Far too often, we waste time and energy on communications that are not coherent and serve only to weaken clients’ confidence. You may have seen this for yourself after purchasing a product you weren’t happy with, or browsing a company website that’s hard to navigate. Your expectations surpassed reality.
That’s why it’s so important to have a clear vision of your company’s identity—from core values to the culture, personality, attitude, and other attributes that make your business unique. Clarity, of course, is all about simplicity, so be sure to limit the number of values and personality traits so it’s easy for employees can become true brand ambassadors.
Ask someone you trust to anonymously call the person at reception at your company to ask a few key questions. This will help you determine if your employees themselves understand your brand identity, positioning, and values, and where you may need to make some changes.
Consumers are likely to feel disappointed in your company if you don’t live up to the idea they have of you. They may also lose confidence if your core messages differ between your main platform and social-media pages. Pay attention to the way companies are described versus the messages customers see first across their various e-platforms. Then take note of how often even large companies fail to keep these messages coherent.
This lack of cohesion is why CK7 works with a qualitative tool for reflection and research, which we developed to measure your brand experience on paper. We will meet with your employees, clients, and members of your social circle and use this tool to encourage them to speak about your company and its values, culture, and personality.
We have been employing this tool for many years, and in every case it has helped uncover innovative new ways to strengthen a company’s foundations. A word of warning, however: These foundations can’t be invented out of thin air. They are derived from your company culture, unique priorities, and fundamental values.
We will also use our research tool to study your competition, in an effort to ensure your points of differentiation stand out, and improve them as needed. In order to ensure your brand experience is easy to communicate and not subject to bias, we aim to limit brand attributes to 3 to 5 keywords per element.
This qualitative marketing research method will help you develop your editorial approach, create a unique advertising strategy, strengthen your customer service, improve web content, and ensure everything aligns along the same goals and reflects your company’s DNA. It’s also a really effective tool for putting together a solid brief.
We’ve seen just how well this exercise works, which is why I invite you to get in touch for a quick diagnosis of your messaging across all platforms.
See you soon!
Caroline