The Profound Agency’s Post

🌟 Key Considerations for Growing and Improving Your Company’s Image 🌟 In today’s competitive landscape, a strong company image is crucial for success. Here are some important factors to consider when working on enhancing your brand’s reputation: Define Your Brand Identity: Clearly articulate what your company stands for—its values, mission, and vision. Consistency in messaging helps build a strong, recognizable identity. Engage with Your Audience: Actively interact with customers on social media and other platforms. Listening to their feedback and addressing concerns fosters trust and loyalty. Invest in Quality: Whether it’s products, services, or customer support, delivering quality consistently will reinforce your brand’s reputation and encourage positive word-of-mouth. Leverage Corporate Social Responsibility: Show your commitment to social and environmental causes. Engaging in meaningful initiatives can enhance your image and resonate with customers. Monitor Your Online Presence: Regularly assess your company’s reputation across digital platforms. Responding to reviews and managing online feedback is vital in maintaining a positive image. Empower Your Employees: Your team is your brand’s best ambassador. Foster a positive workplace culture and encourage employees to share their experiences, which can enhance your company’s authenticity. Utilize Thought Leadership: Share valuable insights and expertise through blogs, webinars, or speaking engagements. Positioning your company as a thought leader can elevate your image in the industry. Consistency is Key: Ensure that all marketing materials, communications, and customer interactions reflect your brand values consistently. This builds recognition and trust over time. By focusing on these elements, you can effectively grow and improve your company’s image, creating lasting connections with your audience and driving long-term success.

Laura Beauparlant posed a great question. It only takes seven seconds for someone to decide if your brand feels trustworthy, professional, and worth their time—or not. This highlights a fundamental truth about branding: your brand isn’t just shaped by the C-suite, marketing team, or decision-makers. It lives in the hands of your least trained, least paid employees—the ones who directly interact with your customers. Think about it. These are often the employees who: • Feel overworked, undervalued, or disengaged. • Aren’t fully aligned with or even aware of your company’s mission and values. • Might feel disconnected from management, believing leadership is too far removed from "real life." Sound familiar? If so, it’s time to ask yourself: • What’s the real experience like for customers in your store, restaurant, or office? • Have you had an honest conversation with your employees about your mission and values? • Are those values truly lived out internally, or are they just marketing buzzwords? Here’s the thing: if middle management isn’t showing respect to their teams, how can you expect those teams to treat your customers any better? As a brand strategist, I bring this up because branding is so much more than logos or ads. It’s not just what your company says—it’s what it does. Branding is internal and external, a unifying force that touches everything from your culture to your customer interactions. But branding isn’t a “set-it-and-forget-it” solution. It’s a dynamic, living entity that requires care and attention. When nurtured, it thrives and aligns your business with your audience’s needs. But if left neglected, it can stray off course—like an untrained puppy wandering where it shouldn’t. If you’re curious about Neurotic Dog Studios' holistic approach to branding—connecting your internal culture with your external image—let’s talk. Together, we can build a brand strategy that not only stands out but also stands the test of time.

A holistic marketing strategy from the beginning is critical to success and brand reputation.

I often see brand building in B2B getting dismissed. (“Where’s the ROI?” “Isn’t this just fluff?”) I get it. Taking time to define your “why” and engaging in brand exercises can feel intangible. But here’s the reality: ↳ It’s the glue that holds everything together. Building a brand means creating a clear identity that employees —from sales to marketing to product teams—can rally around. Without it, you risk being just another company with no cohesive story or internal buy-in. Here’s what brand work brings to your internal team: Alignment:  → Your employees need to know what your company stands for. The foundation unites teams, especially in complex environments with multiple business units. Culture:  → When core values are clear, you create a workplace culture that people want to join. This sense of community and shared purpose can make or break employee satisfaction. Change Management:  → Strong brand values make new initiatives easier to adopt. Teams rally around a shared vision, not just directions. 💡 The truth is: If your team doesn’t understand your brand’s “why,” it’s hard for them to authentically represent it. How does your brand work impact your internal culture?

Most start-up companies underestimate the need for a holistic marketing and communication strategy that builds and protects the brand. A CMO/MarCom Executive could have advised against posting this, whether it's satire or reality. A CMO/MarCom Executive would establish company mission, goals, and values statements, then create guidelines for brand content, as well as Executive and employee social communications that would protect IP as well as the brand identity. A CMO/MarCom Executive would establish ideal customer profiles that would have filtered out clients that think that their business needs are more important than a wedding, to ensure customer satisfaction KPIs would not suffer at the expense of employee satisfaction and reducing attrition. A CMO/MarCom Executive would ensure that all content is examined through the lense of your potential employees as well as ideal clients prospects. Nobody is going to beg to work like this, not even for the best comp packages. For this particular company, I recommend they make the next 2 hires a CMO and a PR specialist. Anything short of a mea culpa owning the poor taste of the post, and an organic, unscripted video statement/interview with his wife will not be successful to mitigate the brand risk the founders have taken worth this post.

How to sell brand to the CEO💡 Every client and stakeholder has a different challenge they want to solve. The CMO, Head of Brand and CEO have different priorities. There’s often a debate internally between “brand people” and the sometimes-sceptical key stakeholders. So how do we arm those people with the right materials to bring the team to their side? In last week's newsletter Sonder & Tell shared tips for selling brand to the CEO. These are our top 3 👉 1. Make the brand story bigger than marketing You’re more likely to get sign-off if you can show the value of brand beyond marketing. And the value is tangible: a strong brand positioning acts as an organising principle across different areas of the business, with results that can guide customer service, product innovation, people strategy too. 2. Show how brand can build and drive internal culture Having a strong brand can attract, inspire and keep employees around. One of the best pieces of feedback we've ever received is that the tone of voice we’d created for KatKin improved the caliber of applicants for creative roles. 3. Use brand as a compass A solid brand positioning means having a reliable compass for decision-making. From campaign brainstorms to your next hire, brand helps you figure out what fits – and what doesn't. Read the full newsletter here – t.ly/H56wl And if you're struggling to sell brand internally, drop me a message, I'd be happy to help!

Here's what successful founder-led branding actually looks like: (scroll down for a special gift) 1) Own your story. Your background, quirks and experience are your biggest differentiator. Stop copying other CEO content. As Naval says, "escape competition through authenticity." 2) Pick a lane. Most founders try to talk about everything. The best focus on 1-2 topics their ICP desperately cares about. 3) Content creates serendipity. You never know which investor or customer will stumble across your post. But they won't if you're not posting. 4) Think beyond the post. A single viral moment means very little. Consistency compounds. 5) Share insights, not updates. Your ICP cares less that you hired 3 people this week than what you learned hiring 14 people over 18 months. Remember: Building trust takes time. But engagement should start flowing within weeks if you do this right. Want some easy templates to get started today? Comment "guide" and I'll send you a Notion database I put together of 11 proven post templates for early-stage B2B CEOs to accelerate their founder-led GTM motion over the next two weeks. Have a great week everyone 🫡

YOUR SUCCESS STARTS WITH A GOOD STORY A strong story is build on a solid brand foundation. Since 2015 Kate Maat from Brandsparkle boost your brand develops corporate narratives, brand storytelling, pitches, employer branding and internal communication. The approach is unique, successful and fuelled with strategic competence. “People don’t buy goods or services, they buy relations, stories and magic” Seth Godin So do you represent a mid-size or large company and are you: 👉Adding products or brands to your portfolio.  👉Rolling out a new brand identity. 👉Acquiring new companies or merging. 👉Entering new markets. 👉Fighting to win the pitch for an exciting (design) project or campaign. 👉Establishing a new company culture. 👉Attracting new staff. 👉Operating in a highly competitive environment. 👉Offering generic products and looking for the right words to differentiate. All, or one of the above? Then it’s high time to set your story straight. Never underestimate the strength of a good story; it starts a relation, creates a connection and ultimately creates value. Please contact kate.maat@brandsparkle.nl to get your story started.

𝗕𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝘁 𝗛𝗼𝗺𝗲 When you hear "brand management," you probably think about logos, taglines, or marketing campaigns aimed at customers. But in reality, a brand is only as strong as the people behind it. 𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘥, 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘪𝘵? A truly strong brand isn’t built on words alone; it is a reflection of the values and principles lived out within. The essence of a brand begins in the heart of the organization, radiating outward. Here’s how to nurture that foundation: 𝗖𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲𝘀, 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗩𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 Your brand’s mission and values shouldn’t just be words on a website. They need to be woven into your company culture, guiding decisions from leadership down to every department. 𝗘𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗕𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗔𝗺𝗯𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗱𝗼𝗿𝘀 Every employee is a brand ambassador. Equip your team with the knowledge, tools, and confidence to embody the brand, whether they’re in a client meeting or posting on LinkedIn. 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 Does your team know what the brand stands for? Regularly share updates, wins, and examples of how the brand is being brought to life. Keep everyone aligned and inspired. 𝗖𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗯𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗪𝗶𝗻𝘀 Your external brand will shine brighter when your internal team feels appreciated and motivated. Celebrate milestones, big or small, and recognize employees who go above and beyond. 𝗪𝗮𝗹𝗸 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗧𝗮𝗹𝗸 The quickest way to erode trust in your brand is by failing to uphold its promises internally. If innovation is your value, let your team see it in action. If inclusion matters, ensure every voice is heard. When your team believes in the brand, that energy ripples outwards. It shapes customer experiences, strengthens loyalty, and drives long term success. Brand management isn’t just for marketing; it’s for everyone. https://lnkd.in/dTmTvCbx #Marketing #Branding #DigitalMarketing

How one technology company think differently about brand ambassadorship and why it is worth to understand their approach. Then you can decide whether enable your employees to step into brand ambassador roles will matter to your customers & partners or not. https://lnkd.in/gMJCk6zt