver them to that customer base or community?
Your brand is a mirror, reflecting you, your culture and your values.
This is why it’s so important for companies and organizations to establish their brand values.
Here’s a link from Ogilvy I found super valuable to help you with that: https://www.ogilvy.com/ideas/whats-big-ideal
Establishing brand values is essential. It can’t be a shotgun approach.
Josh said something that sticks with me. He quoted marketing guru Simon Sinek: It’s all about the why, not the what.
People connect with the why.
What’s your brand’s why?
