ist magazine July 2022

Feature

6

Things Every CEO Needs to Know About Branding to Better Manage the Human Side of Business By Jane Cavalier

with understanding the basics of what a brand really means for a business. 1 A BRAND RESIDES IN THE MIND, NOT IN A LOGO. Although expressed in a logo and a tagline, a brand is actually a mental construct that gets into the mind and lives in the memory of people. Branding is the process of creating the brand in the minds of people. It is typically done by creating things and

commitment to people to tell their story and represent their inter ests with your brand, not your own. If you create a brand that represents the highest common denomina tor between your people (customers, employees, investors) and your products/ services, then you can forge an enduring powerful partnership that will yield surpris ing dividends for your business. It all begins

actually cultural icons that symbolically carry meaning. In just a nanosecond, they evoke common im mediate meaning and emotions across all people. Think BMW, John Deere, Chanel, Apple and American Express. In a world where everything is uncertain, brands can be trusted to stand true. Now, if you don’t have a brand, you can build one. Anyone can. It takes

are restless, customers fickle, investors skittish and the public has an appetite to cancel. In order to rally everyone together to stand be hind a company and its path during all the ups and downs, leaders need to draw upon emotions as rationality will not carry the day. They have one tool at their dis posal to do this delicate work: the brand. Although often associated with marketing, brands are

We live in an upside-down world where the old rules no longer apply. Many call it a “VUCA” world – volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. Mass consumerism has been replaced by a new consumption paradigm as people are driven by new essentialism where things matter less and relationships, experi ences and self-being dominate all. In this new world, workers

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istmagazine.com

July 2022