Department Branding v. Company Branding

October 14, 2016 | 2016 Election: Make Your Vote Count

Think about each of the product or service lines in your company. When a company expands beyond one, there often gets to be confusion on how to market the business. Do you market each product/service line or the company as a whole? Oftentimes, one or two product/service lines get marketed, the others don’t get any attention and marketing of the company as a whole falls by the wayside. All of a sudden, prospects think the company only has one product/service line and there is little to no cross-selling happening.

This predicament can be dangerous for a company. Not only is the client not being fully serviced because there is probably more value that your company can provide in other departments, but also you are losing potential revenue from your easiest target audience your current clients. Worse yet — what if the other departments actively prospect your current clients without knowing they are al- ready current customers?

These scenarios are happening every day. Below are three things you can do to break down the silo thinking that could be happening in your business.

  1. Hire a consultant to meet with each department head and identify their top three goals.
  2. Host a strategic meeting with the department heads to review every- one’s goals. Identify commonalities among the goals and see where departments can help each other to reach their goals. Maybe one department is looking to grow in a market already tapped by another department.
  3. Assign goals to the company too, not just the departments. Each of the department heads has a responsibility to think beyond their department. Consider how the company as a whole should be presented. Is the company brand presented before the departments or is the company secondary to the department offerings?

If you have questions on this process, please reach out to us at 515-868-0240.

Michele Farrell
Partner, Measured Intentions
mfarrell@measuredintentions.com

Kathleen Riessen
Partner, Measured Intentions
kriessen@measuredintentions.com