Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Understanding Identity
Looking to eat chicken and waffle fries on a Sunday? Then choose a restaurant other than Chick-fil-A. The popular fast-food chain has been closed on Sunday since its humble beginnings in 1946. Leaders describe the policy as part of a "recipe for success." According to Chick-fil-A's founder, Truett Cathy, "I was not so committed to financial success that I was willing to abandon my principles and priorities. ... Our decision to close on Sunday was our way of honoring God and of directing our attention to things that mattered more than our business."
The Christian-based company has won numerous awards over the years, including being ranked fourth on Forbes' list of America's most inspiring companies in 2013 and seventh on Glassdoor's inaugural Top Company for Culture and Values list in 2014.
Chick-fil-A periodically faces scrutiny from those who feel its stance is too conservative. For example, in 2012 the company received great backlash from the gay community and its supporters because of its CEO's unwavering commitment to traditional marriage and donations to groups such as the National Organization for Marriage.
It made an exception to its "closed on Sunday" policy in Orlando, Florida, after the 2016 terrorist attack in a gay nightclub. Workers showed up to prepare and deliver food to first responders and citizens donating blood. A Facebook post on a local Chickfil-A page expressed this sentiment: "We love our city and love the people in our community. #prayfororlando."
The traditionally conservative business prioritized giving and kindness in Orlando. Chick-fil-A states on its website that giving has always been an important value, especially in times of crisis. Despite any past controversy, the public seems highly forgiving of America's favorite fast food restaurant. Loyal fans don't turn their backs.
The chain excels by having a laser focus on building customer loyalty and always giving people the same original Chick-fil-A Chicken Sandwich it created more than 50 years ago.
If you are impressed with Chick-fil-A's focus on values, you might also like KIND, the New York–based company responsible for the popular fruit and nut snack bars. Since its debut in 2004, KIND's sales have doubled each year. In 2014, more than 125,000 retailers carried the products, and more than 450 million KIND products were sold.
After considering several names for the company, including "Nirvana Now" and "Health Heaven," founder and CEO Daniel Lubetzky and his staff decided on the word KIND, which reflected the company's purpose "to be kind to our bodies, our taste buds, and the world." They deliberately chose a simple name that had a human connotation.
In his book, Do the KIND Thing, Lubetzky explains 10 well-documented tenets that reflect who KIND is, including items such as "transparency," "trust," "empathy," and "grit."
KIND uses its tenets for many different business and communication decisions. For example, to be transparent, the company deliberately chose to sell its bars in clear wrappers, which in 2004 was the opposite of what competitors in the snack food industry were doing. In another instance, to ensure a foundation of trust with customers, Lubetzky pushed back against the KIND design team who wanted to use fruit icons on the KIND website. He explained, "We don't use fake pictures of food. We don't even use photographs of ingredients, since most food companies have abused this technique so much that subconsciously consumers are already programmed to distrust them."
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) put KIND to the test in early 2015, sending Lubetzky a warning letter that some of KIND's products didn't meet the standards for using the word healthy in labels and marketing. Although KIND's labels had been the same since 2004, it seemed that the FDA now had concerns about fat content, likely the result of the amount of nuts in the bars. Dr. Willett, chair of the department of nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, called the FDA's move "well-intentioned but absurd."
Surprised and concerned, KIND chose to cooperate and work closely with the FDA rather than fight. In a blog post on the same day the FDA released the letter to the public, KIND shared directly with its community the FDA's warning and reassured its fans that it was working to fix any items deemed mislabeled. The post asserted the health of its products and linked to two outside articles that explained the nutritional value of nuts.
In December 2015, with the support of leading nutrition professionals, KIND wrote a thorough citizen petition asking the FDA to update its definition of "healthy" to match the latest research. Under FDA guidelines, Pop-Tarts met the definition of healthy; almonds did not. In May 2016, the FDA "re-evaluated" its previous decision and allowed KIND to return to the original packaging labels, including using the word healthy. The FDA also stated it would be reconsidering its definition of "healthy" in light of the newest nutritional research as well as the citizen petition.
Both Chick-fil-A and KIND understand identity and have unwavering commitments to theirs. And that's what we're here to talk to you about.
Identity in Today's World
Zombies can't rebound like Chick-fil-A and KIND can. They exist in a weird space between life and death without a clear sense of identity.
Sometimes it will take an identity crisis to see that your organization actually has an identity to start with. As humans, we can certainly relate to an identity crisis. You may have had one yourself.
Omigosh, I have a PhD. Now what?
I'm a mom. And I just quit my job. Oh boy.
Who ARE we anyway?
The truth is that we can be whomever we want. The information age — the digital world — allows for it. We have professional personalities on Twitter, individual personas on Facebook, visual platforms on Instagram, websites with trendy logos — you get the idea. Our identities were a whole lot easier to manage when it came down to just clothing and hairstyles.
The freedom we have to express ourselves is wonderful — limitless. But it can also lead to problems as we learn how to grow without the boundaries we once had.
Driving Without a License
If we asked a teenager to drive without a license, for example, it would mean asking her to operate a vehicle without requiring a certain level of self-understanding and knowledge about how to function behind the wheel of a car. We'd certainly be headed for trouble. Sure, the teen knows how to use her hands to open doors and her feet to kick a soccer ball, but that doesn't mean she's qualified to use those body parts to drive a car!
Humans have the physical and mental abilities required to drive vehicles but are not great drivers without attention, training, and practice. Organizations may be as unprepared as teenagers. But both individuals and organizations have the same opportunity: to take the basic knowledge of who they are and grow from there. Individual identity has been simply described as "what makes a person a person." An organization's identity, then, would be what makes an organization an organization. And organizations are a lot like people.
Starbucks and the Human Spirit
Starbucks, though somewhat misguided with its #RaceTogether campaign, is a great example of a human organization, because it aims to treat and respond to others in an authentic way that builds trust and friendship. "Emotional connection" is its focus, and even the little things — such as the name and logo — have human characteristics. Did you know the name "Starbucks" is based on a human character named Starbuck in the classic book Moby Dick? And Starbucks' logo includes a mermaid: a mythical creature with a human face.
These conscious choices help Starbucks avoid zombie-like behavior and focus on being more human. And "humanity" for Starbucks is actually the foundation of its identity. According to its mission, Starbucks exists "to inspire and nurture the human spirit — one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time."
In Onward: How Starbucks Fought for its Life without Losing its Soul, CEO Howard Schultz explained his perspective and how it relates to the experience customers have with its brand: "A well-built brand is the culmination of intangibles that ... contribute to its texture. ... Starbucks is at its best when we are creating enduring relationships and personal connections."
Following the economic recession in 2008, Starbucks posted the two slowest years of growth in its 40-year history, because it had focused so much on growth that the quality of its product and experience of customers was deteriorating. According to Schultz, "Confidence became arrogance, and, at some point, confusion as some of our people stepped back and began to scratch their heads, wondering what Starbucks stood for."
So what did Starbucks do?
First, it recommitted to its core vision, mission, and values. The company dedicated a large amount of time and resources to engage with customers on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. It took actions based on direct customer feedback from MyStarbucksIdea.com.
Second, Starbucks paid attention to what was happening in its stores. For example, it swapped all of its espresso machines to ones that sat lower on the counter so that "baristas and customers can visually and verbally connect."
Starbucks is now a turnaround story — not just surviving but doing better than before. Starbucks' customer loyalty continues to keep it ahead of smaller competitors and independent coffee shops.
The Starbucks brand and its brand loyalty are shaped by its identity.
Identity in the Big Picture
Here's how we see identity in relation to other familiar concepts:
Identity is constructed from core values. In the diagram, you can see that identity is the foundation that informs both an organization's culture and its brand(s). When identity is unique, or clear and very distinct, an organization will attract audiences that share its core values. Shared values greatly increase a sense of community and loyalty.
An organization's culture is a set of shared assumptions and behaviors adopted by the people within the organization. Culture is shaped by core values and reflected in how members of the organization relate to one another. Their interactions and behaviors demonstrate the values they share. In organizations that value being at ease, for example, high-five greetings or informal email salutations might be common among coworkers.
But it's easy to confuse identity with brand, especially because the words are used in many ways — sometimes interchangeably — by experts. The experts and professionals we talk to use all kinds of terms such as brand identity, brandpersonality, and organizational identity when talking about similar concepts. So the word brand has become somewhat tarnished — especially outside the communications industry. For example, in focus groups we led, participants often associated the word brand with "spin" or some kind of artificial superiority. This perception has created an additional barrier between the group of people who comprise the company and the very customers it wants to connect with. Why add an extra layer of complexity if it's unnecessary?
Identity vs. Brand
"There's a huge difference between identity and brand. They're not always synonymous. ... Brand is what you portray to the public, but identity is actually who you are." — Denise Haviland, executive director of marketing and strategic communications, Duke University
Denise Haviland, executive director of marketing and strategic communications, Duke University
Whether the word brand has a positive or negative connotation, it doesn't seem like a very human word. Anything that makes a company less human can affect customer experiences. Should corporate employees think about "our brand voice" or just "our voice"? Dropping the word brand is more human to us.
So we are writing about identity. And here's how we see it:
• Identity is based on your core values that are fairly fixed. These core values are the heart of your organization and influence what your organization does, what it looks like, and what it says. Identity is determined by an organization's members. Leaders often make the decision about what an organization's identity will be. For example, a business school's core values may include leadership, courage, and innovation.
• Identity is not an idea or creative concept that shows how you will sell your products or services. Identity is what you want your audiences to believe about you, because you believe it, too! Brand differs from identity in that it is often based on specific memories and experiences. Your brand is co-created with those outside of your organization: your customers, your affiliates, and others. The business school's branding may be oriented around this assertion: "We are the #1 business school for daring people who want to change the world." Brand is informed by identity. As a reminder, the school's core values are leadership, courage, and innovation.
• Large conglomerates often have what we see as an "umbrella identity." These organizations may create smaller brands; these brands always connect back to the company's identity. For example, Johnson & Johnson is responsible for brands such as Neutrogena and Band-Aid. Johnson & Johnson has core values that clearly guide the company, but we all have memories and experiences associated specifically with Band-Aid. We don't necessarily buy Band-Aids because its parent company touts the values of equality and respect or prioritizes customer service. We buy Band-Aids because they are high-quality products that keep bleeding under control and boo-boos safe from germs.
• In smaller organizations, brand and identity may feel practically indistinguishable. For example, dentists may build their brands based on the simplicity of their identities. But so might larger tech firms or even universities. Based on our experience, the majority of organizations may discover there is very little to separate identity and brand.
Yet we are less focused on brand in this book and more focused on identity. Here's why: You are completely in charge of your own identity. It's who your organization is now and who you are in the process of becoming. It influences what audiences think when it is used to guide everything your organization does.
Companies pour time, money, and energy into branding. But putting some of these resources into identity could be more efficient and have more impact. Your audiences want to know your identity — not just your brand idea. Companies that do not have clear, responsible sets of core values and apply these effectively come off as inauthentic and inhuman no matter how creative and flashy their branding efforts are. You'll avoid being a zombie if you refocus on your identity.
So where can you begin? Let's talk a little more about how you can gain perspective on your unique identity. In thinking about how to communicate identity, your organization has to consider what it stands for, its core aims, and how it is unique or sets itself apart from others. And then it needs to stick to that. Organizational identity guru Mark Rowden has thought of identity as a "fixed image within an otherwise moving world."
A Fixed Identity
"We very much stick to our identity. So I always say, when we're doing a proposal, if we lose a proposal because of we who are, I am very comfortable with that. I'd rather lose one being ourselves than win one trying to be what they want." — Peter Mitchell, CEO and chief creative officer, SalterMitchell
Strong identities are fixed — rooted in core values and stable. When it is solid, your identity can be used to justify your organization's ideas and actions. Johnson & Johnson, for example, has a long history of behaving in a way that is directly in line with its well-known values statement or business philosophy called "Our Credo." In it, Johnson & Johnson pledges "to put the needs and well-being of the people we serve first," citing its responsibility to the medical community, patients, consumers, employees, the community, and its stockholders (in that order). Statements such as "everything we do must be of high quality" clarify the company's core values. Johnson & Johnson declares the credo to be "more than moral compass." It's a "recipe for business success."
Originally written by General Robert Wood Johnson in 1943, Our Credo serves as a clear guidepost for Johnson & Johnson's communications. When several consumers died using Tylenol (one of the company's many well-trusted brands) laced with cyanide in 1982, its credo guided Johnson & Johnson's actions.
Though in no way directly responsible for the bottle tampering in the Chicago area, the company took immediate action to prioritize customers and product safety over profits when it pulled advertising and issued a massive nationwide recall of Tylenol capsules. Johnson & Johnson executives also kept in close contact with the media to reassure the public. The company pursued the development of tamper-resistant packaging, which would later become an industry-wide standard.
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Excerpted from "The Zombie Business Cure"
by .
Copyright © 2017 Julie C. LEllis, PhD and Melissa Eggleston.
Excerpted by permission of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC.
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