085: Successful Brand Strategy Needs the Right Company Culture

IDG is the world's largest tech and data company, or some such big descriptor, and is a large global Fortune company. Like other companies, it has a culture and it has a brand; yet, the two were misaligned. Sound familiar? We've done a Culture Series on The Heart of Marketing where we explore how culture aligns with brand and mission, vision, values. IDG looked across its corporation and realized how siloed it had become. Customers knew one specific product solution, but had no idea about others the company offered. That's a branding fail! No cross selling could occur well. There was splintered messaging, employees were uninformed, there was no chief marketing officer at the helm, and a series of other 'nots.' It was time to take action, and how did IDG do so on a global platform? EMPLOYEES. A very grassroots approach using employees was how IDG launched a brand culture revamp. Brand Ambassadors were its secret sauce, and these people were not from the marketing department!  The brand ambassadors were authentic, and became authentic influencers, too. This episode is a must-listen because it's a perfect example that you can't be too large and still need to align brand culture with mission, people, vision, customer, and values. Right? You Might Like Brand Amplification with @danielghebert of Post Beyond Our co-host @digitaljgo shares his rebrand story The pros and cons of patriotic branding