Leaders in brand cultures
…need to personally live and breathe the company brand to be successful
We have worked with a number of companies who use branding as a way to market their products. These companies are diverse in the products or services they market from consumer goods, medical products to wilderness preservation, but an interesting common cultural theme amongst them all is the need for folks within these organizations to embody their organization’s brand if they want to fit-in and be successful. The phrases we hear from these folks in our culture discovery work are:
- Need to manage your personal image as if it were a brand
- Important to represent our brand image when interacting with customers
- Need to live and breathe our mission in your personal life
This common cultural theme was confirmed for me again when I recently read an article about the transition in leadership occurring at Coca Cola. This is a company which uses branding to market its products and my sense is their brand image is upbeat, about feeling good and about fulfilling dreams. The article by Joe Guy Collier in the Atlanta Journal and Constitution (7/2/08) quotes a beverage industry specialist as saying that the retiring Coca-Cola CEO, Neville Isdell – “basically fixed the company and its culture … he used the force of his own personality and style to provide leadership – giving people faith and confidence in the company again.
It appears that Isdell knew how to embody the Coke brand and capitalize on it, and employees felt comfortable and galvanized with this kind of leader. Sure he did many other things to return the company to growth and profitability, but improving employee morale is mentioned many times as one of his successes. So the question is when do leaders in organizations that have what I call – brand corporate cultures need to live and breathe their organization’s brand image in order to be successful in their role?
Discussion Area - Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.