Georgia Wraight, a strategic executive leader and former executive with Covetrus and The Rockport Group, discusses the importance of brand today, and shares tips on building brand trust for all stakeholders.
Building and sustaining a brand today is much more than a matter of price and product quality, Wraight says. It’s all about showcasing what a brand “stands for.”
Wraight advocates for a “360” approach to brand promotion — targeting not just customers, but all stakeholders, including vendors and, especially, employees. In the case of the last, she says, it’s important that they “know who you are, what you stand for, and am I proud to work for this brand. It’s an extension of your company.”
Do modern-day consumers, answering to the lure of Amazon.com, even care about traditional brands anymore? Wraight believes they do. Twenty years ago, she says, brand identity was all about its logo, colors and advertising. Today’s consumers, by contrast, “are just so much more discerning.” They want information on the brand’s ethical and sustainable practices, what the company is like to work for, and how it treats its employees. Brand, she says, “is starting to encompass an identity about how the company is showing up.”
Branding is just as important in the B2B world, Wraight says. “We’re all consumers. It doesn’t matter whether you’re leading a company or shopping for a TV.” Buyers of business products and services are keenly interested in the profile of the company that’s selling to them.
How should supply chain marketers “show up” with their brand? “The people you’re doing biz with should represent your company’s values,” Wraight says. “If you feel strongly about sustainability or ethical behavior, and have a strong voice, you should be shouting it from the rooftops. That’s who you are. That’s what people do business with.”
