With every passing year, increasing numbers of Millennials are becoming both your customers and your employees. More than anything else, this generational cohort values the cultures of the businesses that employ them and from whom they buy products and services. If you’re not already focusing on solidifying your company’s brand and culture and communicating it consistently across all channels, your enterprise is sure to fall behind.

What is your company culture?

Not so long ago, little or no attention was paid to the concept of a company’s culture. People worked at or bought things from a business because the company was there at the time and met their needs. It wasn’t that loyalty didn’t exist, but it certainly did not have the magnitude it does today, nor was it so intrinsically connected to a store’s brand identity.

That identity is wrapped up in your company’s core values and mission. In simple terms, it’s the answer to the question, “Why are we here, what is important to us and what separates us from our competitors?” When you have established your “who,” your “why,” and your “what,” and can bring them to life for your stakeholders, people who agree with your mission will be highly motivated to join your team, buy your products and spread the word about your business.

How building a company culture will lead to success.

Taking the time to forge your company’s culture still may seem like an undertaking that’s not exactly worth your time. If you need more proof of why you should intentionally set out to mold your brand identity, consider the following advantages that doing so will bring to you, your employees and your customers.

• It makes you unique. These days, it seems like virtually everyone has decided to set up international payment processing, accept all types of currencies, and do everything else they can think of to spread the word about their store far and wide. However, all of that money and hard work will fall flat if global shoppers fail to see how these upstarts differ from the stores they already patronize. When you make an effort to define, establish, and promote your culture, people will quickly come to know what sets your brand apart from all the rest. When they figure out that you’re not just another version of what is already out there in multiple iterations, they are more likely to transfer their loyalty and business to you.
• It motivates and empowers your employees. Whether your staff work remotely or come into your physical store, they perform best and are happiest when they are passionate about their job and the company that employs them. Believing in your mission and being an active participant in communicating it to the world is extremely important to an increasing number of today’s younger workers. A business that is simply a faceless entity without a purpose will attract uninspired workers with little or no passion for their employer or the goods or services they sell. Without a doubt, this attitude is obvious to customers. Worst of all, it’s contagious, and it will ultimately spread to every corner of your operations.
• It provides a foundation on which you can build the staff you want for the long term. To a large extent, the skill set that a worker needs to do their job can be taught. There is even a strong case to be made for hiring a candidate with little knowledge so that you don’t need to spend time helping them to unlearn previous bad habits. On the other hand, you will quickly know whether a particular job seeker fits into your company’s established culture. This is a characteristic that cannot be “trained into” a person. If they are a fit, you already have one of the largest building blocks necessary for forming a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship with the candidate. Moreover, your investment in the new hire will pay for itself many times over because that person will quickly become an inspired ambassador for your brand.
• It creates fertile ground for referrals. Earlier in this article, we alluded to the power of persuasion that a strong company culture possesses. You will see it flower when happy customers highlight you on their social media pages, singing your praises as a strong advocate for sustainability, diversity, social justice, or whatever other cause or intention you have chosen to embrace. And that’s not all. Your staff, already passionate advocates of your brand and message, will naturally talk about their job and their excitement about your unique identity. In many cases, the result will be referrals of not just potential customers but also future employees.

A clear and robust company culture helps to keep you on a straight and consistent path even as your business grows and changes over time. Ongoing articulation of your core values ensures that you are much more likely to weave them into the fabric of any evolutions that your business undergoes.

When your company goes international: The need for mutual cultural awareness.

Taking your business global gives you exciting opportunities to expand your customer base and introduce your brand and merchandise to an entirely new group of people. As you set the stage to serve customers abroad, however, it is vital to remember that your company culture remains as important as ever. The challenge will lie in communicating it to potential clients who may be coming from a very different point of reference.

Don’t get us wrong; we’re not saying you should downplay or abandon your brand identity. The reality is that your culture may turn out to be your greatest strength, the thing that differentiates you from competitors in the local area. However, you need to come up with a way to communicate your mission and values to your foreign customers in ways they understand.

Unless you have spent years living in your new sales area, chances are good that you will be less than effective in figuring out how to communicate your brand and culture in ways that will inspire foreign customers. Your best bet is to invest in hiring a local consultant skilled at sounding out potential buyers. They will be much more equipped to know about local preferences and mindsets that may differ from yours and could cause your message to get lost in translation.

Your brand identity is the expression of what you see as most important. It drives you to excel, and it elevates you to a different level from your rivals. Do what is necessary to establish, nurture and promote this culture now, and you, your staff and your customers will soon reap the benefits.