Signals of an On-Brand Culture

How can you tell if your organizational culture is delivering its brand DNA? Some signals are industry dependent, but the general signals listed in table 3 can help highlight areas that require attention.

Table 3: Signals of on- and off-brand cultures

OFF-BRAND CULTURE Indicators that the brand DNA has not penetrated the organizational culture	ON-BRAND CULTURE Signals that the brand DNA has penetrated the organizational culture
The brand is considered to be in the domain of marketers.	The brand is understood and valued and provides meaning to everyone.
The brand is developed in isolation from the service culture.	The organization's brand has been deliberately created as it relates to service delivery.
Senior management pays little attention to the strategic and operational impact of the brand.	The brand provides guidelines and context for all service experience touch points.
The brand is largely seen as irrelevant to daily business functions.	All parts of the organization understand the unique proposition of the brand and their role in delivering it.
Performance measures do not incorporate delivery of brand-aligned behaviors.	Performance assessment explicitly measures congruence of service delivery and the brand.
Brand decisions are made across the organization based upon personal preference or short-term considerations.	Brand decisions are strategically integrated into all parts of the organization and reflect long-term plans.
Leadership behavior contradicts the brand.	Senior managers understand the brand and reflect it in their own behavior.
Recruitment is driven primarily by intelligence, skills, and experience without regard to the brand.	People are recruited for their capacity to deliver experiences in line with the brand.

What does your organization's culture mean to people who come to your establishment—whatever that purpose may be? Does it symbolize anything different from a competitor down the road? Perhaps even more important, what does your organization mean to the people who work there? Is your brand DNA being lived and expressed? Inside-Out Branding not only encompasses the customers' interactions with staff, it also includes every internal and external process that shapes how any person, staff, or supplier interacts with your organization. In his book, Corporate Religion, Jesper Kunde pinpoints the role of corporate cultures in strong brands: "In the future, building strong market positions will be about building companies with a strong personality and corporate soul." ^[10]

TMI worked with the Hong Kong offices of two major U.S. multinational corporations that both blatantly violated copyright laws by duplicating our materials without our permission. When they would not stop, we ultimately threatened that we would report this violation to their U.S. corporate offices. That got their attention and their cooperation, because in both cases violating copyright laws is in direct conflict with their explicitly stated global corporate values. Every time we do business with these companies, we remember how their employees tried to cheat us in such a heavy-handed manner and violated copyright laws with impunity. Even though this happened while TMI was a supplier to them, it is part of our total brand experience, and it affects our evaluation when we are their customer.

One of the leading providers of credit references and debt recovery services in Australia and Asia contacted thousands of consumers and other businesses every day to remind them of both their legal and moral obligations to meet financial commitments. Yet this company had a reputation among its suppliers for slow payment. Regardless of whether this was the practice because of employee behavior, poor processes, or a strategic decision to delay payment, the fact remains that it undermined the integrity of the company's brand. Word spreads.

^[10]Jesper Kunde, Corporate Religion (New York: Prentice Hall, 2000).