Why your brand story matters most

A brand and its story are the life of the business. Some execs and others may disagree with me. I am not saying you don’t need a mission or vision statement, but employees relate more to brand.

I am going to explain exactly what I mean.

I would even argue as far to say that most employees don’t even know their company mission statement. According to a Career shift survey, 61% of employees don’t know their company’s mission statement, and of those who do, 57% don’t feel motivated by it. Yikes!

Guess what, they know their brand or at least have a better relation to it. They are living it.

Living the brand story

Most employees are living the brand story. Whether they are the first point of contact with the prospect, or they are after-sales support, they live it. It’s the way it is. Now, you have the power to motivate your employees using the brand story.

The elements in the brand story that your employees can relate to are: role-context application, brand culture, and success stories.

Role-context application

You have the power to create your brand story around every single employee. In doing so, you show them how their role fits into the business. I have heard so many employees and colleagues telling me, “I don’t know how I fit into the strategy” or something similar.

Now, that can lead the employee to feel discouraged and worthless. Any employee wants to feel value in what their doing.

Action: link an employee’s role to the brand story by showing how their value contributes to the brand

Brand culture

You can create a brand culture. This relates to the above role-context application and the association of every employee to something tangible. Those two elements create a culture. You can have a “Customer first” culture, but that means little to the employee unless they see the value. That value is where the brand comes in.

Action: Create a short, personalised video talking about the brand and show how the organisation works together to build that brand.

Success stories

Everyone likes to celebrate. Whether it’s a birthday, a championship winning team, or an award. The same goes with customer success stories. These stories build the brand story outwardly and inwardly.

Of course, you can call a journalist or a PR firm to get your some press coverage on the success story. That does wonder for your brand. Heck, the marketing department could write a blog post. It may not have the same effect as press coverage, but it gets the story out.

Now, on internal side, these should be celebrated. These stories work their way not only to your brand story, but also into the culture. The value-add, the personal gratification, and the general positivity creates a winning feeling within a team.

The key to ensure that works is also coming with a personal touch.

Action: Get a blurb or even a short video celebrating a success story and what benefit it has brought to the organisation.

Final Thoughts

We have talked about why your brand story matters most. Now, I want to highlight that the mission and vision statements are equally important. However, statistics show that most employees don’t know their mission statement. They cannot relate to it.

There may be other ways to create the brand story. I think there is a certain organisational specific element to it that matters. These specifics you should always consider when implementing anything.

Key Takeaway: You have the power to bring an organisation to work closer together through the brand story. The brand story consists of the role-context application, brand culture, and success stories. Bring these three elements together in a personal way gives life to the brand story within each employee.