Brand strategy is step one. Defining the shifts to the brand required to live the new brand strategy is step two. We call that brand behavior.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that brands need to run deep if they are to prevail in today’s world. This is because modern brands need to compete with not only each other, but also with an overwhelming number of ideas, considerations, and issues that flood the minds and hearts of the people important to any brand’s success.

To cut through this noise, and to stand out in a meaningful way, brands need to exude a holistic and deeply relevant promise. Most important, that promise needs to be realized in every interaction between the brand and its customers, prospects, employees, recruits, partners, and others.

Unfortunately, most brand strategies don’t come with an engine. They may package a nice design with all the latest gadgets and place a lovely badge on the front hood, but they leave the brand standing in the showroom. Why? Because they fail to include what the brand really needs to get from Point A to Point B.

Brand behavior gets you noticed, workplace behavior gets you moving ahead.

Traditional brand guidelines help a brand project a coherent look, feel, and voice. But they don’t tell the sales team or the product development team or anyone else within the brand organization what they can do to make that brand’s promise come true. Indeed, brand guidelines are more about what not to do, than working to engage the workplace in the task of building a formidable brand presence.

 

Workplace behavior is about engagement and motivation.

Workplace behavior isn’t about rules, dictates, and penalties. Rather, it gives people within the brand organization an invitation to realize new purpose and meaning within themselves. It invites them to join a cause. It gives them new ways to express their individuality as they help your brand thrive.

As such, a well-crafted workplace behavior propels the brand and the people behind it forward. It provides the energy that takes the brand from Point A (where it struggles to project purpose and meaning) to Point B (where the brand deeply resonates with people, moving them to think, feel, and act in ways that help the brand thrive).

Don’t leave your brand standing in the showroom

Consider the challenges your brand is facing finding its place in today’s jumbled world of information, distractions, needs, and desires. Imagine the turbocharged power of your organization when everyone in it is aligned to a purpose, inspired by the thought of creating new meaning for themselves and others, and working together to make your brand special.

Don’t settle for a brand strategy that doesn’t include the engine of workplace behavior. Use the opportunity of a new brand strategy to not only further differentiate your brand in the marketplace, but to also make your organization a place in which people are driven to make a meaningful difference.

Emotive Brand is a brand strategy firm.