Think your corporate brand is unique? Think again.
Sitting in front of a CEO, Christian Quenneville knows what will likely be the first question he’ll be asked: “What do you think of my brand?” As Sid Lee’s Vice-President of Business Development, Quenneville has been confronted with this question countless times. But, as always, the same answer pops into his mind: “It’s not about what I think of your brand. It’s about how your employees see the brand. It’s about what your clients think of the brand. It’s about how you create action through motivation.”
Face it, you’re no special snowflake. You’re not that different from the competition.
“In other words, if you compare any top 5 industry contenders, you’ll see that finding a true distinction is difficult at first,” points out Quenneville. “They’re all about the same size, with the same type of projects, in the same countries, with the same type of expertise, and roughly the same products and services… same, same, same. It’s a perpetual ‘me too’ situation. When each company’s reputation is a carbon copy of the other, what’s left in your biz dev efforts besides playing on price?”
Not only is pricing impacted by this lack of real differentiation, it has an effect on the hiring and retention of top talent, mergers and acquisitions, advertising — you name it.
So how does a leading company set their brand in motion and move it to the front of the pack?
Hint: START WITH WHAT YOUR CLIENTS WANT TO KNOW, NOT WITH WHAT YOU THINK THEY WANT TO KNOW.
A McKinsey research study found that there was a major gap between how B2B companies market themselves and what their clients look for in a business partner.
Notice how the majority of companies affiliate themselves with the same themes, and how little clients care about these themes. Translation: A lack of differentiation and, by extension, an inability to stand out will always negatively impact the brand’s perceived affinity and value.
Time to refresh your brand narrative.
KEEP IN MIND: YOU’LL NEVER CHANGE THE WORLD WITH 3 TO 5 BRAND VALUES.
Companies who outperform their competitors often set out to change the world in their own way. Success ensues. This why is an important part of what mobilizes employees, clients, prospects and investors.
Of course, rallying people on the same collective wavelength doesn’t happen overnight. It requires ultraprecise, actionable and motivating reasons to believe. Needless to say, naming three to five core values just won’t cut it. It won’t create momentum, nor will it attract top talent to your team.
“I profoundly hate talking about brand values,” says Quenneville. “At best, they’re descriptive. There’s nothing motivating about them. Saying that ‘agility’ is part of our values is nice and all, but how do I put this into action? How does that drive me towards generating stellar results? It’s kind of like saying, ‘The sky is blue. The weather is nice.’ That’s great, but what do I do with this information?”
“As an employee, tell me that you expect me to work as if the company was my own. Or, if I’m an engineer, don’t tell me that I’ll be drawing up plans, tell me that I’ll be shaping what the future of urban communities looks like. Then, and only then, will I understand how I’m expected to act, and what I’m moving towards.”
On the topic of employees: The reality today is that they’re spoilt for choice when it comes to where they can work. Why should they choose you? Yes, money is part of the equation, but according to an Indeed study, top performers are less likely to be attracted to a new job because of higher compensation and better benefits than other job seekers. On the other hand, they are 46% more likely to be attracted by a better company reputation. Retention-wise, employees who give their work culture low marks are nearly 15% more likely to consider looking for a new job than their counterparts.
Bottom line: Top performers actively seek out companies that share their worldview, in hopes of collaborating on projects that align with their values, and where they can exceed their own ambitions and expectations.
If that’s something you can offer and, more importantly, can communicate in a crystal-clear fashion, your company is at the top of their hiring game. You’re a success at motivating employees. They perform better, which in turn generates more value, thus allowing you to invest and attract new clients.
The first step in attracting higher-quality candidates: making it all about your brand.
CORPORATE REBRANDING: FINDING AND ACTIVATING THE TRUE PURPOSE OF A BRAND
It goes without saying that we’re looking for more than a new logo here. The creative part is the easy bit. The heart of a corporate rebrand is to distill what your brand really is. Not what you think it is.
“There’s one thing we like to do,” explains Quenneville. “And that’s interviewing people from all walks of a company. Employees in all job levels, from every country the firm is in. We ask them one simple question: ‘Name three attributes of the brand you work for.’ When we present our findings to C-level management, they’re always floored. It’s usually completely at odds with how they see their brand and what they assumed people would say.”
But, isn’t this normal? After all, a brand is not a static entity — it’s a lot of moving parts. It’s constantly evolving, and shifts according to people’s way of thinking, aspirations and actions. Add the passage of time, missions across multiple departments, managerial changes, and differing cultural realities to the mix, and you get a whole host of new interpretations of your brand across all walks of the company.
So, how do you capture the essence of what a brand really is when there’s a disconnect between interpretations?
“We’re not here to invent anything, we’re here to distill and remove impurities from the message,” explains Quenneville. “We’re here to understand. We help people to see what they haven’t noticed yet, things that they’ve been taking for granted, even things that are so typical that they’re overlooked.”
WANT MORE MONEY? INVEST IN A (RE)BRAND.
Each year, WPP publishes the BrandZ™ Top 100 Most Valuable Brands report. The report is based on data collected from 3 million consumers about their attitudes towards, and relationships with, 120,000 brands in 414 categories across 51 countries/markets.
Guess which brands performed best? Spoiler alert: No spoiler alert necessary. Better branding equals greater equity and value.
“The value of the BrandZ™ Strong Brands Portfolio increased 124.9 percent between April 2006 and April 2017, outperforming both the S&P 500, which grew 82.1 percent, and the MSCI World Index, which grew 34.9 percent,” the report reads.
As WPP explains, “The key takeaways for brand owners and brand marketers are: companies that invest in building valuable brands grow their top line faster, and organic topline growth is the greatest determinant of total shareholder return.”
THE PROCESS IS THOROUGH. IT CAN APPEAR COMPLEX, BUT IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE COMPLICATED.
Needless to say, this is an important task to take on, and it needs to come from the whole leadership group. This isn’t only marketing. It’s a deep process that redefines the role of the company. Everyone must be on board from the get-go or the exercise is doomed to fail.
Strategic legwork is key. Quenneville gives an overview of the process: “We’re currently working with WSP, an engineering firm with 36,000 employees worldwide. We interviewed junior and senior employees in 16 countries. We even interviewed WSP’s clients. We’re looking for common ground, not differences. Let the interview results simmer, and then get the real essence of what differentiates the brand and what drives its employees.”
There’s also a lot of feedback between the agency and top execs. “From day one, we create a Brand Council made up of senior execs,” explains Quenneville. “The goal is to get feedback and validation as we progress through the rebranding process. As we discover new things from the interviews, it’s crucial to put them in perspective and adjust our course of action accordingly.”
“Wordsmithing is paramount. We carefully craft each word of a brand’s role to ensure every stakeholder is 100% on board with it. A word of difference can make a world of difference.”
Even if the process can be demanding, it’s well worth it according to Quenneville. “It’s definitely motivating and rewarding,” he says. “Through the process, we get to make a real impact on employees’ lives. We change the relationship between management and employees. We bring value to the table. We give people reasons to get out of bed in the morning. There’s no feeling like it.”
5 SIGNS IT’S TIME FOR A REBRAND
1. Clients and potential clients can’t clearly differentiate your value proposition from the competition’s.
2. You frequently end up competing on pricing with fellow industry contenders.
3. Your salespeople mention having difficulty crafting persuasive arguments.
4. You realize there’s a discrepancy between how the highest-level execs and the employees see the brand and what it stands for.
5. You’ve done your strategic planning and know where your business is headed for the next 5–10 years. Time to empower your brand and align it with your business objectives and action plan.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
· Corporate rebranding is a crucial tool to improve brand value and facilitate the hiring of top talent.
· Corporate branding is not a one-time thing. It’s a regular, sustained activity that requires constant information gathering.
· Forming a Brand Council of senior execs is key in getting feedback and defining the brand in the process.
· The first step to a successful rebrand is understanding the discrepancy between the various perceptions of the brand — yours and those of the employees, senior management and clients.
· Rebranding will fail if (a) it’s a top-down approach and (b) it’s only driven by marketing.
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Co-writers: Christian Quenneville & Jean-Sébastien Martel
