Your brand is the foundation of your business and your strongest strategic asset.
Let's treat it that way.
Once you have invested time, resources and talent into building the perfect brand - one that defines and differentiates you - how is your team (and by team, we mean everyone in your company, not just the marketing team) going to protect it? How are you going to live it clearly and consistently so that it never veers off course, becomes watered down or loses its power?
How does your brand currently trickle down into your marketing, your innovation, your sales, your product development…your culture? How does it allow you to be something bigger than a product, but rather a brand with a promise that people believe in? Knowing the answers to these questions is called brand stewardship and it’s the most important job your company has!Here are 3 crucial components to consider as you begin thinking about ways to build momentum for brand stewardship:
Stewardship of your brand should run through the veins of every part of a company and it begins at the top. It is vital that the entire company be on the same page in order to share a clear and consistent message.
Companies in the pet industry are growing at such a fast pace, and while leaders cannot (and should not) be involved in every minute detail of the marketing team’s decisions, the leaders of the company should understand the identity of the brand is inside and out in order to ensure adoption of said identity at every level of the organization.
This goes beyond just the mission and vision and value proposition. Understanding the depths of the brand’s personality and archetype should influence larger decisions like strategic partnerships, product development and more.
(For more, read: Three Ways the C-Suite Must be Involved in Marketing)
Common sense and statistics (marketers with a documented strategy are 313% more likely to report success-source) tell us that planning ahead makes getting where we’re going a lot easier, yet there are still so many marketers and business owners in the pet industry who don’t take the time to properly plan their roadmap for executing their marketing strategies and tactics.
Do you document your strategy every year and review it quarterly? If the answer is no, why not? Maybe you would take the time, but don’t even know where to start. Or maybe your marketing team doesn’t have the time or experience needed to create a strong marketing strategy and use it as a tool for success.
Whatever your current situation may be, a well thought out strategy can serve as the cornerstone for stewardship success and answer common questions that will come up like:
- Why did the company start?
- What is the story to share?
- Why is the company different from competitors?
Not only do these details instill consistency in the various avenues of communication coming from your employees, but this also instills confidence in their ability to tell the company story in a compelling way.
Create an environment that assures employees they are just as much a part of sharing the brand’s story as the marketing team. Employees who understand what type of team they’re on and how they play a role in the company’s success are more likely going to work harder and stick around longer because they know they’re part of something magical!Have a plan in place to encourage employees to share the brand’s story both in the office and out of the office. Holding company events that lets employees understand more and more about the company are helpful, but also understanding which tools are at their disposal to truly understand what to communicate and how to share the company’s story.
When you make brand stewardship an organizational priority, you are:
Protecting the brand you have put time, money and man power into creating.
- Creating consistency that builds employee dedication and customer trust
- Inventing new ways to exceed the expectations of your customers.
- And you're building something of value that makes good business sense.
Stewardship is about clearly and consistently communicating your brand. How are you setting your team up for successful brand stewardship?
