Last week, we published our case study on our work rebranding Enterprise Cascadia to Craft3. The work, as usual, was based on CBC’s process and philosophy of Finding, Telling and Proving the Story, and the process took the better part of the entire 2011 year. A couple months into the work, I realized something was special and different about this experience; something that made it better, more enjoyable, and gave me a higher level of confidence that the client was going to be able to truly get the most out of their rebranding experience. Today, as I reflect, I want to share with you the things that I feel were key to the successful partnership Craft3 and CBC developed:
Making CBC a Complete Part of the Team
We’ve been blessed with lots of great clients and relationships over the years, but I have never felt more completely “on the inside” with a client as I did with Craft3. We were invited and asked to participate in internal events, employee retreats, all executive management meetings, board meetings, borrower meetings, and more. I had a login to the Intranet. I developed a personal relationship with several people. When I ran into a Craft3 employee, I knew they saw me as a colleague/co-worker, not an outsider or a consultant.
A Willingness to be Guided Through a Journey
Many companies want help from consultants and agencies so they don’t have to do the things they don’t want to do, or don’t have the skills or bandwidth to do. It’s rarer that a client wants help being guided through a scary and unclear process. Yet brand development (at least the way we do it) is indeed a transformational journey full of both epiphanies and moments of fear. Our job is to shepherd and lead. Craft3 had faith–even during the scary, uncertain moments–that it had placed itself in good hands and trusted in the process.
Bold Decision Making
There are often two schools of thought and approaches to brand decision making among financial institutions: single-leader decision making or democratic committee-oriented decision making. Craft3 had already developed the leadership and management culture to balance these two extremes well. Everyone–from the newest staff member to the most senior board member–had input and influenced the brand strategy. Everyone’s feedback and opinions were gathered and respected, but ultimately, the leadership team made the tough decisions. And you know what happened? They earned a high level of team buy-in because of the leadership culture they worked so hard to develop.
Understanding that Brand and Culture are Two Sides of the Same Coin
I truly believe that brand and culture are basically the same thing with two different audiences. Because Craft3 was already culture-oriented, it meant that they had laid good groundwork to be more brand-oriented. Plus, Craft3 knew that the brand it was developing wasn’t just about marketing, it had everything to do with how the team conducts itself. In short, Craft3 was pre-wired to understand the importance of BOTH Telling and Proving the Story.
The Bottom Line
At CBC, brand development is an introspective process, and when done right, transforms an organization. It’s about helping our clients get to know themselves better than they ever thought possible and then, better becoming what they truly are. And this can’t happen with an arms-length relationship between client and consultant.
Kudos–and many thanks–to Craft3 for fostering the ideal conditions for an amazing brand.
