WHAT’S BRAND GOT TO DO WITH IT?

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WHAT’S BRAND GOT TO DO WITH IT?

There is more to workplace design than creating flexible collaboration spaces and writable walls. In fact, those elements, while useful, may not be for every company. What’s true about great workplace design is that it cannot be determined without first understanding an organization’s brand, culture and mission.

It’s important to define the term “brand.” A brand is essentially a promise of commitment and performance by an organization. In retail terms, brand is tantamount to reputation, and linked to what people believe about a specific product or service of a company. Branding is the creation of an impression or image through a process of changing and reinforcing what people say or believe. Applying the same principles that drive an organization’s brand to its human resources management policies and practices can help create a workplace brand.

Companies spend a lot of time developing their brand and working to differentiate themselves in the market. The culture of your organization must, in turn, be all about how to make that brand a part of the way you do things. Without that, your carefully developed brand becomes limited to outward perception and loses its ability to motivate your people to perform their best and deliver your brand promise.

Summary: Does workplace design strengthen brand awareness? Does it matter? “Yes!” say experts in workplace strategy. When workplace design reinforces brand, it deepens company culture because employees are physically immersed in the brand trait in a three-dimensional way. Workplace design, synchronized with brand, visually communicates a company’s unique advantages to employees and visitors. This white paper illustrates how leading businesses are using branded workplace design as a competitive tool. Find out how smart workplace design can lead to increased productivity, improved information sharing, greater talent retention, and consistent branding throughout an organization’s operations.

WORKPLACE DESIGN: BRAND HAS EVERYTHING TO DO WITH IT

“Our goal is to foster employees behavior that builds our brand. So our design intent has to align with our brand intent.”

Source: John ZiechDirector of WorkSpace Futures DesignSteelcase

A company’s mission is a collection of business goals, and philosophies for achieving those goals, such as increasing shareholder value, improving the lives of employees, generating exceptional value for the customer—or some combination of these and other ambitions. A company’s culture is the collective way employees go about fulfilling that mission.

For a pharmaceutical manufacturer, accuracy may be paramount; for a clothing designer, it might be creativity; for a branch of the armed services, following orders might be the rule. Brand is the sum of a company’s promise to its customers—a concise summary of what the firm is all about. Excellence in workplace design requires an understanding of how brand, culture and mission come into play.

The workplace design industry has been adept at applying strategies that increase collaboration. One strategy has been to reinforce brand in the workplace with “product placement,” using graphics and imagery that reflect a business’ programs and services. Studies have shown that upwards of 70% of businesses do this, such as the 2010 Steelcase & Corenet Branding Study. The same study also reveals only half of all businesses attempt to design their offices in a way that encourages employee behavior consistent with their brand.

In contrast, consumer retailers use all the tools at their disposal to promote their product brand by understanding their customer profile—personality, demographics, and habits—and produce a business match that aligns on many levels with customer’s profile. The resulting space is one where both the customer and the company are immersed in the promise.

DELIVERING YOUR BRAND PROMISE

Brand is the sum of a company’s promise to its customers—a concise summary of what the firm is all about.

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WHAT’S BRAND GOT TO DO WITH IT?

50% of respondents feel that their workplace is designed to encourage behavior that is consistent with the brand.

Source: Steelcase & CoreNet Branding Study June 2010

Today, experts agree that a brand is no longer something you can apply to the surface of an organization, as if it were nothing more than a symbol or a catchy tagline. Strong brands grow from within.

Many companies continue to build out facilities without reference to company culture and brand. They falsely assume that workplace design is a matter of square footage and lighting. Good design increases productivity, job satisfaction, talent attraction and employee retention. What many organizations have yet to grasp, however, is that you can’t know what good design is without considering a company’s mission, culture, and brand.

June 2010

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WHAT’S BRAND GOT TO DO WITH IT?

The workplace is the physical embodiment of brand. What does your workplace say about your brand? The work environment is also where employees actively represent the brand everyday and create the company’s image. How is the workplace environment influencing these activities? What is the impression that visitors get about your brand from visiting your facilities?

“Your brand is your culture; your culture is your brand,” says Bill Taylor, co-founder of Fast Company, in the Harvard Business Review. “You can’t be special, distinctive, and compelling in the marketplace unless you create something special, distinctive, and compelling in the workplace.” Taylor points to a profile of insurer USAA in Business Week as an example of what it means to have the workplace reflect the brand:

When they are about to start their training, [USAA] employees review deployment letters that real soldiers get: ‘Report to the personnel processing-facility’ tomorrow, the letter reads, and get your affairs in order beforehand. [Employees] eat MREs (meals ready to eat) on many occasions during their training, to get a ‘taste’ for the life of a soldier. They walk around in 65-pound backpacks. They read actual letters from soldiers in the field to their families back home. USAA calls it ‘Surround Sound’—immerse employees in the real life and emotional needs of customers. ‘There is nobody on this earth who understands their customer better than USAA,’ one consultant has said.

A company’s core values should be integrated into the fabric of the brand. Quite often it is these philosophies that truly distinguish one company from the other. And the more a company can clearly distinguish itself from its competitors, the better advantage the company has with the audience understanding and reacting to their brand.

YOUR CULTURE IS YOUR BRAND

“…there can be no separation between corporate culture and brand…”

Source: Steven Morris, Brand Strategist Founder of Morris Branding

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WHAT’S BRAND GOT TO DO WITH IT?

How does a firm benefit from having workplace design that reflects mission, culture, and brand? The company’s core values literally surround employees and visitors. The design infuses the workspace with visual imagery and environment best representing the company’s mission, culture and brand. It’s not just something new hires hear about during orientation; with good design, it becomes a continuous message enveloping their workspace.

“The culture you create internally is a powerful tool for driving brand perception externally,” says Lisa Alexander, executive vice president and chief people officer at the open-source software giant Red Hat. Alexander recommends, among other things, “celebrations of brand and culture,” urging companies to “reinforce the brand and culture by showcasing it” and trumpeting the “endless opportunities to better connect HR and brand efforts within organizations.”

Exploring brand and culture, and their relationship to the workplace is no longer optional. It’s imperative for organizations to understand this paradigm if they want to compete in an increasingly crowded marketplace.

“The culture you create internally is a powerful tool for driving brand perception externally.”

Source: Lisa Alexander Executive Vice President and Chief People OfficerRed Hat

There is no one-size-fits-all solution for every company. Diligent, deliberate designs that reflect the organization’s culture and brand help companies attract, retain, and promote strong talent. When employees feel an emotional connection to brand in the workplace, the organization creates a stronger, richer culture and ultimately a more authentic and successful brand.

At Callison, we create compelling workspaces that foster emotional connections between you and your customers, your employees, your clients, and your guests. We believe that the built environment is the ultimate branding vehicle—an immersive and interactive showcase of all you offer.

A WORD ABOUT CALLISON

Since 1985, Callison has had the good fortune to design for world-class brands across retail, healthcare, workplace, hospitality and financial services market segments. Our breadth and depth of experience has allowed us to research, learn and apply best practices from one category across others, resulting in innovative design that drives business results and helps build strong relationships for our clients and their customers.

callison.com

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