No matter how big or small your business you will have a brand ‘Voice’ which is driven by YOU, the business leader, and your Leadership Team, and it MATTERS.
That Brand ‘Voice’ is how you communicate on all levels – to your existing customers/guests/clients, your Team of Employees – in short – all internal and external communications. It isn’t about marketing, it’s about HOW you do things.
Is your Brand Voice an accidental one?
It needs to be purposeful and reflect your brand strategy, your brand values, and of course, be aligned with your Vision and Mission for your business, and where you WANT to be. It affects short, medium and long-term success of your business, and ultimately PROFIT.
I am not a marketeer by trade – I have worked as a business leader in a large number of different types of business, and mainly been Leader in Operations, and Guest or Customer facing business. It is clear to me that a Brand VOICE is not something just for marketeers. HOW you do day to day business, how you treat your people, how you treat and follow up your customers and clients permeates your business and will affect your success in business in the short, medium and long term. It affects your reputation and therefore when and how often people will do business with you.
Are you getting it wrong? Perhaps you don’t even notice. Have you seen the news recently regarding the Disney response to the lawsuit brought by Scarlett Johansson? The Black Widow star who claims she and cast/production crews have lost huge amount of money as Disney+ decided to modify the arrangements and contracts in place and released the latest blockbuster on Disney+ streaming service, as well as cinemas. Apparently that wasn’t the deal.
Should anyone care about highly paid film actors? That is a moot point of course, but look upon it as a lesson. Disney allegedly ignored Johansson’s request to renegotiate terms in light of Disney’s decision. Their response – after first not taking it seriously, they followed up with a very public one, seemingly wanting to make us all think she is greedy and motivated by self-interest. Maybe there is some truth in that, but is that really the point?
What is Disney’s ‘Brand Voice’? It has built its reputation on ‘Magic’ – being a ‘Magical Place’ is the foundation for everything that Disney does. I attended 4 days of ‘Customer Mania’ training at the ‘Disney University’ in Florida once, and it was impassioned about its pride in its reputation and its Brand Voice was part of that – always reflecting doing things right for its ‘Cast Members’ (employees) and being a ‘Magical Place’ for its Guests. It is home of the beloved stories we all grew up with, it has a place in our hearts.
So – reading about Disney (allegedly) breaking a promise, what does that do to its reputation? The warm and cuddly feeling we think about when seeing our kids sing along to a Disney song, or visit a ‘Magical’ theme park. Think about it. It could be argued that this has certainly dented its reputation. It has in my eyes, am I alone? How will that manifest itself in my future behaviour when I am in a Disney Store? Looking to book my next holiday? Downloading a film on Disney+?
Yes – it’s a very large global example, but think of it in relation to YOUR business. To how YOU and your leadership team operate. What YOU respond in the public domain to your reviews, your social media posts, your PR.
It is all intertwined and it MATTERS. Pay attention to it in your business.
