ALIGN CULTURE TO SUPPORT YOUR BRAND PROMISE
Culture aligned in support of a compelling brand promise
Yesterday’s primary market differentiation was the delivery of quality. A company that I founded—Achieve—won “top of mind” in an emerging market by warning CEOs (enamored by 3M offering a consulting intervention purported to deliver replication of their impressive record) that initiatives such as Total Quality would fail without cultural alignment. We launched the Achieve Service Quality Academy to deliver on our brand promise, “theory is not enough”. The strategy was hugely successful.
by LSI publisher Art McNeil
A primary differentiator has been reduced to the price of admission
Quality is no longer a distinguishing advantage—unless poor quality is being delivered. Today’s challenge is to be heard in a “noisy” marketplace. The world is changing. When customers are interested in services or products most will search the web—they’ll find what they need, when they need it. Making sales appointments is becoming a non productive relic of the industrial age
Getting a compelling brand promise heard has replaced quality as the key differentiator
Once web-surfers locate potential providers, search engine positioning and the compelling nature of brand promises is what attracts. Prospects then move down a predictable “cone of concreteness”—seeking evidence that the “partner chain” i.e. your employees, contractors, suppliers, investors, and debt holders have a history of delivering on the brand promise.
The common denominator— “cultural alignment” is a timeless and essential bridge to success
Culture = the collective habits of a group of people used to get things done
Cardinal rules regarding cultural alignment:
- Culture development efforts without a purposeful strategic imperative, will be viewed by stake holders as “busy work”.
- Implementing a strategic imperative without cultural alignment will run out of steam and eventually fail.