Subscribe to Our Newsletter
When B2B leaders consider aligning brand and culture, one question arises time and again: which should lead?
It’s an important question—especially when leaders are taking a major leap like an M&A integration, IPO or market repositioning. At these pivotal moments, audiences within and without the organization seek signs of continuity, confidence and a distinct vision for growth.
Aligning brand and culture clarifies the company’s future, maximizing value creation through deeper, more invested relationships. Each audience understands the business’s reason for being and the rewards of engagement and partnership.
Three Questions to Guide Brand-Culture Alignment
There’s no one universal answer for deciding whether brand or culture needs to be addressed first and which should lead. Instead, leaders can apply a simple framework, asking three questions to discover:
- The organization’s strategic North Star
- How culture can strengthen brand
- How brand can correct for culture-related challenges
- How to bring culture and brand together in a cohesive, compelling experience
Each question explores what will create the most value for employees, customers and investors—helping leaders connect with the people who matter most as they chart their new path forward.
1. What is your B2B company’s purpose?
Your purpose is your business’s “Why,” the reason it exists.
Purpose gives employees a compelling reason to believe in the business, the opportunities it creates for them and the impact they can make for customers—which then drives their commitment and engagement. It offers prospects, customers and investors a clear articulation of the company’s value, along with leadership’s vision for the future.
Especially during transformative leaps, purpose builds the audience trust that drives consideration, conversion and loyalty.
After all, people don’t buy what you do. They buy why you do it.
Scale, Capability and Focus Make True Progress Possible
One of our clients—a global, innovative energy services company—had just completed its largest acquisition. Leadership knew they had deep engineering talent. With greater scale came the opportunity to deliver on a higher purpose: accelerating the energy transition.
Research revealed important gaps. Primarily, customers still perceived the company as a manufacturer, uncertain of its role in a lower-carbon future. Employees were inspired by the ambition but sought clarity on how their contributions would be recognized and valued.
The company’s rebrand addressed both challenges:
- Externally: It repositioned the company as a trusted partner able to help audiences navigate today’s energy landscape while building tomorrow’s
- Internally: It equipped employees with clear principles for delivering on their new promise through every interaction
The new brand then energized the workforce and engaged global customers seeking a strong partner for shaping a more sustainable future.
Purpose does not dictate whether brand or culture should come first. But as this example illustrates, it unifies them, becoming:
- The guidepost for brand strategy
- The rallying point for culture
- The foundation for authentic experiences
With the business’s purpose clearly defined, further investigation can reveal whether culture or brand should lead—in order to achieve it.
2. What aspects of the company culture are unique or differentiating?
Once purpose is established, examining your culture’s unique attributes can reveal powerful opportunities for differentiation.
When these attributes are reinforced through brand and consistently delivered across the client experience, they become lasting sources of advantage—compelling proof points of your value in the market.
Commitment to the Team Becomes Commitment to Client Service
We partnered with an IT outsourcing client requiring a brand strong enough to compete against—and stand out from—global giants.
Through robust research, we learned that the company’s culture was unique in the competitive world of IT recruitment. Unlike competitors with high turnover rates and minimal development opportunities, this firm invested deeply in its people. The result was a team of passionate, loyal, long-tenured employees who eagerly grew their skills and did their best work.
This unique culture also benefited clients. Service teams were well-trained, provided valuable continuity over time, and were committed to the company’s success. With this discovery, we saw rich opportunity to highlight why these important cultural attributes made the company a better partner.
When creating the brand platform, we therefore elevated internal culture to differentiate the firm externally:
- Culture built on the firm’s proud reputation for employee growth and loyalty
- Brand signaled an experience that competitors could not credibly promise
This story illustrates an important point. The strongest cultures are defined by shared belief in the company’s values and purpose.
It is this kind of culture that can lead the alignment of culture and brand.
Diversity of Ideas Builds a Stronger, More Differentiated Perspective
In another instance, we partnered with leaders of a B2B consulting firm that had expanded rapidly through acquisitions. Because of this, leadership worried their business had no consistent modus operandi.
But our research revealed their team diversity was actually viewed as a strength—a convergence of valued, individual perspectives. So we built the new brand around the power of diversity to foster innovation and create better client solutions.
This approach clearly differentiated the company from other big consulting firms, which actually touted the uniformity of their employees’ pedigrees and processes.
Embracing their unique culture, the company shifted the conversation to focus on how myriad experiences and opinions can be assets. By emphasizing that the best ideas come from a diverse employee base, the company was able to stand out in the crowded consulting space and secure projects from several major accounts.
In both these cases, unique aspects of the company’s culture laid the groundwork for a differentiated brand position. Articulating the culture upfront was crucial to successfully aligning brand and culture.
Research is often needed to uncover not only what those elements are, but also why they benefit the company’s most important internal and external audiences.
3. Are there aspects of the culture that might be roadblocks to success?
Sometimes culture isn’t a differentiator—it’s a barrier. In these cases, brand can serve as a catalyst that redirects the company’s culture and evolves it into an asset.
New Cultural Pillars Drive a Better Customer Experience
Take the example of a technology leader in global payments. The brand equity study we conducted for leadership revealed that the company had fallen behind on customer service. Why? Years of acquisitions had created a siloed, product-driven culture.
In spite of the company’s position as a market pioneer, clients seeking a flexible approach found it frustrating to partner. Employees—from sales and customer service to product developers and engineers—had been encouraged to focus on building and selling features and functionality rather than addressing specific customer needs.
The solution began with a purpose-driven, customer-focused B2B brand that could reassure clients and prospects of the company’s commitment to them:
- Brand reframed the company’s market leadership position to focus on customer benefits and innovation, signaling an elevated experience
- Culture introduced game-changing new values like collaboration, accountability and commitment, activating the brand’s new purpose, “To transform payments technology”
The change transformed the business from the inside out. Employees eagerly embraced the new culture, embedding it in day-to-day interactions with customers and each other. Clients felt a renewed commitment through better service.
In this case, brand became a powerful tool for improving company culture and therefore customer service and connection. Across audiences, the newly-designed brand experience ensured each interaction lived up to the brand promise.
So, which comes first: brand or culture?
As these examples show, it depends.
- If culture sets you clearly apart: Let culture shape the brand
- If culture is holding you back: Use brand to guide cultural change
In either case, defining the company’s purpose is the essential first step—and experience is the ongoing test. When brand and culture reinforce each other, the brand experience creates clarity, engagement and trust across the people who matter most.
The goal is to pinpoint why employees come to work each morning and what customers value most about the partnership, then determine which can drive growth far into the future.
Your new, impassioned purpose can inspire your teams, customers and markets. And your aligned organization can then maximize the value you create through culture and brand, whichever comes first.
Ready to align your brand and culture—and define the experiences that will set your business apart? Let’s talk.
Originally published September 19, 2021, authored by Hannah Foltz.
