As a firm or a business-of-your-own, you are to create an even voice of your brand that resonates with your brand’s value system, culture, attributes, soul. And while it’s trite to say that your customers are the ones who pay for your brand’s offerings, but there’s more to a definition of a customer than what we think it fundamentally is.

In today’s co-create economy, your business will profit from innovative and strategic collaboration, as rightly mentioned in the book, ‘Co-Create’ authored by David Nour. And what does this imply for defining your brand’s customers?

Your supply partners, investors, literal customers, employees, the media – everyone who experiences your brand’s value – all are your customers, as they consume and buy into your offerings.

Now that we know who these customers [aka key stakeholders] of your brand’s value are, here are two ways in which you can solidify your brand narrative with a holistic outlook towards your organization and your larger ecosystem in which your brand operates.

  • Deepen your existing stakeholder relationships. Your brand’s internal and stakeholders are already experiencing your brand’s value in some form, so why not deepen the loyalty with them to understand their perspective about your organization to co-create value that is more impactful than just mere product/ service value that your offer? It’s no more about product/ service attributes and fancy value prepositions that don’t serve the longevity of your brand’s stickiness among your customers. It’s about contextualizing your narrative that speaks your stakeholders’ minds. Think like your stakeholders –and soon your stakeholders will be in the ‘loop’ of creating a succession of your brand’s journey in the form of an experiential brand narrative. In the book, David Nour talks about reverse perspective – seeing the world through other’s eyes. For example, Hoplamazium triggered a profound shift in the way hotels conventionally refer their customers as guests, however, to think more deeply, the hotels are the guests in your lives. And this is precisely how you should imagine how your brand communicates internally and externally: through relational focus and customer-driven thinking and experience journey.

 

  • Focus on building the creative capacity of your employees. Seek buy-in from your employees across silos and business units to contribute their employee journey experience. Not many employees feel ‘inclusive’ or a part of something in which they can exercise their personal creative capacity to narrate their brand experience with your organization. Google does this brilliantly by helping its employees allocate a percentage of time in pursuing their passion projects. Result? Positive company reviews, more and better talent attraction, improved brand influence – and all things ‘earned’ through creative freedom for [its] employees. So, enable a way in which your employees become your best brand narrators: that helps your brand’s intent to illuminate in your business goals, aspirations – and most importantly, in your ‘Why.’ Even if you are a solopreneur, it starts with your ‘Why,’ and then follow these two points in the context of your business and economics.

 

That said, your brand narrative is not about you, but about how your ‘Why’ can make the ‘How’ of your value consumers more simplified and useful.

In what ways are you improving your brand narrative?