Building a brand's personality

Lesley Everett, a leader in personal branding and executive reputation management, has worked with major brands from every sector and industry providing workshops and delivering keynote speeches.

Her latest book, Corporate Brand Personality, teaches organisations to develop a strong brand presence through a company culture that stems from their employees.

The book begins with loss of trust, the universal problem affecting business today – and indeed all manner of authority. Everett suggests that brands tackle this despondency by demonstrating good values with genuine and honest communication at every stage of the business journey; from the supplier to the consumer.

In today’s environment, brands cannot afford to communicate dishonestly; their promises must hold up to scrutiny, whether that be online or face-to-face. Everett uses Tesco as an example, she says, “Tesco ask their drivers to bring their personality to work – they want them to be authentic and project their personal brands.” Ultimately, Tesco uses its staff to deliver on its overarching brand promise, ‘great place to work, and iconic service’. More often than not, employees are a business’ primary touchpoint with its public.

Corporate Brand Personality also covers employer brand, leadership – including personal branding – and other key brand and reputational issues. As with all branding exercises, identifying the brand is the first step, implementing that into an organisation’s culture is the next and maintaining that standard is the final step. A strong brand will feed outwards and have a positive affect on results.

Everett puts an organisation’s people at the heart of its brand. As, Sir Clive Woodward says in his foreword, “We buy from people, not companies. This is a fact that runs through this book from beginning to end.”

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