It’s hard to get somewhere without clear directions. The same holds true to getting the right culture.Developing a culture prompts youto lookat both your internal and external visual and verbal communication. At MESH, we believe that this starts with a strong and identifiable brand, then mission andvision. Here are our three steps to clearly define who you are, how you act and where you are going as an organization.
1. Brand
If you know who you are talking to andwhat your key difference is, it’s very easy to move ahead and define the personality of your brand. The key difference also allows you to nail down whatis most important to your team and your customers. We believe that the brand should be defined in a statement withno more than five words. It should speak directly to your key difference and to your audience, as well as give a peek into the personality of the organization.If you look through our brand studies, you’ll notice that each brand is centered around a three- to five-word statement.
Example
MESH Brand Statement: “Creativity at Work™“
This tells us that the company finds unique solutions to working challenges. By using the word “Creativity,” the reader knows we aren’t a stuffy organization. We like to work and have fun doing the work.
2. Mission
Once thebrandis defined, we develop the company’s mission. We do things very differently here at MESH where mission is concerned. We believe that the mission of the company should define the behaviors that will get us to the vision of the company. In other words, “If you do these things (mission), you’ll get this result (vision). We also believe that the mission statement needs to be short and sweet, so that the staff and even clients remember it and behave according to it.
Example
MESH Mission Statement:Serve. Be Authentic. Go Beyond.
Serve – we serve each other and our clients. Service is at the heart of how we act.
Be Authentic – we tell the truth, both in our day-to-day interactions and through the visual and verbal communication we develop for brands. We create meaningful andauthentic brands.
Go Beyond – we want everyone who works with MESH to feel like they have been delivered something above and beyond what they were expecting. It’s easier to keep clients than seek newclients.
3.Vision
As mentioned, the vision is the result of our brand and mission. When we develop a vision statement, we think of who we want to become. We typically set a time limit on it as well. Yep, this is different than most; but hey, so are we. In a practical sense this works well.
Example
MESH Vision Statement: To become the Gulf South’s premier agency by 2020.
This statement holds our feet to the fire, while giving us parameters, both geographically and from a timeline perspective. It also reiterates our audience in a broad sense and defines who we want to become.
At MESH, we believe that marketing and communications is the most important function of business. Our clients hire us as consultants first to help them solve complex business challenges through marketing and communications. We believe that if these three things are well-defined, you’re starting with a rock-solid foundation to either create or recreate the meaning and purpose of your organizations.