One thing I've learnt over the years is that businesses are remarkably good at diagnosing symptoms and remarkably poor at identifying causes.
"We're not growing."
"We keep losing on price."
"People don't seem to understand what we do."
"We need to improve our branding."
The first three are observations. The last one is an assumption.
I've found myself wondering whether branding has become a catch-all phrase for problems that have very little to do with branding.
When I spend time inside a business, I'm rarely looking at the logo or the website first. I'm trying to understand how the business actually works.
Most consultants specialise in one part of the business. I've always been more interested in the relationships between the parts.
How does the business create value?
Why do customers buy?
Where does the sales process break down?
Do the leadership team describe the business in the same way?
Does the marketing reflect the commercial strategy, or has it become a substitute for one?
Most businesses don't have a branding problem. They have a business problem that branding simply can't solve on its own. Brand is simply one expression of the business.
If the underlying thinking lacks clarity, no amount of visual polish will fix it.
Get the business right and the brand usually becomes obvious.
Get the brand right whilst the business is still unclear, and you've probably just made the confusion look more attractive.
I help businesses, founders and senior professionals become clearer, better positioned and easier to choose.
