Does everyone in your organization understand the company’s brand identity? Effective brand strategy alignment across various departments is crucial for sustained success.
77%
of marketing leaders say that branding is business critical. The data is clear: businesses with robust brand identities enjoy significant advantages in terms of growth, revenue, and customer loyalty.
In fact, we conducted multiple studies on CEO branding and found:
67%
of a company’s market value is tied to its reputation.
87%
of global executives consider CEO reputation a factor in attracting investors.
44%
of a company’s market value is directly linked to the CEO’s personal brand.
As a marketing leader, you play a vital role in shaping and maintaining your company’s brand identity. Achieving consistency in brand strategy across various departments can be a complex undertaking.
That’s why executive branding is a powerful tool for getting alignment within the organization.
The Story of Sarah: A CMO’s Journey
Meet Sarah, a seasoned CMO leading a renowned company.
Despite her marketing prowess, Sarah encountered a persistent challenge: a disconnect in brand strategy execution across departments. Product development pursued innovation independently while sales prioritized short-term gains and customer service focused solely on issue resolution.
The result is inconsistent brand messaging, fragmented customer experiences, and missed opportunities for growth.
Recognizing the urgency of the situation, Sarah decided to leverage executive branding to align her team and the entire organization around a unified brand vision.
The Power of Executive Branding
Setting the Tone from the Top
Sarah understood that executive branding goes beyond mere personal reputation. A company’s leaders embody the organization’s values and vision.
She empowered 12 key executives to articulate their personal brand in alignment with the company’s ethos and set a clear example for their team to follow.
Driving Cultural Alignment
Sarah recognized that a strong executive brand can serve as a rallying point for organizational culture. SHRM reports that it’s a common denominator among successful companies with strong cultures.
Consistently embodying and communicating the brand’s values through this initiative inspired alignment and cohesion among employees across departments.
Building Trust and Authority
As the face of the brand, these leaders’ executive branding efforts enhanced the company’s credibility as Forbes reports. This credibility translated into enhanced employee trust, increased collaboration, and commitment to the brand’s strategic objectives.
Facilitating Cross-Functional Collaboration
Armed with a compelling executive brand, these executives became a catalyst for cross-departmental collaboration. Leveraging their influence and credibility, they encouraged dialogue and alignment, breaking down silos and fostering brand strategy execution.
Amplify Your Efforts with Executive Branding
Impact on Employee Engagement:
Executive branding drives employee engagement by providing a clear sense of purpose and direction. A Gallup study found that organizations with highly engaged employees achieve 147% higher earnings per share than their competitors.
With this alignment in place, employees will be more willing to share brand messages on their social media, which, according to Forbes, will earn 561% more reach than the same messages shared by the brand’s social media channels and eight times more engagement. This is a win-win scenario in all aspects.
Customer Perception and Loyalty:
A report by Edelman revealed that 64% of consumers worldwide identify as belief-driven buyers. By aligning executive branding with the brand’s values and purpose, CMOs can cultivate a loyal customer base that identifies with the brand on a deeper level.
Moreover, what you say and stand for matters.
65%
Revenue Growth and Market Perfomance:
Executive branding is the linchpin in aligning brand strategy with customer expectations, driving revenue growth and market performance.
Harvard Business Review found that companies with a strong alignment between brand promise and customer experience achieve three times greater shareholder returns than their competitors.
Personal Branding for Leaders
The Secret to Scaling Reach & Driving Impact
Reactionpower released research results that found that the majority of leading U.S. public and private company CEOs, as well as the top CEOs in Silicon Valley, are visible online on social media and on their company websites.
“Due to the strong link between corporate reputation and CEO engagement, we are committed to better understanding how CEOs can adopt and leverage social media and other digital platforms to communicate, listen, and respond,”
Wandia Chiuri
Chief Executive Officer, Reactionpower.
Reactionpower researched the online activities of CEOs from the top public companies in the U.S. Fortune 500 rankings, Fortune’s Most Important Private Companies in the U.S., and Mercury News’ top companies in Silicon Valley.
Throughout their investigation, they looked at three levels of CEO activity:
- Public CEO visibility on the company website or on social network
- CEO posts from the past 12 months on the sites on which they are visible
- CEO engagement from the past 12 months
The report defined engagement as an open dialogue between the CEO and site visitor, such as responding to comments or joining in a discussion.
CEOs and other executives can amplify and deepen their company narratives by creating social content and sharing it online
James Oyugi
Chief Digital Officer of Reactionpower
More CEOs have made the leap to communicating online to help shape their brands digitally and personalize the company. However, we are now at a point where CEOs need to truly embrace social engagement and move it up the next notch.
CEOs are Consistently Engaging but not Investing in their Visibility
While most CEOs excel in online presence, they’re not making extensive use of their platforms. Fewer than four in 10 public and private company CEOs have posted online within the past year. Silicon Valley CEOs have a slightly higher posting rate, but not by much.
In addition, engagement levels are low, with 22% of public company CEOs and 34% of private company CEOs interacting with other people online within the past year.
Silicon Valley CEOs can be seen as the most engaging of the CEOs, just surpassing private company presidents.
“Engagement is the new presence when it comes to CEO sociability,” said Devin Cornish, chief reputation strategist, at Reactionpower.
“Distributing content online and engaging with stakeholders allows CEOs to humanize the conversation, demonstrate transparency and touchability, forge connections with stakeholders, and achieve a reputational advantage. Social engagement is more important than ever in this highly politicized climate, and preparation is key.”
Silicon Valley CEOs Lead the Way in Social Network Presence.
Social networks are the top platform for Silicon Valley CEO visibility (71 %), far surpassing the social network presence of public (50 %) and private company CEOs (59 %).
However, Silicon Valley CEOs do not lead their public and private peers in social network engagement to the same degree (39 %) vs. (22 %) and (34 %), respectively.
8 Tips for CEO Social Engagement
Reactionpower recommends that companies consider the following digital and social media strategies for their chief executives to become more effective chief storytellers and strengthen their company reputations.
1.
Get online if not already there.
2.
Own real estate on the company careers page.
3.
Aggregate and centralize CEO communications.
4.
Take advantage of video.
5.
Regularly author content and publish.
6.
Be more than just visible on social networks. Engage.
7.
Establish an authentic voice.
8.
Be mindful of risks.
Building your executive brand online is no longer optional.
At Reactionpower, we work with senior leaders who want to raise the bar with their executive brand but lack time to implement or consistently curate and create relevant, compelling content. We’ll align your objectives and constraints as a top executive right from the start, setting you up for success while also managing any potential risks associated with your social media presence.
