Effective brand strategy is an influential aspect of any business and can give your company an edge in an increasingly competitive marketplace. But branding can wear many faces and assume many definitions, which also makes it a complex strategy to implement and track.
At its foundation, branding should reflect your company culture; or rephrased, culture should inform branding. When building a branding strategy, take a step back and look at the characteristics that define your organization. The values, traditions, beliefs, and behavioral dynamics that make up the core of your workplace should be the driving force for your most effective and authentic branding strategy.
Branding is not just who you are, but how you run your business. At SLKone, we’ve created a bespoke management consulting firm built with a focus on standing apart from the stigmas of partnering with consultants. Our culture differentiates our company from industry counterparts through commitment to our five pillars: firm of the future, professionally rewarding, financially successful, work life harmony, and giving back to the community. As a company, we weigh the impacts of every action we take against those five pillars to decide on next steps. As a result of these philosophies, we are known to our clients as partners rather than hired hands. There is a mutual understanding that our approach won’t be to hand a client a singular cookie-cutter product, but a solution custom-fit to their needs, while remaining confident in a successful output. That is now our brand.
Universally, branding is thought of as a factor of growth. Brands informed by culture create organic growth. The value of an attractive business culture can be leveraged to attract new business, retrain current business relationships, and even grow your workforce. Who you are and how you run your business has become your greatest growth asset.
Even for inorganic growth, some of the biggest concerns come through cultural alignment. There can be no success in acquisition without focusing on and integrating culture. The two parts cannot work and grow in unison without having common morals, cultures, philosophies – or at least a path to get there. The most efficient solution to rebranding post-acquisition, is aligning culturally before thinking of the external brand.
The current state of our world is forcing many businesses to take a step back and look inward to redefine who they are and how they differentiate themselves from competitors. The company culture you create and the impact you want to have on the world around you inform the unique branding strategy that will drive your most successful and rewarding path forward.
At SLKone, we are taking this to heart. As part of our internal reflection, we identified changes we want to make to better reflect our company culture and how we represent ourselves. We will soon be launching a new logo, redesigning our website, and updating our external approach. Specifically, you will see a linkage to our approach to working with clients, focusing on their most critical outcomes, and partnership with their teams. Our work, for our clients, is performed collaboratively, spans multiple areas of business, and is focused on ensuring we deliver value and generate enterprise value. Please stay tuned and share the journey as we continue this evolution.