Ideas to Ponder – August 2024 Edition

In this interesting HBR article, the authors discuss brand building and the importance of the customer promise. They include some great examples and back up their claims with research data. It’s a must-read for anyone who’s thinking about their brand positioning.

It’s like Seth Godin was in our heads when he wrote this blog about branding. Here are a few of our favorite nuggets (but you should read the whole thing—it will take 3 minutes).

• “A brand is not a logo. A brand is a promise, a story and a shorthand. A brand tells us what to expect the next time we engage with you.”
• “We know what the Bat Signal means. We know who’s going to show up, what he’s going to be wearing and what will happen next.”
• “Your elevator pitch isn’t designed to fully explain what you do or even to make the sale. Your ride on the elevator only exists to make it more likely that someone will follow you out of the elevator asking you questions about what you do.”

You can do marketing and brand awareness campaigns all day long, but if your employees aren’t engaged, your business will suffer. Yet nearly 80% of employees are not engaged or are actively disengaged at work. Why? Because companies see engagement as “an HR thing”, when it should be owned by leaders and managers.

This article has some great insights on why companies should refresh their employee engagement efforts and how to do it.