WHAT’S BRAND GOT
TO DO WITH IT?
WHAT’S BRAND GOT TO DO WITH IT?
Workplace Design:
Brand Has everything
to do with it
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.
“Our goal is to foster
employees behavior that
builds our brand. So our
design intent has to align
with our brand intent.”
Source: John Ziech
Director of WorkSpace Futures Design
Steelcase
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.
3
Delivering Your
Brand Promise
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.
Brand is the sum of a
company’s promise to
its customers—a concise
summary of what the firm
is all about.
WHAT’S BRAND GOT TO DO WITH IT?
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.
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
June 2010
5
WHAT’S BRAND GOT TO DO WITH IT?
Your Culture
Is Your Brand
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?
“…there can be no
separation between
corporate culture
and brand…”
Source: Steven Morris, Brand Strategist
Founder of Morris Branding
“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.
7
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.”
Source: Lisa Alexander
Executive Vice President and Chief People
Officer
Red Hat
“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.
9
A NEW ERA FOR COMPANIES
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.
To learn more about this whitepaper or to talk to us about your next project, please contact
Jim Brown, Associate Principal, jim.brown@callison.com.
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