thoughts

Building your brand from the inside-out

by Austin McGhie

In the world of marketing, the strongest brands are often those with the most focused brand cultures. Apple. Nike. Levi’s. Southwest. Ikea. Virgin. Disney. In their case, the brand often seems like a simple lens through which we can experience the tightly focused culture behind it. When a company loses its cultural focus the result is often disastrous – as in the case of Apple post (and pre) Steve Jobs. As customers we don’t think this cultural connection through deeply; we just kind of feel it; know it to be true. When we sense a culture that we identify with, we sense a brand we can identify with.

In other words, great brands are often built from the inside-out, before being “discovered” by an outside culture that shares their values. Great brands have true cultural uniqueness, even oddity. Great brands have found ways to successfully operationalize this cultural uniqueness and harness it as competitive advantage. A culture based competitive advantage will stand the test of time, whereas product or service based advantages, while also critical to success, will prove more transitory, particularly in this day and age.

It’s just this simple, and it’s just this difficult.

At The Sterling Group we have had the distinct pleasure to work with brands such as Nike, Levi’s, MTV, Microsoft and hp. Our work is generally based on a relatively simple four-step process designed to help our client build the truest and strongest possible brand, first from the inside-out, then from the outside-in.

Of course, we’d love to talk to you about your brand…