Brands that unite people.
From my experience of almost thirty years creating or transforming brands on five continents, there are three areas in the business world that should transcend any situation: investment in talent, investment in brand and investment in innovation.
And I mention any situation because today is inflation, yesterday was the pandemic and tomorrow…
We are no longer living moments of crisis but an era of “permacrisis”. The word that best defines what we are experiencing? Crises as a rule, not as an exception.
Faced with this new scenario, my proposal is to transform permacrisis into “permaopportunity”. This concept refers to the idea that, in an increasingly complex and changing world, there will always be opportunities for those who are willing to constantly innovate and adapt.
The data confirms that having a strong brand has helped companies emerge from previous crises earlier, gaining market share and being more prepared for the future.
Most of business life in these complex times is the ongoing ability to adapt and learn to deal with uncertainty. There is no doubt that being able to respond quickly to real changes as they occur is essential.
The world will change faster and faster.
Of course it is important to plan, but in the end situations will almost never be as planned, and the ability to respond quickly will be crucial.
A great team, a great brand and constant innovation will make us more prepared for any situation that arises.
Long-term investment is not thinking about tomorrow’s decisions but about the future of today’s decisions.
Why invest in brand?
Consumers no longer buy products, they buy brands.
Experts see a significant improvement in the value of the world’s most valuable brands compared to what it was 10 years ago. Because companies have understood the importance of investing in brand building and, as a result, are stronger and more resilient.
Investing in brand has always been and always will be a great business.
The most important asset and the only asset of the company that increases in value over time.
A strong brand helps us to implement our strategy, because it reminds us why and for whom we are doing what we do. Highlight our strengths and why we are different. It increases the value of what we do because it increases our attractiveness to others.
What else?
- A good brand will help encourage someone to buy a product or choose a service over another.
- A brand does not explicitly say “buy me”; instead, he says “this is who I am. This is the reason why I exist. If you agree, if you like me, you can buy me, support me and recommend me”.
- Every time you buy something you are rewarding those people who work to give life and meaning to that brand that gives meaning to that product.
- It attracts people with whom we share values. Whether it’s the customers who need what we offer, the customers we can help the most, or the talented people who will help our business thrive. By putting your core values at the heart of your brand, you can resonate with customers on an emotional level, giving you a competitive edge.
- It helps us prioritize the actions that will have the greatest impact and gives us focus.
- It builds trust because it makes you more authentic and coherent by linking what you do to why and how you do it.
- It holds us accountable to our customers, employees and partners because it is a promise we must keep. A brand is a promise kept.
- It attracts the people we love so we don’t have to chase them.
- Consumers don’t buy products, they buy brands; A strong brand gives you the authority to position yourself as an expert and leader in your industry.
- Those brands with significant corporate responsibility can justify their value and demand higher prices for their products.
Why innovate?
- The correct methodology to learn and modify processes.
- If a company’s rate of change is slower than its environment, the company is writing its own end.
- Open culture where learning is a central capital. Processes that admit error and consider error as a way of learning.
- Spaces for experimentation and the flow of ideas transversally and vertically in all directions.
- Understand work as a constant experiment accompanied by constant learning.
- Embrace an agile, courageous and flexible work culture and mindset.
- Strengthen our ability to read in real time and accompany the readings of reality with constant adaptations.
Why leadership and talent?
- What transforms is action. Leaders promote and pave the way for things to happen: they think and make people think about how to do them and not why they can’t be done.
- If you make a mistake, if something is wrong or you have made a mistake, remedy it immediately and keep moving forward. Error is a great teacher, learn from it.
- Do not marry conventional ideas. Multidisciplinary, diverse and empowered teams work true miracles.
- The future demands changes from us. Do not excuse yourself or justify yourself by saying that all past times were better: question your past practices and rescue those that were better.
- If you make a mistake, if something is wrong or you have made a mistake, remedy it immediately and keep moving forward. Error is a great teacher, learn from it.
- When you face difficulties, your greatest allies are your common sense, your creativity and your team.
- You can always keep learning. You can always keep improving. Never stop learning and improving.
- The most successful leaders I know don’t whine, they don’t criticize, and they don’t complain.
- Technology will be a commodity. What will differentiate brands is the human factor. Who does not understand people does not understand business
In times of difficulty, the most important thing is not the problems, but the opportunities.
It is on them that companies should focus, because they are the ones that allow organizations to grow and develop.
Wherever you see a successful brand, someone made a brave decision in difficult times.
The perception of your brand will determine the behavior of your customers, which in turn determines the way your brand performs financially.
The time and money you invest in your brand and brand strategy will create brand equity, a powerful entity. This will increase the value of the business, which means that if the time comes to sell, the brand itself is a valuable asset.
It’s time to reconsider your opinion on rebranding a company; Instead of viewing it as another cost that needs to be covered, view it as an investment.
An investment that will help you become more authoritative, attract loyal brand advocates who are willing to pay higher prices; all the elements that will build the value of the brand while making it a market leader.
In a world where innovation is seen as a key element to success, avoiding branding yourself as a bold and innovative company would leave us wondering if you want to be profitable at all…
For this reason, in times like this, the figure of good leaders comes to the fore.
Because leadership is inevitably subject to the clarity of where the company is going, to responsibility and courage. Management is doing things right, but leadership is doing the right things.
The circumstances of a leader are not determined by his talent, but by where he puts his talent to work. Most people are dedicated solely to using time; the true leaders, instead, to use it.
Lead to continue improving and always evolving; what the Japanese call “Kaizen”.
It consists of everything that a company does internally and externally must be systematically and constantly improved: products, services, processes, marketing, technology, training and development of personnel, use of information.
The processes of learning and constant improvement must be pushed and promoted by the leaders of the organizations.
Now, continuous improvement requires an important decision. What constitutes “performance” in a given aspect? If performance is to be improved – and this is, of course, the goal of continuous improvement – we have to define what “performance” means.
The most important thing here is to start from what has the most value for customers, which is not limited to the quality of the products, but also the services provided, the speed of service, among other aspects.
In the end, all business operations can be boiled down to three words, people, product, and profit. What history has taught us is that unless you have a good team, you don’t have much to do with the other two.
In the business world there is a universe full of what could have been and was not.
Less excel and more action. These exciting times are parents to courageous companies. Companies that do not stay thinking about what could have happened but make things happen.
There is an excess of specialists in reducing costs and a shortage of experts in creating value.
And there are companies that believe that investing in branding, talent, innovation and communication is expensive. But they do not take into account the high cost of not investing enough in it.
Having a vision without action becomes an illusion. To have action without vision is simply to go anywhere, without a determined route.
Action with vision is the way to make a positive difference.
There are also companies that have understood everything. What are the ones that set the course and do while the majority continues to wonder if investing in brand, innovation and talent is expensive…
History reminds us that nothing important has been achieved by a pessimistic person. For this reason, I propose that the change of mentality takes us from being overwhelmed by living in a “permacrisis” to being motivated by being the protagonist of an era of “perma-opportunities”.
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