Expectations for your brand have never been higher—and they’re coming at you from every direction. Customers need this. Employees want that. Shareholders demand the other thing. Your job is to deliver meaningful and consistent brand experiences, regardless of market volatility, or risk getting swept aside. That’s a lot to have on your plate. Always feeling like you’re reacting in the moment, putting out fires, playing defense.

You should be in full-on panic mode. Except you’re not.

Instead you’re feeling calm, confident and in control. You’ve done your homework. You’ve prepared your brand. And you have a plan in place to pivot, when needed.

Feels good, doesn’t it? Like having a stocked pantry or a backup generator. There’s real comfort in knowing you’re prepared for the unexpected, so that you can focus your energy on being the very best.

And it’s easy to do.

If your brand were a racecar, we’d call it a tune-up. If your brand were a house, we’d call it an inspection. And if your brand were a living, breathing person, well, we’d call it a checkup. At Monigle, we call it a periodic assessment of your brand’s fundamental elements. OK, maybe not the sexiest name ever! But it’s designed to give you a real-time picture of what’s working—and an actionable roadmap to improve what isn’t. This way you can make incremental adjustments on the fly, rather than having to replace the full transmission, tear the place down to the studs or have surgery that could’ve been avoided with simple lifestyle changes.

Learn More: Guiding principles for creating a human brand

A cheat sheet for enabling consistent brand experiences

We’ll work with you to customize your brand’s review – revisiting brand fundamentals by asking the following questions:

How clear is your brand purpose? 

Purpose is the reason your organization exists (beyond profit). It connects you to the people that matter most and provides the inspiration and direction they need to connect to your organization or product.

Have you defined your brand experience? 

As simple as it sounds, defining and visualizing your brand experience is essential to guiding people on how you want them experiencing your brand. Analyzing customer needs, reviewing employee behaviors and stacking consumer preferences will give you data to begin exploring insights into what your audiences want and need to engage with your brand.

Are you telling the right story and is your verbal and visual identity enhancing or detracting from it? 

A clear brand voice can be the difference between messaging that makes an impact on the hearts and minds of the people that matter most, and messaging that gets lost in the clutter and noise. From the ‘real talk’ of how your people speak about your brand to the copy you’re using in advertising, making sure your voice is defined, distinctive, understandable and human is what moves people action. Your story needs to be supported by a visual expression – that when paired with story and messaging – enables engaging experiences.

Learn More: Messages matter

Have you looked at your offer critically through your customers eyes? 

Reviewing your brand architecture will assure you’re establishing the proper structure between your organization and how people (consumers) are seeing and experiencing your brand through their eyes. Your architecture establishes the connections between who you are, what you do, and what you’re offering by promoting understanding and engagement through different lenses: portfolio strategy, organizing principle, hierarchy, and nomenclature – all impacting business goals.

Is your organization set up for success? Are your employees prepared to deliver on it? 

When it comes to brand, people intuitively want to do the right thing. The challenge is they don’t often have the knowledge, understanding, or resources to deliver on brand, so they’re forced in their own creative direction. Putting in place governance frameworks and training programs to educate on where and how to access approved materials and content.

Are you measuring the impact your making? 

Markets change, acquisitions occur, partnerships and new deals are closed, and the need to recruit and develop talent never ends. Measurement is not fixed, and your measurement frameworks need to adapt as your business changes. You’ll need to be open to evolving your culture and metrics by introducing a ‘measure and improve mindset’ supporting learning and adaptation.

Learn More: Four signs you may have a Brand Architecture problem

Once answered, we overlay our findings with insights pulled from trends, innovations, consumers, employees, and history—to ensure your brand’s surpassing your most important stakeholder’s ever-changing expectations.

Prepare yourself. And empower your organization to navigate these challenging times with purpose and conviction. If you would like to learn more about making your brand experience consistent, I encourage you to contact me at JimL@monigle.com.

Jim Lowell
May 14, 2023 By Jim Lowell