Culture is the ONE factor that can sustain the relevance necessary to build long-lasting relationships.
For too long, the “business-as-usual” approach to generating revenue and achieving Brand growth has disengaged customers and employees, damaged reputations by substituting relentless pursuit of profits for vision and frequently foregoing mission entirely. Business practices favouring “efficiency” typically address only a particular business need, such as replacing full-time employees with machines and part-time or seasonal labour, rather than leading to long-term health and profitability.
Relevance
There’s no doubt that relevance is one of the most important aspects of your brand. However, relevance is fleeting—your unique selling proposition only holds value at the moment of purchase.
A website that provides your customer with knowledge is relevant only until their focus shifts. Because relevance is transient, there is only a brief moment when it is the right time to inspire positive action. If relevance is fleeting, the question becomes: what encourages the customer to return time and time again? Well, it’s something much larger than your product or service; it’s the emotional connection an individual has formed with the brand.
How is this possible?
The Solution: Put Culture at the Brand Core
The customer’s love for the lifestyle or culture associated with your brand outweighs all other efforts.
Culture is the ONE factor that can sustain the relevance necessary to build long-lasting relationships.
We must communicate with our customers through the lens of culture, as culture serves as the link between all the moments of relevance. Making culture a driving force of your brand strategy will help you immensely to create sustainable ROI because culture has the power to nourish longer-lasting, stronger and more engaged relationships with your target market. This will also enable you to attract the right talent and build relationships with like-minded people (internal or external) with a cultural background compatible with your own.
Culture isn’t just one aspect of Branding – it is Branding.
Culture encompasses intrinsic theories about our world. It’s the sum of people’s beliefs that motivate them and shape their choices.
Consequently, culture fosters a sense of membership and belonging.
How can you make culture a driving force in your strategy?
The easiest way is to use content to connect your target audience to your organisation’s culture - internally and externally.
Here are some of the lessons I’ve learned to build cultural relevance.
1. Find what defines you
Go wild and gather as much information and insights as possible. What makes your culture unique? Listen to your employees, customers, and partners. Whatever cultural characteristics you have, find them.
2. Sync all parts of your business
Find out how your cultural characteristics are relevant to the target audience you want to speak to.
You need to bring your culture in sync with what your product offers and what your customer base looks like. Not the other way around! If they aren’t aligned, you must change this and make it your first business priority.
3. Authenticate your Culture
Your content needs to be authentic. People will smell it if your culture is fake. And if it is real, you’ll get to build meaningful and long-lasting relationships. You must get your employees on board and align with your culture to create trust, personality, and authenticity. Employees take an incubator role for your brand community by sharing their experiences and perspectives on living the brand’s culture life.
4. Apply the Filter across the Board
When you know which attitudes, behaviours, ideas, and values you want to convey, apply this cultural filter to every content you distribute. Create content guidelines for the customers’ journey to ensure your content always speaks through your cultural filter.
5. Dare to disrespect the Numbers
Data-driven decisions are extremely important - but soft factors and insights can’t be captured by data efficiently. Don’t let yourself be blinded by the numbers. Conveying cultural relevance is a lot about social intelligence and empathy. Moments are not created based on spreadsheets but are made of cultural and emotionally charged aspirations.
S.WARLICH @ ICON-TREND:
This is what I do: It’s our job to create a customer journey that fosters a continuous flow of relevant moments based on cultural lifestyles, guiding the user from awareness to purchase and retention.
More to come about CULTURE:
Shared Purpose –Strong Cultures Are the Foundation of All Great Brands
LOOKING AHEAD IN UNCERTAIN AND AMBIGUOUS TIMES
Strategic planning and Business Culture Models.
ROADMAP TO CULTURE DEVELOPMENT
Trends impacting Culture and Governance
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