Achieving Brand-Culture Fusion: The Imperative for Fulfilling Brand Promises

In today's competitive landscape, the essence of brand power transcends making compelling brand promises; it hinges on the steadfast commitment to fulfilling those pledges.  

Roger L. Martin, former dean of the Rotman School of Management, alongside LinkedIn executives, discusses “the right way to build your brand” in a recent HBR article.  Drawing from an analysis of over 800 campaigns from the WARC database of Cannes Lions campaign submissions, Martin and colleagues outline what they consider to be a systematic approach to brand-building that results in robust business performance. Their findings underscore that campaigns articulating explicit and substantiable promises to customers consistently outperform those that don’t. These promises, as the authors advocate, must be memorable, valuable, and most importantly, deliverable.

However, the article does a disservice by suggesting that brand-building culminates with promise-making.  It should have explained that an effective campaign only sets the stage for the more daunting endeavor of promise-keeping. Beyond securing buy-in from various functional domains – which the authors suggest as the final step in brand-building – business leaders must foster a culture conducive to fulfilling brand promises. This necessitates a holistic approach encompassing:

• Clear Purpose and Strategy: Articulating an overarching purpose and strategy that aligns brand initiatives with operational endeavors.
• Organizational Design: Configuring the organizational structure to facilitate the execution of strategic imperatives.
• Talent Acquisition and Development: Cultivating a workforce embodying the requisite skills and values essential for operationalizing the strategy.
• Incentive Mechanisms: Instituting incentive and performance evaluation frameworks that incentivize behaviors aligned with brand promises.
• Employee Experience: Designing and delivering an enriching employee experience that supports the desired customer journey.

All of this points to the concept of brand-culture fusion— the full integration and alignment of external brand communications and internal organizational culture. While the article's scope primarily caters to chief marketing officers, it underscores a glaring truth: brand-culture fusion transcends departmental confines, necessitating concerted efforts throughout the organization and led by the top leaders.

Nevertheless, the piece leaves a palpable void—a call for a sequel to delve deeper into the indispensable facet of brand-culture fusion. Perhaps, the absence of such discourse hints at an organizational blind spot—an oversight that leaders must rectify by prioritizing brand-culture fusion, allocating resources judiciously, and fostering accountability at every level.

The journey towards brand success hinges not solely on promise-making prowess but on the steadfast commitment to promise-keeping—a feat attainable only through the seamless integration of brand and organizational culture. As organizations navigate the complex terrain of brand-building, the imperative for brand-culture fusion emerges as an incontrovertible cornerstone—a testament to the enduring pursuit of fulfilling brand promises in today's dynamic marketplace.

More on this topic:

• Why Your Company Culture Should Match Your Brand
• How to Cultivate Brand-Culture Fusion
• Do Brands Matter in the Age of Influencers & Algorithms?