A brand is worthless if it doesn't connect with the right audiences in a relevant way - Unknown

There seems to be confusion as to what constitutes change and transformation, as both terms are similar in meaning and can be used interchangeably. In a management context, change means implementing well-defined initiatives, and focuses on the execution of the approach. Unlike change management, transformation focuses on a portfolio of initiatives, with the intention to reinvent the organisation and discover alternative business models. Due to its unpredictable and experimental nature, transformation entails a higher risk. More importantly, successful change management does not result in overall transformation, hence the difference between both concepts. Change involves executing a defined initiative, whilst transformation looks further ahead and involves strategies which affect the organisation on a more extensive level.

Leaders who possess change management skills are able to launch strategies which create a more sustainable and competitive business model. However, to ensure that overall transformation is a success, leaders have to learn a broader set of leadership capabilities, whilst also prioritising efficiency and profitability over lower-value activities. Leaders are faced with the uncertainty of transformation, and are forced into unchartered waters to discover ways of engineering a successful transformation of the organisation. Transformation is a progressive process of discovery and experimentation. Leaders who can adapt to the transformational climate are those who can stay relevant in their respective industries, and continue changing and transforming their organisation to meet market demands.

Both change management and transformation are crucial to the development of an organisation as competitors are always on the lookout for edges which improve their position within the industry. Although organisations have gradually become more adept at instigating change, they continue to struggle with transformation. If leaders want to improve the latter, they must first establish and understand the difference between both concepts, and apply the correct approach to ensure success. Below are examples of change management and transformation, to put the difference of both concepts into perspective.

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“[…] when a large technology firm integrated specialized engineers into its regional sales teams, there were shifts in roles, client coverage, compensation, goal setting, and teamwork. The change affected hundreds of people. By applying well-known change management principles and tools — such as making the business case, building a coalition of leaders, getting early results, engaging stakeholders, executing with discipline, etc. — the new sales approach was implemented successfully, and is generating improved results.

[…] examples of other companies successfully executing discrete change initiatives, like introducing a new performance management system, shifting from decentralized to centralized marketing support, and utilizing new personal productivity tools. The point is that all of these initiatives were reasonably well-defined.

[…] recently met with the senior leadership team of a large technology company that had been successful because one unique product constituted 90% of its sales. When competitors started developing a less expensive version of the product, it became clear that they could not survive as a one-product firm. As a result, the CEO launched a transformation strategy with the goal of figuring out a more sustainable business model. It included a number of major “must-do” initiatives: get more immediate revenue from the current product, create a leaner support organization, shift from internally-focused to externally-partnered product development, and ramp up the search for acquisitions and adjacencies.

The transformation also called for a new set of cultural principles and a revised performance management approach aligned with these initiatives.” – Ron Ashkenas, Contributor at Forbes

Image Source: linkedin.com

Benjamin Lee Cheng Han | Benjamin is a student of International Relations at the University of Nottingham, currently exploring unchartered realms in the Public Relations field. Writing is clearly his interest – a decisive contributor to his foray into the public relations industry. To date, he boasts the proud record of having tamed one of the office cats, and drinking expired tea from the pantry.

In the new era of customer relationships, entrepreneurs today realise the importance of delivering good customer experience in business. As crucial as it may seem to the company, however, customer service training requires a continual company-wide dedication as some employers do not realise the connection between what happens on a day-to-day basis that will eventually contribute to their company’s customer experience goals.

Customarily, leaders should always set a good role model for their employees. So, the frontliners will observe, learn, and follow how their leaders behave and what their leaders reward and value. Even though what you do on your routine work basis may not intentionally encouraging your employees to deliver a bad customer service, but your actions, and inactions are in essence to training them to do that. Customers always demand for the best, and it is by all means, our responsibility to ensure that they have a stellar customer experience with the brand or product. Therefore, to truly drive a customer-centric culture among your employees, Micah Solomon, the Contributing Writer for Forbes on customer service, customer experience, and customer trends reveals the 14 missteps and habits that may be sabotaging your best intentions for your company’s customer service.

Telling Employees They’re Empowered: Then shutting them down when they actually show initiative in finding creative ways to help customers. A lot of companies talk about empowerment, but mean it kind of like sprinkles on top of a sundae of daily misery. Empowerment–the freedom to creatively assist customers–needs to be a core part of an employee’s job, and there can’t be blowback when their empowered actions cost money or have other consequences.

Not Walking the Walk: If your employees hear you tell old war stories about how customers are always trying to take advantage of you, and how you “showed them you wouldn’t fall for that,” how do you expect them to react when it’s their turn to take care of (or fail to take care of) the customer in front of them?

Not Establishing Expectations: In the absence of clearly defined high standards to respond to customers, employees will make up their own. “We provide world class customer service” isn’t enough guidance.  A company needs behavioural standards that define, in the majority of situations, how customer service should be provided.  Although (see point #1), employee empowerment needs to take care of the situations that fall outside the norm.

Not Providing Employees with the Tools They Need to Serve your Customers Properly: You can give lip service to the idea that employees “should take care of the customer” all you like, but if you give those same employees out of date, slow, clunky, inadequate tools –whether that means a broken broom or an out of date CRM — who do you think you’re kidding?

Not Providing Adequate Resources: Unreasonable call volumes, unreasonable customer loads…The nicest, best-intentioned employees in the world are going to fail in such circumstances.

Not Showing you Care about your Employees’ Work Environment: Would you want to use your employees’ restroom? What about their break room? If not, what is that saying about how you care about them, and how important they are in your organization? You shouldn’t expect them to care any more about your customers as you do about them.

Not Offering Sufficient, Ongoing Customer Service Training: Customer service training is not simply a Day One and Done kind of thing.  It needs to happen regularly, it needs to have sustainability components; it needs to include role-plays and other practical components, as well as the philosophical basics.

Not Asking For Employee Input Before Announcing a New Customer Service Initiative: If you don’t allow your employees to weigh in, it’s hard to expect them to buy in.

Keeping Employees in the Dark: No employee wants to hear about a new marketing initiative, promotion or product launch from the customer first.

Not Sharing the Big Picture:  Since it is employees who can make the biggest impact on the company’s customer satisfaction goals, shouldn’t you be sharing those goals with them and giving them updates to make sure you are all on track?

Not Listening: If employees don’t think you are interested in their ideas for improving the customer service experience, then they’ll eventually stop trying to improve themselves.

Not Recognizing Individuals for Their Efforts: If the only thing your employees get out of their job is a paycheck, you, as a leader, have failed them.

Not Making Time for Fun at Work: It has to be about the customer, but it can’t be only about the customer.

Not Being a Team Player. If you don’t jump in to help when your employees are in the weeds, you can’t expect them to go above and beyond for your customers, can you?

Inspiration: Stop Training Your Employees to Give Lousy Customer Service: 14 Mistakes You could be Making now

Image Source: 

(1) tolerosolutions.com

(2) radarjatim.com

Chia Yi Jing | Bubbling with enthusiasm, bright ideas, and confidence, Yi Jing set foot in the PR world with Orchan Consulting, where she was offered permanent employment after a successful internship. She is determined to make her mark in the industry, and her bosses know that she will. 

As an entrepreneur, there is never a time that one should overlook the negative encounters that the business may face. There’re many unplanned events that can take down a brand, especially when we least expect it. For example, the recent Malaysia Airlines crises, by its nature; forewarns businesses that it’s always better to prepare in advance when a crisis hits you.

This is similar as how we experience car accidents and have made mistakes in our lives. You cannot get through life without tripping and skinning your knee at least once, or you may have disappointed someone at some point by forgetting an important task. Hence, equally, a business cannot exist without facing intermittent crises every now and then.

Mistakes, misunderstandings, accidents, product failures, and employee misconduct are all risks that businesses face regularly. Although they’re nearly impossible to avoid, they can be managed.

If your business is well prepared and vigilant, you can foresee potential risks and prevent many of them from escalating into major crises. If managed especially well, few outside your crisis response team will even know something happened.

A carefully compiled crisis communications guide can literally save your business when the inevitable occurs.

Every business is different and what needs to be in your response plan will require careful research, documentation, and frequent revision. It must also be flexible and evolve with your business.

If you’re feeling a little anxious because you don’t have an up-to-date crisis guide, it’s ok. In regards to the preparation needed before a crisis strikes, Victoria Harress shares her advice on the three (3) important steps that will kick-start your crisis communication plan.

List Your Vulnerabilities

- The only way to be prepared for a crisis, or perhaps avoid one altogether, is to have an understanding of the types of crises you might face.

- This list will be unique for every business. For example, if your business requires employees to use dangerous machinery or chemicals, your risks will differ from those of a business dealing with online sales.

- Some general risks to start with include: systems outages (order processing or email), product failure, human error, dissatisfied customer reviews or social posts, employee misconduct, lawsuits, and communications faux pas.

- Furthermore, look at any crises you dealt with in the past. While you may have permanently resolved some of them, there are others that will likely pop up again.

- After making your initial list, group vulnerabilities into types such as Personnel, Customer, Legal, Financial, etc. Ensure the list is as thorough as possible by collaborating with key parties in your business who have other perspectives to add.

Chart Your Critical Contacts

- When a crisis hits, you need to immediately get the word out to the right people across your organization. That means knowing – in advance – whom to inform.

- Create a chart listing the key contacts in the event of a crisis. Start at the top of your company and then categorize people into escalation groups.

- List those who should always be informed immediately, such as your head of communications (perhaps that’s you). Then, categorize other essential people who may need to be involved on a situational basis, like your legal team, senior executives, heads of information security and IT, sales leaders, etc.

- Although your list of contacts must be thorough, you should be judicious when involving people during the actual crisis. You want to take as few people as possible away from their daily work. Plan well, but carefully select the response team based on needs.

Audit Your Communications Channels

- With certain crises, you will need to halt your usual daily chatter on social media or post an update on your website’s homepage. It’s important to know how to make that happen quickly.

- Most companies have multiple — if not dozens or even hundreds of — social media accounts, websites, customer lists, vendor lists, partner lists, media lists, and other public-facing communications channels.

- You’ll want to work with the people you normally trust on these channels to respond to questions and post information. Don’t replace them with a senior spokesperson who is unfamiliar with the nuances of your channels and their audiences.

- Compile a list of all of your current communications channels, as well as the key contacts for those channels. You don’t need to hold all the passwords (those change), but you do need to know whom to contact.

- If you’ve prepared ahead of time, everyone will know exactly what procedures to follow and you won’t find yourself scrambling at the last minute. Don’t forget, though: Every crisis communications plan needs a backup plan.

- If you have one person in your business who manages all your social channels and holds the passwords, ensure they have a well-informed backup who can handle situations when they’re camping with no cell reception in the Smokey Mountains.

Bonus Tip: Regularly Revisit the Plan

Information gets outdated very quickly. Set a schedule to re-audit your vulnerabilities, key contacts, and communications channels frequently. This can be time-consuming and difficult to stay on top of so be sure to share the burden.

Everyone who manages a responsibility or channel should be responsible for keeping others up to date on access information and personnel changes.

Also, remember that there is no better time to update your crisis guide than right after each crisis. As communicators, we learn something from every incident that will make the process of managing a crisis easier ‘next time.’

These three things are a great place to start with your crisis communications plan, but don’t stop there! Keep the momentum going and build it out. It may not happen all at once. In fact, it should grow and evolve as your business ages and you learn from future crises. 

Inspiration: 3 Pro-Active Things Every Organisation can do before a Crisis Strikes

Image Source: 
(1) getfoundquick.com
(2) huecommunications.com

Chia Yi Jing | Bubbling with enthusiasm, bright ideas, and confidence, Yi Jing set foot in the PR world with Orchan Consulting, where she was offered permanent employment after a successful internship. She is determined to make her mark in the industry, and her bosses know that she will. 

The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing - Walt Disney

In 2011, KFC Malaysia was entangled in a food security scandal when video footage of employers tampering with food preparation was uploaded onto social media platforms. They responded with urgency, setting up a separate and dedicated area within their Facebook page to control the crisis and prevent stifling other communications media. Video responses provided an apology and the reaffirmation of customers that quality control would be implemented. The public was encouraged to voice concerns and provide suggestions, which reduced the frequency of negative comments.  

Brand reputation directly correlates if a brand becomes a household name or is relegated to history. A brand does not only represent the company but also the interests of investors, suppliers, and any other collaborating parties. If a brand receives positive coverage, all involved parties benefit from the subsequent prestige, whether directly or indirectly affiliated. Likewise, negative responses affect brands to a comparable extent which positive news elevates it – by severely undermining the wellbeing of that brand. With the widespread availability of information platforms, negative news spreads very rapidly, which increasingly escalates the poor reputation garnered and further worsens public opinion.

Brands and industries should always be alert to potential problems or cases which might adversely affect public opinion of the organisation. By introducing a proactive crisis management plan, companies or institutions can mitigate the outbreak of negative attention. In order to respond to brand reputation crises, it is imperative to first gather and analyse the facts of the specific issue. Identify and understand the nuances of the situation before proceeding with establishing a response. Honesty is also of paramount importance, and all public outreach should be consistent in their focus on addressing the crisis at hand.

Although organisations should look at developing strategies which generate positive attention, contingency plans for potential slip-ups should be implemented to avoid poorly planned responses. Some insightful excerpts below from articles discussing brand reputation can provide a clearer perspective on the importance of crisis management. They highlight specific strategies which can salvage potential public relations crises, and hedge against sticky situations.

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“Understand what happened: Although it’s important to respond and often quite easy to spread the word through social media quickly, when presented with a crisis you should first calmly collect all of the facts on exactly what happened and who is affected prior to making any public announcement. This can help ensure that you won’t be regretting a poorly planned response or deleting a damaging tweet.

Establish a simple, consistent, and clear response: Creating a unified response that involves your whole organization can better align your employees and help maintain your position on the crisis. This is important to avoid inconsistencies within your message that could damage your reputation or appear ingenuine. All public outreach should remain honest, clear, and focused on addressing the crisis as it relates to your strategy.

Create a monitoring and notification system: Understanding how the public is reacting to your response is critical in understanding how your crisis communication efforts are performing and whether or not you should be making any adjustments to your strategy. Monitor social interactions and mentions of your brand online and determine how your employees should be responding to the conversation.

Address small brushfires: You may come across negative comments, product reviews, or inaccurate information online as part of your ongoing monitoring. Reading negative feedback about your business or employees can be hurtful and incite an emotional response that can damage your reputation. While defending your brand may come naturally, to properly respond to criticism, you’ll need to be more tactful.” – Jacob Warwick, Content Manager for Honigman Media

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“KFC Malaysia acted swiftly. The team launched a Facebook tab which contains two new YouTube videos addressing the problem, and set up a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section to anticipate questions that anyone might have.

In one video, Mohammad Alwi, KFC Malaysia’s Director of Restaurant Operations, made a personal address to the public in two languages – Malay and English. In the video, he apologizes and ensures customers that KFC Malaysia has taken action to prevent the same incident from happening.

KFC was wise to embrace the web (where news of the problem initially took off) to make amends and welcome feedback — essentially fighting fire with fire, so to speak. The video communicated its apology and took steps forward succinctly and responsibly.” – Willis Wee, Product Manager & Founder at Tech in Asia

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“MRM’s crisis communications kit also says “the absolute key is planning…failing to plan is planning to fail”. It is abundantly clear KFC had thought ahead about crisis communications because the video is available in both Malay and English, an obvious but essential step to ensure they didn’t further enrage customers by excluding them from their communications.

[…] putting people’s passion to constructive use by asking for their advice about what to do. This is exactly what KFC has done, proactively inviting upset citizens to express their concerns on the Facebook page in a way that might help the chain learn from the kerfuffle.

The only step from MRM’s plan that the firm has yet to enact is to follow through. So it will be interesting to see whether we’ll hear from KFC in a few weeks or months about what it has learnt, whether the restaurant chain will thank members of the public who got involved and whether KFC’s bosses will tell us how the changes they implemented have helped the business.” – Michael Taggart, Director at MRM

Image Source: reputationvip.com

Benjamin Lee Cheng Han | Benjamin is a student of International Relations at the University of Nottingham, currently exploring unchartered realms in the Public Relations field. Writing is clearly his interest – a decisive contributor to his foray into the public relations industry. To date, he boasts the proud record of having tamed one of the office cats, and drinking expired tea from the pantry.

Change capability is having the professionalism and expertise in the understanding and management of change. It requires a definitive structuring and a finite intent to have a successful impact. In an era when organisations are fascinated with rapid and constant change, the idea of building solid organisational change capability is not given the necessary emphasis required to succeed. Having solid change capability within an organisation allows you to structure and decide how change happens in your organisation. By building a solid competency in organisational change capability, the enterprise has a competitive advantage within the industry, as changes and transformations within the organisation are managed and well-executed.

One key contributor to enhance organisational change capability, especially in multi-unit corporations, is active and visible senior management involvement. The change which is enforced must be applicable across all facets of the organisation. By structuring your change in accordance with organisational objectives, leaders of the organisation can develop a clearer strategy in helming the change, which would contribute to building change capability. The success of the organisation is of paramount importance, and change should be constructed to adhere to organisational goals.

Change capability should also be treated as process, and executed with a holistic approach. There should be a comprehensive framework where change capability is structured around, introducing change in a structured and progressive manner, and carried out accordingly. Start off by understanding your current position within the industry or market, and formulate an action plan which corresponds to the organisational vision.

By building change capability, leaders and employees are able to increase organisational competitiveness and relevance within the industry, whilst simultaneously honing individual prowess. Included below are some alternative strategies to building change capability, which provide advice derived from commonly made organisational mistakes.

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“Defining the future state of the organization provides direction and a way to evaluate your progress. It also creates stability when the excitement around change management ebbs and flows. Unfortunately, many practitioners begin pursuing change capability without ever defining what they would look like if they were successful.

Organizational agility and a change management capability have many moving parts. You cannot grow your change agility if you are only doing one of the following:

- Training people

- Hardwiring change management activities into a project management approach

- Creating a Change Management Office

All of these approaches have merit, but without a holistic approach you end up with isolated tactics that fail to drive a true core competency.”

Inspiration: Four Tips for Building Organisational Change Capability

Image Source: europeanbusinessreview.com

Benjamin Lee Cheng Han | Benjamin is a student of International Relations at the University of Nottingham, currently exploring unchartered realms in the Public Relations field. Writing is clearly his interest – a decisive contributor to his foray into the public relations industry. To date, he boasts the proud record of having tamed one of the office cats, and drinking expired tea from the pantry.

Your brand is your promise to your customer. It delivers a story to your customers on who you are, who you want to be and who people perceive you to be. To achieve that, one should never overlook the importance of establishing effective brand strategies that will give you a competitive advantage to thrive in your business.

The ground rules for branding are rapidly evolving. Creating and sustaining customer trust and loyalty is more difficult than ever before. Building relationships with consumers has never been more challenging, with so much competition for their attention. Look at the constant barrage of pop-up and video ads that flash before our eyes every time we use our phones, turn on our laptops or tabs.

Being an on-trend, relevant, inspiring, purposeful, innovative and community-centric brand – these are the things that will make people pause, listen and pay attention. Customers want to identify with a brand they can grow with, that earns their trust and makes them feel valued.   People want to evolve with a brand whose products and services help give their business or life meaning and significance.  End-to-end, a brand must become a consumer’s best friend.

In an article from Forbes.com, Glenn Llopis shares six (6) brand strategies that all chief marketing officers (CMOs) from Fortune 500 company, business owner or entrepreneur must not ignore:

See Consumer Engagement That Others Don’t

Stop doing what everyone else is doing and be creative about how your brand engages with consumers.   For example, Beyoncé launched her most recent album in a unique way that would fully leverage her relationship with her fans and advance the image she sought to create for her brand.   Instead of releasing a new single (as advance promotion of the album), she released the entire album on iTunes with a full library of supporting music videos.

The drip-system is a good tactic, but everything is relative to the maturity of your brand and the engagement experience you want to ultimately create with your target audience. People like surprises and want variety.   Don’t be too predictable.  Mix it up.  Don’t grow complacent.   Stretch your thinking.   Every brand is vulnerable.  Don’t take your audience for granted.

This is why it’s so important to give your brand a refresh every year (not every 3 – 5 years).  Remember that consumers are re-evaluating their needs more often than you might think.  Instead of being reactive to your audience needs, be on the front end and help guide them as they reinvent themselves. Manage your consumer engagement strategy or someone else will do it better.

Establish an Identity that is Easily Relatable

Too often brands complicate their unique value proposition (UVP) to get attention.   In their efforts to reinvent and renew, they complicate things that frustrate their consumers and shareholders. JCPenney is a perfect example. Consumers used to know what to expect from JCPenney, but in an effort to reposition the brand, they lost their strategic focus and their identity along the way.

A brand identity is most powerful when it evolves and its value proposition strengthens in alignment with the changing lifestyle demands of its audience.    Make things simple.  People don’t have the time to figure out what your brand is trying to solve.   Consumers want brands to be deliberate with their identity – straightforward while at the same time forward-thinking.

When I launched my first entrepreneurial venture, I sought to reinvent the old-school processed gourmet vegetables category.   My brand – Luna Rossa – was an attempt to introduce a fresh produce identity to a traditionally processed category.  Our brand identity was easy and relatable:  Hand-cut and packaged within eight hours of harvest.   Within a year of launch, we found ourselves in grocery and club stores throughout the country.  As our brand matured and we began to understand our consumer better, we slightly modified the logo and added our new tagline that read:  Romance You Can Taste.  It was our way of saying that our products would deliver a better experience when used as a complementary ingredient and/or side dish with your favorite entrees.

A Lifestyle Platform that Inspires People and Communicates Hope

Brands influence lifestyle and one’s state of mind.  If your brand is not a lifestyle platform that inspires people and communicates hope, the impact and influence of your brand message will quickly begin to wane.   Brand platforms like Target  (A Bullseye View) and  Coca-Cola (Coca-Cola Journey) recognize that stimulating a new or existing consumer relationship requires the ability to educate, communicate and inspire your audience about the totality of your brand – what it represents and what it stands for.

Today’s consumer expects more from your brand – not only the message it communicates – but how it is delivered.   That is why content marketing is so important and must be flawlessly executed to be effective.

Consumers want your brand’s value proposition to come to life and impact their lifestyle with messaging that is educational and applicable.   A holistic approach to branding that gives people hope will accelerate your ability to earn consumer trust and loyalty — and create more transparent dialogue and feedback to keep your brand in continuous innovation mode.

Continuous Innovation with Flawless Timing and Execution

Innovation may seem to be an obvious strategy, yet many companies still fall short (or are too late) in their efforts. Just ask Blackberry, Blockbuster, JCPenney, Volvo, etc.   It’s no longer just about introducing new products, line extensions and/or technological advances to strengthen your UVP. Today’s marketplace demands perfect timing and flawless execution with each new strategy you implement. Consumers want to know that you are ready when they are. That means your timing must be in perfect sync with your audience demands.  Don’t launch a new product, service or packaging/logo strategy if your brand’s audience isn’t ready and/or you are not prepared to execute the requirements for sustainable success – all the way through to the end. Short-cuts are slow death in a marketplace where consumers expect brands to over-deliver before they actually commit to purchase. Once you have established your reputation for excellence, your innovation efforts become a public relations strategy that pre-sells your consumers well before any new product event. Just ask Apple.

Promote the Genuine Spirit of Giving

Brands that “share the harvest” of their success – with their audience – are the ones that sustain the best momentum.   The spirit of giving must be a central part of every brand’s DNA.   Unfortunately, many brands forget to “give-back” to those who supported their growth.   Being a great brand is not just about market share gains and profitability; it’s about genuinely sharing the success of your brand with others (whether they have purchased your product/service or not).

Whether you have a few thousands, millions, or billions of dollars in sales, make it a point to show your respect and gratitude to the people and communities your brand is serving.   Take the time to interact in ways that go well beyond the obvious.    Provide sponsorships (only if you are genuinely interested in supporting the cause), be consistent with your community outreach efforts, and actively participate in and support charitable events and organizations.   Fully deploy your corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy (if you have one).   A great example is what PepsiCo is doing with its environmental sustainability project.

If you have limited resources and/or just want to keep it simple, be sure to at least say thank you and show your gratitude.  Brands today have a much deeper responsibility to society and the more your brand touches the needs of the world and helps to make it a better place, the more abundant you will find the opportunities before you.

Serve Others to Leave a Legacy

Much like leaders must lead with a legacy-driven mindset, so should their brands. As you develop your brand, what is the legacy that you are mindfully attempting to leave behind?  What is your brand known for?  According to Wikipedia, brand legacy begins from a point of origin (core idea) and considers historic message layering to derive a current perception as it pertains to the target audience.  A core idea is a word or thought that encompasses all facets of the brand.  For example, IBM’s core idea is computers, while Cadbury is chocolate.

What is the experience and / or product association you are attempting to leave behind for your brand and what will your audience remember most about how it impacted their business or lifestyle?

The most successful brands never fall victim to an identity crisis.  They know who they are and the responsibility they have to those whom they are serving.  Their innovations are consistently delivered, genuine and true.  They are focused on what matters most to their consumer and on continuously making the experience better.   Sometimes they may fall flat on the excitement scale, but their customers remain extremely satisfied.   You know that you are building a solid brand legacy when your customer loyalty is so strong that they are not fazed by your competition.

When your core idea becomes synonymous with your brand, expectations rise and so do your strategic responsibilities.   This is when you must begin to allow your customers to play a more hands-on role in your brand’s evolution.  This is when you begin to witness the convergence of your brand’s growing community (intimate followers) with the advancement of commerce (growth in the business).  Allow your customers to play a more significant role. Align your brand’s identity closer to their own.

Each one of these brand strategies is equally important and they build upon one another to create and sustain the ultimate customer experience.  You must be ready to take on such an ambitious commitment, and then stick to it until you know your audience inside and out.  Always be accountable to their needs and take responsibility to keep the momentum of the relationship moving forward.  Implement these six brand strategies, and you will build a power brand for the 21st century consumer.

Inspiration: Six Brand Strategies that Most CMOs Fail to Execute

Image Source: 
(1) 3degreez.com
(2) atlantatribune.com
(3) blog.proqc.com

Chia Yi Jing | Bubbling with enthusiasm, bright ideas, and confidence, Yi Jing set foot in the PR world with Orchan Consulting, where she was offered permanent employment after a successful internship. She is determined to make her mark in the industry, and her bosses know that she will.