Building Brand Equity And Buy-in
Rather than merely discussing superficial brand aspects like logos, fonts and color charts, let’s delve into the essence of building your chamber’s brand equity. I like to keep things simple. In short, your brand is your promise. Brand equity is the degree to which your target markets believe in what you are promising.
A successful brand integrates the core elements of a chamber's identity beyond just its events, programs, and services. Simon Sinek, in his book Start with Why?, introduced the concept of The Golden Circle (below), emphasizing that getting buy-in - inspiring staff, volunteers, members and all stakeholders to take action - requires clarity of purpose, principles, and activities. Successful chamber brands both articulate and balance messaging of the "Why?" (purpose), "How?" (guiding principles and beliefs), and "What?" (activities and offerings).
Dynamic Brand Equity Formulas
If Events + Experiences > Expectations,
Brand Equity GROWS.
If Events + Experiences < Expectations,
Brand Equity SHRINKS.
We can take the Golden Circle learnings and apply it to brand equity. As highlighted in the formulas above, brand equity is dynamic and hinges on delivering experiences that surpass stakeholders' expectations. By aligning actions with purpose and principles, chambers can enhance brand equity, leading to increased engagement and investment.
While the specific purpose of a chamber’s “Why?” may vary, many revolve around fostering enterprise, economic growth, and community prosperity. This purpose inspires smart risk-taking, job creation, and technological advancement for example and is often communicated to stakeholders through the chamber’s strategic plan. Similarly, many chambers have systems and communication protocols in place to consistently deliver high quality events, webinars and business services, its “What?”, for example. Where chambers sometimes fall short is in defining and communicating their “beliefs” or guiding principles. Chambers believe in many things, however, it is important to choose a handful that will inspire your stakeholders to action, be it taking membership, signing the sponsorship cheque, or engaging in a way that leverages their skills and expertise. Let’s take a closer look.
Common guiding principles that chambers of commerce market as their beliefs include:
Private enterprise as a force for positive change.
Job creation is essential for social well-being.
Respect for the earth and sustainability.
Entrepreneurship and innovation build community prosperity.
Politicians should be held accountable for promises and decisions.
Ethical business practices build trust.
Expressing these beliefs can enhance engagement and investment in the chamber's cause. Additionally, other techniques to communicate what the chamber stands for is to answer two strategic questions: “What breaks the chamber’s heart?”, to identify Heartbreakers and the question “What really upsets the chamber of commerce?”, to identify Upset Triggers. Both provide insight into the chamber’s priorities, concerns and points of view, all of which if properly communicated, can inspire action among stakeholders .
Heartbreakers and Upset Triggers
For example, heartbreakers for many chambers include economic stagnation, high unemployment rates, environmental degradation, gender inequality, inequitable policies, excessive regulations, and lack of support for start-ups.
Likewise, upset triggers encompass issues like lack of government accountability, inadequate support for entrepreneurs, corruption, discrimination, and policies detrimental to the business environment.
By better balancing the narrative with purpose, beliefs, guiding principles, heartbreakers and upset triggers, chambers stand a greater chance of success in the current economic climate.
Although these sentiments and priorities may vary, from chamber to chamber, based on local context and membership needs, it is true that articulating the "Why?" and "How?" alongside the "What?" can strengthen brand equity, engagement, and investment in your chamber.
