Green Organizations: Building a Brand Identity

The word is out: everyone wants to be green. The green business sector is flooded with consultants and service providers, all competing for a corner of the market. Established brands are making an effort to appear environmentally friendly, and new businesses have appeared to satisfy the growing need for green products and services.

Amid the chaos of reputable and not-so-reputable value propositions, consumer perception is everything. New green organizations must develop a solid brand identity—a company with even a hint of instability or vagueness of purpose runs the risk of being brushed aside in favor of a company with a clear message. Existing organizations can add green elements to their brand to strengthen the appeal for customers who are interested in environmentally-friendly business practices.

What is a Brand? 

A brand encompasses everything from the public perception, experience, logo, sales collateral, sales process, customer service, physical and digital environments, and the customers’ experience of the product. A strong brand permeates an organization at all levels, ensuring that the experience is consistent throughout.

Brand Promise

The driving force of brand identity is the brand promise, which should express the main purpose of your organization in the simplest possible form. This core idea should inform all subsequent brand decisions, from visual choices to internal and external engagement. A specialized engineering firm, for example, might choose “environmentally friendly materials engineering” as a core idea. The phrase would inform each business aspect, from logo design to purchasing choices to sales decisions. It should guide employees at all levels, from the way the receptionist answers the phone to the materials selected by the project manager.

For established brands, changing the core idea can be an extensive process because of the existing materials, spaces, and internal engagement; organizations must completely rebrand or choose a concept that fits with the original core idea. An engineering firm looking to add a green aspect to their services might simply change a core idea of “affordable engineering” to “affordable green engineering.” The change is simple, but the organizational implications are complex.

Brand Message

The brand message is the public expression of a brand idea. Think of it as an elevator speech: the 30-second answer employees would give in response to the question, “What does your organization do?” A strong brand message is clear, focused, and resonates with everyone in the company. Likewise, it should be easily understood and leveraged by each employee and used across marketing media. For both new and existing organizations, a brand message should sum up the core idea and services in a concise, memorable manner.

In the green sector, which is overwhelmed with vague ideas about “greening up” your business or home, a specific, memorable message is even more valuable. To help identify a brand promise and brand message, consider the following questions:

• What does your organization do? How do they do it?
• What type of company do you want to be known as, from a philosophical point of view?
• What does your organization do better/more affordably/more efficiently than competitors?
• Can all employees articulate clearly and succinctly what the organization does?
• What does your organization bring to the green sector?
• How can your organization help reduce customers’ environmental footprints?
• What is memorable about working with your organization?
• What challenges or problems do you encounter during a project?
• What green business practices does your organization practice internally?

Visual Identity

The visual identity of a brand is often the first contact a potential customer has with an organization, be it through a website, brochure, or advertisement. In the green market sector, a strong visual identity is key to a strong brand—in a group of green logos with leaf-shaped marks, a new organization must stand out from the crowd.

The visual identity is an integral part of the brand experience. The graphic elements, anchored by the logo, should support the brand promise and brand message, and should work together to create a recognizable visual identity.

Visual brand identity should be carried across all documents, including:

• Website
• Brochure
• Letterhead and business cards
• Invoices and contracts
• Notepads
• Email signatures
• Signs
• Truck signs
  

Internal Brand Engagement

After the perception of a brand is addressed with a strong brand promise carried through to visual elements, the next step in strengthening the brand is internal engagement; if employees don’t believe in the company brand, they will not be able to communicate it to customers. If your brand is about reducing corporate energy consumption, for example, your employees should be asking themselves what that might mean for the customer.

For more information, please contact:Monte Consulting at info@monte.net or visit their website: www.Monte.net. Phone: 906.482.3720