I promised to report back on the reaction to our mini white paper on “Does this soft stuff matter?” among the senior leadership team.
It was a gratifying experience. The “brand framework” provided a clear model for debate around what the relevant messaging was for external audiences versus internal audiences. It demonstrated why not every expression of the brand needs to tell the whole story (the reason why previous versions of the vision, mission, promise, value proposition, positioning etc had all sounded pretty much the same). And it reinforced the need for simplicity - agreeing on a single idea that they could make their own.
There remains a healthy level of debate about what that single idea is, and how it should be expressed. But the path to getting there is now clear.
