Branding is one of the core elements of a company’s life. It not only helps in creating your professional identity, but it also ensures that your company has a direction where it should consistently head towards. As studies show, consistent presentation of a brand increases revenue by 33%.
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When we think of consistent branding, we often think of a company’s marketing efforts and everything that those might entail – its logo, its merchandise, and its ads. Another important aspect of branding is a solid digital marketing strategy. However, branding goes beyond marketing; here, we will look at other aspects of your company that are integral to your brand, too.
Your Office Space
Your office is more than just a space where you conduct your business – it plays an integral role in how others perceive your company. A survey by P&G Professional shows that 9 out of 10 people form a negative opinion of a business if its public spaces (such as lounges, restrooms, and lobbies) are not clean. As well, the cleanliness of your office space affects your employees’ morale and productivity, too. Studies show that there is a significant correlation between the cleanliness of an office space and the perceived satisfaction and productivity of employees.
As such, it is important for a company to not only integrate its branding in the office, but to also make sure that it maintains a clean and organized workplace for its employees. Regular cleaning should be encouraged. Ideally, professional cleaners should be hired on a regular basis to deep clean high traffic areas such as carpets, elevators, and hallways, as well as those that are not typically cleaned on a daily basis, such as the ceilings and windows.
Your Employees
There is a strong correlation between your employee satisfaction and your company’s brand. Your employees, after all, interact directly with your clients and customers; as such, happier and well-engaged employees translates to better customer service, too, thus driving profit. A study published in the Harvard Business Review reveals that employee investment could yield a 30% 5-year ROI.
However, as important employee satisfaction and engagement are, only a few companies fully invest on these, as a survey by Gallup shows that only 15% of employees are truly engaged with their jobs. To increase employee engagement, it is thus important for a company to make sure that they have the right tools to efficiently complete their tasks. Make sure, too, that you know your employees’ strengths and weaknesses, thus assigning them tasks that are in line with their skills. Finally, give them a voice by involving them when it comes to solving internal problems.
Your Policies
At first glance, it might seem that your policies and procedures only affect the internal affairs of your company. However, these actually play an important part in shaping a brand, so much so that some established companies have made these a central part of their messaging. How you conduct your business ultimately defines your customers’ experience, and policies and procedures that induce frustration can negatively affect your brand.
It is then ideal to have customer-centric policies, making sure that it is ultimately easy to conduct business with you. For example, customer-friendly return policies or streamlined as well as intuitive procedures that allow customers to save time when conducting business with you ensure that your customers only have good things to say about your company.
Branding is more than just marketing. At the end of the day, it is your company’s persona. Making sure that your internal workings are in order ensures that your brand shines as well.