Articles

When economic trouble hit, the reflexive corporate response is predictable: slash the marketing budget. In the boardroom, brand building is frequently, and mistakenly, categorized as a discretionary overhead, a luxury to be minimised until the macroeconomic storm passes and everything can return to ‘normal’. However, a retrospective look at historic downturns reveals a counter-intuitive truth. While average companies cut costs to survive a recession, category leaders increase

When companies talk about their brand, they often focus on the things that are easiest to identify: their logo, website, advertising, social media, colours and messaging. But for businesses with physical locations, there is another part of the brand that customers experience every day: the sales floor, or alternatively called the shop floor. It may not appear in the brand guidelines, but it communicates just as clearly as an advertisement or website. The condition of your sho

Whether you like it or not, as a CEO you are part of the wider company brand as well as having your own. Your personal brand is a reflection of you, but it also has a spillover effect onto the company you run, just as a company's brand can affect the personal brands of its employees. The image you display can influence how you are perceived by investors, staff and stakeholders, many of whom may not see you regularly. You need to set the tone when you're in the room, and throu

Your corporate brand is more than a logo, a colour palette or a well-designed website. It is the sum of every interaction customers, employees and stakeholders have with your organisation. Every touchpoint contributes to how your business is perceived, from the tone of your communications to the appearance and behaviour of your employees. One of the most overlooked yet influential elements of corporate branding is the employee uniform. Far from being simply a practical requir