Kristen: The subtitle of your new book, FUSION, suggests that by aligning brand and culture, organisations can achieve greatness. How so?
Denise: If you align them, you can win customers because you gain their trust and pass the test of authenticity: you’ve demonstrated that you really are what you say you are.
You also can win the war for talent by attracting and retaining employees who believe in your vision, and will go the extra mile to help achieve it. You become more efficient because people aren’t wasting time and money trying to figure out the right thing to do.
Kristen: Is there a fitness industry brand doing a good job of this?
Denise: When I interviewed SoulCycle CEO Melanie Whelan a few years back, she described one of their core values as ‘a culture of yes’, which means everyone in the company is committed to saying yes to customers, and doing what it takes to satisfy their desires.
That mindset is part of what people know and love about the brand. So SoulCycle has a healthy culture, a strong brand and tight alignment between the two.
Kristen: You stress the importance of organisations having a distinct—as opposed to an ideal—culture. Can you please elaborate?
Denise: Beyond a certain baseline, there’s no universal definition of good culture. Every organisation is different, so its culture should be too. It doesn’t matter if it’s friendly or competitive, nurturing or analytical, it should simply cultivate the attitudes and behaviours that enable your people to produce the results you’re looking for.
Kristen: You emphasise the importance of engaging employees and customers, and managing their experiences. What do you mean?
Denise: Customer experience (CX) is the new marketing, and influences brand perceptions and performance just as much as marketing used to. Organisations must design and manage CX to make it personal, emotional and on-brand. It’s also just as important to design and manage employee experience (EX) – the sum of all interactions an employee has with your organisation.
Kristen: How do you create fusion between EX and CX?
“You need to play an irreplaceable role in people’s lives, or your customers can easily be lured away”
Denise: You need to directly integrate EX with CX. When people have an experience, as employees, that’s distinctively on-brand, they’re more likely to deliver that sort of experience to their customers.
Kristen: To fuse brand and culture, you’ve suggested identifying and articulating your brand aspirations – what do you mean?
Denise: Having a meaningful purpose is critical in today’s ultra competitive world. You need to play an irreplaceable role in people’s lives, and must live that purpose convincingly, or customers can easily be lured away.
Kristen: Who should articulate brand aspirations?
Denise: It involves uncovering the reason the founder started the business, or examining the mission that motivates the people in the organisation.
Customers, employees, and stakeholders should inform the process, but the leaders should spearhead it, because they best understand their intent and vision.
• Denise Lee Yohn has a free online tool that can help you determine the values and culture you should be cultivating to support your brand. You can access it here: www.deniseleeyohn.com/fusion