It’s not what you say

I have spoken to many business leaders who have said something to the effect of "I know exactly who we are and what our brand stands for and means to our customers." But is that really what we're striving for?

The business owner knowing all about the brand and the future of the organization is one thing.  But if I asked all of your employees today would they say the same thing?  What about your customers?

Try it today: Ask these questions of a random sampling of 5 customers and employees.

• What do we do?

• Where are we trying to go?

• Why does it all matter?

You will learn a lot through this simple exercise.

Don’t settle until it’s understood throughout the organization and the real test is when you hear customers say it back to you.

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Posted by: Craig Johnson on July 28th, 2010

5 Comments

"Craig interesting exercise. Little mystified with the "why does it all matter" I have a hard time with that one, I can only imagine a customer or employee. This is a question for the Dalai Lama regards Richmond"
- richmond chandler
"That's a great point Richmond. I think about Howard Schultz's recent comment, "Success is very shallow if it doesn’t have emotional meaning." Employees, especially Gen Y employees, need to feel a larger purpose and meaning behind their work. It doesn't have to fix everyone's problems, but it should be something that adds to the world in a more significant way."
- Craig Johnson
"Aha, now you're speaking my language. Getting employees to buy in to the brand has been one of my tasks at times throughout my career, particularly at Delta Air Lines. The brand can be well defined and the company's mission/vision/goals well thought out and executed, but often rank-and-file employees haven't bought in simply because they don't know. And that, of course, is where good internal communications strategies come in."
- Reid Davis
"Thanks for this Craig. Very useful. I am looking forward to hearing the answers."
- Ray Jarrell
"[...] I’m a huge fan of the matchstic team and their awesome advice. Their past blog entry titled “it’s not what you say” caught my attention. If you asked your employees what your brand stands for, would they be able to [...]"
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