Most CEOs and virtually all marketing directors know the importance of developing a corporate brand. The corporate brand helps quickly communicate information about a company's personality, quality and commitment to excellence among other things. What most company leaders don't understand or know how to achieve is how to infuse their brand identity deep into their corporate culture.

A brand initiative, done correctly, can have a long-lasting positive influence on a company; as well as its management, employees, customers and suppliers.

IDEAS4 can advise and consult at the top levels to train corporate leaders about the importance of brand leadership. In addition, IDEAS4 can coordinate, facilitate and/or execute the brand strategy in marketing materials, websites, advertising, as well as internal communication techniques to facilitate brand acceptance and use.

Where most companies fail to use a brand opportunity correctly is in three key places: 

• By incorrectly defining the meaning of 'brand' in the first place 
• By inventing a brand for your organization that is false or unachievable
• By not having senior management live and breathe the brand

A corporate brand is much more than a logo or themeline used in ads or a mission or motto that the CEO recites from time to time at company meetings.

A brand is in fact how a company 'feels' (what it says and does consistently) not just what a company "looks like." It is the essence of a company's soul; its belief systems, philosophy, commitment to excellence and its love or distain for customers and suppliers all rolled into one fleeting moment of opportunity when your customer thinks about you.

The essence of your brand identity should be reflected in your logo, themeline and mission, not the other way around.