Why a strong company identity really matters
Company identity is something a lot of companies think about when they start. When starting a business, founders consider what product or service they’ll provide, the company name, positioning in the marketplace — even the ‘feel’ of the brand.
Yes it’s branding but it’s a lot more than that.
Company identity is about your values. It’s the guiding principles that keep you on course when decisions need to be made and when doubts arise. Your identity is the glue that holds your team together and inspires people to want to join your team.
And it’s something that needs to be defined clearly to keep it consistent across channels and across the years.
What a company stands for shouldn’t just be known by the people in the boardroom or director’s office — it’s something that should be known instinctively by everyone in the company. It should be known by everyone writing from your brand or talking to your customers because not only will that bring consistency to all of your brand messaging, it’ll inspire higher quality content from your more engaged team writing it.
You already know what you stand for — it’s why you started your business.
But getting that purpose and passion down, into something that helps your team better understand why they should want to be a part of what you started, can work wonders.
Benefits of a strong company identity
It takes time and focus to define what you stand for in a clear format that everyone can understand. However, if you do invest that time, there are some huge benefits.
1. You’ll be better at decision making: You’ll make better decisions — and quicker ones — if you’re using your identity and your values to guide you. A long term vision helps you to avoid poor decisions for short term success; to not leap when an opportunity arises that seems good in the moment but that in actual fact hurts your brand’s health later. Your team will use these values to make better decisions in their day-to-day tasks too. They’ll always be able to use what the company stands for as a way to feel confident and feel like they’re walking a clear path forward. Just like personal values can help you feel a sense of purpose and direction, and reduce the need for comparison to others, company values can really help fire up momentum.
2. You’ll be more attractive to exciting talent: When your company stands for something, you’re more likely to find people who believe in the same things and want to join the team. Moreover, they’ll hit the ground running from day one and be much more likely to stay, because they understand what the company’s about from the interview onwards. When somebody joins your company because they’re inspired by your mission, vision and values, it’s not just about their role or job title.
3. You’ll create a better company culture: As well as bringing great people through the door, strong values give these advocates a reason to bond and gain team cohesion, which is far more rewarding for employees. Your company-wide comms and your dialogue with each team member will make a lot more sense and be far less likely to alarm or alienate if they align with shared values (and use everyday language and ditch corporate speak, of course). In turn, everyone in the team’s communication with each other is more likely to be smoother. A better and more personal customer experience comes from a more engaging and more personal employee experience.
4. A much sleeker brand: Clear identity and values mean that anyone representing the brand — in an article, on the phone, in a tweet or Instagram post — knows what your brand stands for and knows what content and tone serves those values. It means you’ll have a more consistent brand at every touch point, which makes for a slicker presence all round. Customers and potential customers will in turn understand what you stand for and what to expect from the brand much faster and much more clearly. They’ll want to align with you if they share those values, and you’ll form much stronger lasting relationships.
5. A point of difference: Given that customers and employees will clearly understand what you stand for if you define your identity, you’ll set yourself apart from the pack in the process. If your identity is easy to understand and unique, but above all authentic, you’ll stand out and be more likely to attract business. Chances are your job ad messaging will jump out to bright talent too. Furthermore, many companies don’t think it’s worth investing the time (or can’t be bothered) to define their identity, vision and values, so just by doing this in a committed and meaningful way you’ll be giving yourself an edge.
6. Long term success: All of the above immediate benefits add up to another blessing on the horizon: a more concrete and tangible foundation for sustainable growth. An engaged team of people who care about the place they work and what it stands for, loyal customers who understand who you are and why they want to choose you, and a recognisable and reliable brand are all huge boosts to the reserves needed for long term company success.
Profit isn’t how your success will be judged by yourself or others later on. Your legacy will be about what you stood for and the value you brought to your customers and to your team.
Increasingly people today want to know why you do what you do:
What do you stand for?
What makes you tick?
You need to find the balance between profit and doing something that will bring value to people more than just the core component of a service or product.
Defining your values
Building something meaningful starts with defining your values and what you want to stand for.
We can help put some definition around what you already know: who you are. We can help you clearly define that vision and those values, so that your day-to-day goals and actions serve your long term legacy.
If you’d like to know more about how we can help you elevate your company identity and use it as a catalyst to unite and excite your team, get in touch.