Herculean tasks, rooted values

Are you feeling a bit like Hercules these days? I wouldn’t be surprised if you do.

The precipice of the spring selling season requires a lot of heavy lifting as you begin sending volumes of plants across thousands of miles. Plants you’ve grown with love and care and nurtured with passionate dedication to doing the job right. Early-season deadlines require executing impressive Herculean feats in short order.

Keeping your company’s values-based messaging front and center while your mind focuses on juggling multiple tasks seems like busywork, especially when you’re in the trenches and facing multiple deadlines. But make no mistake: brand messaging is much more than marketing speak — it’s delivered through words, deeds and actions.

Brand messages are the essence of the plants you work hard to produce. They’re a cross-check that your nursery’s operations are in line with company values. Before you send those plants off to market, check your messaging. Company values matter, perhaps today more than any other time in history.

Am I asking you to remember who you are and what your brand stands for while you’re knee deep in pulling plants for the loading dock? You bet. In fact, intention equals values, and intention is the first step in defining your company’s vision and mission.

Don’t play whack-a-mole

Consistently communicating brand values through thought, word and deed is the secret sauce of marketplace success. It’s safe to say that the majority of us prefer to do business with vibrant brands that invest in people and with companies that stand for something beyond sales for sales’ sake.

When I facilitate message development workshops for green industry brands, I require everyone with a stake in the company’s reputation to unanimously agree on its vision, intention (or core values) and mission. Unanimous agreement about the words used and how they’re delivered is critical because staff and leadership both represent the brand to the customer.

Without unified messaging, leadership often finds itself fighting a multi-headed hydra of internal confusion. They may solve one communication mishap, but one or two more may sprout in its place. Hercules needed a clear strategy and a focused partner to defeat the beast. Teams need the same through a clearly stated mission, otherwise they’ll be playing whack-a-mole.

The process of message development can be painful because, in my experience, leadership and staff are often on surprisingly different pages about the brand’s public perception and marketplace reputation. When the team is not in sync with the company’s vision, mission and values, lack of brand clarity results in confusion, lost sales, frayed customer trust and weakened brand reputation — nobody wants that.

Meaningful growth seeps through every aspect of business operations when everyone on the team is invested in the company’s mission and its vision and values.

It begins with vision

Implemented strategically, values-based messaging informs every function of the business. This includes strategic and financial planning; hiring, training and employee retention; leadership accountability; and day-to-day conversations and tasks.

Company messaging is a reliable tool for ensuring that everything you do points back to the established vision and mission. If you already have developed messages in place, keep track of their daily use and revisit them often for relevancy. Not long ago, a client did this and found that while their company’s messaging had not fundamentally changed, they needed to add a new value statement.

When creating or revising messages, ask participants to discuss aspects and nuances of the brand’s vision, values and mission. Then, wordsmith the results into true, clear and concise statements. Messaging is always short and straightforward, easy to say and typically no more than two sentences.

We start with vision, which answers the question, “Where do we want to be in the future?” It underlines the company’s objective by speaking to the ideal, the North Star, the destination 10 or more years out. Not a marketing slogan (like Nike’s “Just do it”), vision is a clear statement that declares how the brand defines its customer experiences now and for the long-term. Think of Nike’s “to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world” or Disney’s “to make people happy.”

Intention follows and is, at its heart, value based. Intention describes the company’s principles, behavioral standards and core philosophies. It includes non-negotiables such as integrity, transparency and empathy. It generates goodwill. Intention speaks to brand stewardship and the company’s commitment to intangibles like industry, education and service. Intention includes visceral emotions the company wants customers to experience as a result of their brand transactions. Examples are Patagonia’s “We’re in business to save our home planet” and Campbell’s “Connecting people through food they love.” While vision looks to the horizon and mission focuses on the here and now, intention speaks to the brand’s nuances.

Create a transparent framework

Next is mission — a stake in the ground that defines the now. Mission is the company’s purpose or reason for being in the marketplace. Mission statements define what the company does, who it serves and why it’s unique. For example, Disney’s mission is “to entertain, inform and inspire people around the globe through the power of unparalleled storytelling.” Another is Seventh Generation’s: “the nation’s leading brand of non-toxic and environmentally safe household products.”

Brand messages are active, actionable threads that weave through every internal and external transaction on a daily basis. Without a defined mission that is informed by vision and intention, a company can easily drift into markets that don’t align with the brand’s core strengths.

Core messaging creates a transparent framework for every internal and external business decision. When measured against this framework, transactions are in line with brand values. Internally, budgeted dollars spent on labor, equipment and inventory make sense. Externally, transparency in customer interactions builds trust and loyalty.

Trust and integrity are primary drivers in business retention. When a company’s mission emphasizes transparency, quality standards or production certifications, the brand’s baseline reputation is set. Customers are also more likely to buy from companies that share their values.

If a company value is empathy in strong customer relationships, every interaction must support that claim. But if a team member forgets the customer’s expectation of behavior, there’s going to be a dent in the relationship. When messaging matches output, trust increases. The cost of acquiring new customers decreases because your reputation precedes you.

Speak promises of brand truths

I’ve spent decades advising clients as they’ve grown recognizable green brands. I’m proud that two of those brands began life pretty much unknown. Today, they are recognized internationally. Their success is due to their vision, values and mission, which center on the experiences customers can expect to have with their brands.

Statements of vision, values and mission are promises. They speak to the experiences customers and consumers will have with your brand. Making sure company messages are relevant, active and true requires continual checks and training. Is your team comfortable with including them in their work? If not, ask why and be open to potential changes.

Messages are never meant to be carved in stone. Vision, values and mission may need to evolve as time and outside factors dictate the way consumers and customers think about products and services. That’s why monitoring culture, understanding customer needs and behaviors and listening attentively to outside influencers is critical homework.

As you step up to the loading dock to commence with the season’s heavy lifting, keep in mind that your brand’s greatest strength goes beyond the short season deadline. The company’s strength is really in your brand’s legacy.

Maintaining brand integrity during the spring rush is a Herculean feat. But the most successful companies know that when their values are as rooted as their plants, they aren’t just moving inventory. They’re growing a brand that stands the test of time.