In a famous speech he gave not long after returning triumphantly to Apple after being pushed out over a decade earlier, Steve Jobs explained to his new team that, to him, marketing is about values. It’s the way companies explain to their customers, stakeholders, employees, and anyone else who is paying attention to what they stand for and why they are relevant.
Brands are symbols of the values an organization stands for. They give a few short words or a basic image the power to transmit giant and far reaching messages of competence, integrity, speed, ambition, and innumerable other desirable and differentiating characteristics.
Build Value with Your Values
Too often, however, companies direct all their branding resources externally, and in doing so fail to recognize that the capacity of brands to motivate people, further their goals, and create strong and beneficial associations is just as useful when applied internally.
A highly-engaged workforce is associated with a 21 percent increase in profitability.
Branded environments, whether in a retail space, a corporate office, or any other physical touchpoint, take the core values of a company and extend them into the real world. They make their mission and vision real, touchable, and impossible to ignore.
Through interior design, lighting, graphics, and navigational aids, a branded space becomes a functional and beautiful embodiment of their personality and culture.
A Shared Mission
The modern workspace is undergoing a change. Employees aren’t siloed in closed offices, but are increasingly working in shared spaces conducive to collaboration.
This development presents new challenges, such as finding ways to make large, open office plans communal but with opportunities for privacy as well. But it also creates a wonderful chance to build bright, airy, and bustling hubs of activity where the feeling of a shared mission energizes all that enter the space.
More than just a lofty goal, an attractive, efficient, and clean work environment that aligns with and extends an organization’s values makes a major impact on the engagement levels of employees.
A study by market researchers Ipsos for coworking company WeWork found that even more than better hours, higher pay, and more vacation, employees reported a well designed workspace would most improve their job satisfaction.
Satisfied employees are productive employees, and Gallup’s 2018 State of the Global Workforce report backs that claim up, finding that a highly-engaged workforce is associated with a 21 percent increase in profitability.
Inform, Engage, and Inspire
Branded environments are a potent means of fulfilling several important objectives. They perform basic wayfinding tasks that get people efficiently where they need to go, energize and synchronize internal teams, and instill trust and confidence in visitors.
Every brand has unique and compelling values to share. Make those intangible qualities real and you magnify their power.
Talk to us today about how your brand story can be integrated into your physical spaces.