Brand And Culture: Why You Can't Do One Without The Other

Years ago, we worked with a client whose greatest challenge was its brand. It was a strong, powerful, well-known and incredibly respected brand. Unfortunately, their culture didn’t live up to their brand. In fairness, they were so idealized it would have been tough for any culture to measure up, but they faced the unique problem of a near-toxic culture on the inside of a glimmering brand.

There is an important lesson here, of course, and it’s the relationship between experience and expectation. I originally wrote about this concept in Bringing Work to Life by Bringing Life to Work: When there is a match between expectation and experience (for example, I thought the food at the restaurant would be good and it was), people will generally be satisfied. On the other hand, when experience is better than expectation, people will be delighted (I didn’t expect much from that little diner, but the food and the service were amazing). Worst-case is when we have high expectations and they aren’t met (despite their five-star rating, the place was terrible).