The New Art of Brand Coaching
It’s the intangible aspects of a business that determine its future more so than the physical components of running a business
A company making the decision to dig into its brand, to ask existential questions about why it exists, what is its purpose, what are its values, what does it stand for is a rare occurrence. It’s rare, in part, because it requires a company’s leadership to step away from the day to day to sit in a comfortable room with various refreshments and goodies while meandering through lengthy conversations that are typically uncomfortable for those conditioned to focus on P&Ls, sales reports, and market studies.
Business has most always been about mechanical things that are predictable and controllable. While the intangible aspects of a company are hard to put a finger on. And yet, the intangible elements of a company determine to a large extent such things as employee engagement and turnover, the effectiveness of marketing, and the ability for a company to adapt to changing conditions.
The intangibles are what determines how effective a brand will connect with an audience and how far a manufacturing team will go to ensure quality and reliability. The intangibles are crucial to literally every aspect of a business.
Back in the mid 2000s there was a company by the name of Enron who had descended into criminality. Its descent took root when it was made known to the CEO that there were two brokers out of their New York office who had been running elicit side deals, cheating the company out of millions. Instead of promptly firing the two brokers the CEO made the decision to let it go because, as he cited, they brought too much money into the company to lose them.
That one decision created a climate in which criminality was not only allowed but encouraged. And from there the rest is history.
Articulating values and working steadily to infuse them into every aspect of a company is one of the most important endeavors a business owner or CEO can engage in. Including sitting in comfortable rooms or retreat centers exploring a brand vision and mission.
And yet, it’s rare.
It’s rare because it’s costly, as it typically requires the hiring of sophisticated brand agencies with a team of experts to guide the process.
It’s also rare because it’s uncomfortable for most business owners. It’s far more comfortable to talk about how to squeeze more profit out of a product line, or to explore new markets to penetrate, or to lose oneself in the excitement of putting out the latest fire. It’s more comfortable to focus on the urgent instead of the important.
Recent statistics on small business reveal that 99.9% of businesses are small businesses, and of those small businesses, 80% have no employees and only 16% have between 1 and 19 employees. That means that 96% of small businesses are extremely small and will likely never have the resources to engage in a kind of brand exploration process that would enable them to create more resonant brands and therefore more effective marketing.
Overlay this with the fact that 50% of new businesses fail within the first five years, 20% within the first year, while 42% of those failures are attributed to “lack of market demand.” Lack of market demand can also be roughly translated to ineffective marketing, or the failure to articulate an offering, or the failure to understand a market in the first place. All of which can be mostly averted with a deep dive into the intangibles of a business.
Enter 4 Directions Branding, our own small business providing brand strategy and design services at a level of sophistication typically offered by larger agencies for well into the six figures. Only we’ve figured out how to provide this valuable service for a fraction of the investment, making it financially accessible to the small business.
But there is still the time involved, and the conscious decision to take time away from the day-to-day to focus on the intangible aspects of a business, which is not just effort but uncomfortable effort.
So, we’re pivoting our focus away from a complete immersive process of overhauling brands to offering one-on-one coaching for business leaders. It’s a highly transformative way for business owners and CEOs to shift their thinking, deepen their strategy, and strengthen their brand resulting in more effective marketing, better performance metrics, stronger organizational culture, and more meaningful work.
It's a rare occurrence for us to pitch a service to our DEEPER side of things subscribers, but this pivot is important, if not for you maybe for someone you know who may be struggling with their business and are ready for a fresh change and a new direction.
The benefit of coaching is that it’s gradual, it doesn’t require a sizable investment of time and money, and over time achieves the same result — a transformed business successfully doing work that matters.
We scale our rates by size of business, we can work slow or fast, and we tailor our approach to the individual. It’s a way for small businesses to access the kind of sophisticated approach to brand building that has traditionally only been available to those with very deep pockets. Now it’s available to anyone interested in venturing into the intangible foundations of a business to unleash their full potential.
Our offer is that you pay only when you derive value, and we kindly ask for your testimonial in return. We ask you to trust us to deliver exceptional value, and we trust you to spread the word.
It takes courage to explore the intangible aspects of a business, and yet when we do it changes everything for the better. We believe in the power of small business to transform the broader economy, and the beauty of vision as expressed through small-scale entrepreneurs one business at a time.