I’m all for great branding, as you can see in one of my previous posts, Simple Branding. Branding should look, sound and feel good.  It should be cool, catchy and let people know quickly what your brand is all about.  But, there is another critical branding component that will make or break your brand.  I call it The UN-Brand.

The UN-Brand is what evolves from your brand, rather unintentionally.  It’s the culture, personality and tenor of your brand.  It’s what people are left with after an encounter with your company, its people and your service.  It speaks just as loudly as your masthead or logo, even more so.  It can make or break your brand.

How you treat your customers, your brand voice, enthusiasm for your product, services and clients, how your employees and customers are valued, and other intangibles make up your UN-Brand.  They are the unwritten, unspoken qualities that exude from your brand.  It’s what people are saying about you once you walk away or after you’ve performed a service.  It’s more than customer service. The UN-Brand develops from within and comes from the core values that your company and Brand actually embrace and embody. It’s the “how” behind the “what” of your brand.  It’s the character of your company and how you get the job done that makes up your UN-Brand.

Your UN-Brand will reveal itself on its own.  I’ve witnessed this with my own brand.  My area of expertise is Strategic Communications and Relationship Building skills, specifically, Social Media, Business Communications, and Interpersonal Interactions.  I teach and train people how to communicate effectively, position and promote their brand, attract customers and get great results.  If you look at comments from customers and clients who interact with me, you’ll hear words like: dynamic, inspiring, joyful, open-hearted, motivating, insightful, authentic, transparent, and compelling.  Not much to do with the what of my brand but a lot about how I get the job done.

Another great example of UN-Branding in action is the SAS Corporation.  SAS is the definitive leader in analysis and business software.  They are known worldwide for excellence in analytics.  They’re also known for some amazing things that have nothing to do with their brand that clearly set them apart from other companies.  SAS is known for how well they treat their employees. 

I would argue that it is probably one of the biggest reasons that their products are great and they have such wide success without being a publicly traded company.  In an article by 60 Minutes called “Working the Good Life“, you find that the company has only 3% turnover, offers employees a 90% discount to the company owned country club,  has in-house social workers to help employees with problems and so much more.  They’ve developed a culture of creativity, innovation and results through treating people as if they are a valued, trusted resource.

Some of the intangible qualities that make up the UN-Brand

• Trust
• Transparency
• Authenticity
• Empathy
• Outlook and Attitude
• Creativity
• Culture
• Community Involvement
• Charisma

How to develop a great UN-Brand

Ask yourself the following questions to develop a great presence.

• How do we want to be perceived by customers, suppliers, vendors and employees?
• What are our Core Values?
• How do we want employees and customers to feel as a result of a business relationship or employment with our company?

Allow these three questions to be the platform of developing your mission and vision statements for your company and your brand.

The ends do not justify the means.  Attention to how we grow is just as important as the growth.  I challenge people to consider how they want to be perceived in the marketplace and think of those intangible qualities that go beyond efficiency and numbers.  Allow that desired perception to guide your brand as well.  While numbers and results are critically important, none of it matters if you, your company or employees have poor interactions, communication and encounters with clients and customers. 

Brands and companies are made up of living, breathing people who are interacting with other people to provide a product or service.  How your customers feel about the service along with the service itself keeps them coming back.  By attention to the how everything gets done, your desired perception and how you want people to, UN-Brand