Of 1000 concerns you may have for your business these days, your brand may not even make the list. But consider: what is more collaborative, inclusive or generous than a brand? 

What better forges relationships through trust, truth and promises delivered? So what needs to be more fully ship-shape, strong and sure, than your brand for when you return? Imagine the lost potential for a clear path forward for your business if it is not.

B2B companies that fully embrace their brands have always entered a different world. They see their businesses in wholly new dimensions and come to expect, even demand, far more from their brands as a result. Why? Arguably, because the effect of a brand on a business should be transporting, transformative, and thrilling; it should be comparable to the aesthetic effect Walter Pater believed art and beauty should have on human experience, arguably never more important than now:

A brand should rouse, startle and shape new thinking, attitudes and behaviors. It should ignite your enterprise internally with the power of your ethos and courage. It should stir new external audiences to sharper, more eager engagement because of your convictions. It should help shape the markets and cultures you operate in and make a statement about the human potential you impact.

How is this possible? What do you mean?

A brand consists of nine elements: all are intangible; all are continual sources of richness, renewal and abundance. Together, they capture a business’s


Why? How? What? and What Next?

• 
  
  Vision:
  
  
  where you want to be in 3-5 to 10 years; your NorthStar, where everyone in the company is headed
• 
  
  Mission:
  
  
  what everyone in the company needs to do to help make the Vision a reality
• 
  
  Promises:
  
  
  the guarantees you make to your audiences, and why they should believe you
• 
  
  Personality:
  
  
  as if a person, who is your company?
• 
  
  Target Audiences:
  
  
  the range of people who need to know you, choose you, prefer and refer you to others
• 
  
  Total Offering:
  
  
  in one to two sentences, what anyone gets if they knock on your front door; can everyone in the company convey this message?
• 
  
  Core Values:
  
  
  your ethos, the “glue” of the organisation
• 
  
  Name:
  
  
  is it clear, differentiating and memorable?
• 
  
  Positioning:
  
  
  your difference, your reason for being, why anyone should care?

This is not just a random list. You don’t get to select two or three elements or skip the hard ones. There’s an underlying, highly significant structure to the ordering, alignment and integration of all nine elements, and it is


an Octagon


: 

The timeless, universal power of an octagon

An Octagon, in and of itself, is a powerful, universal, timeless symbol variously signifying regeneration, totality, infinity, rebirth, transition and renewal. In Tao philosophy, an Octagon is used to capture the totality, integration and completeness of man and nature. For Christianity, an Octagon is used to capture renewal and rebirth in baptism and the sacraments. In branding, an Octagon captures completeness and renewal, wholeness and regeneration, at once a total system, integrating all the elements of a well-run organisation: business, marketing, communications and culture.

How does a Brand Octagon capture a company on one page? 

Start from the top, 12:00 to 6:00. Keep Positioning, your differentiation and reason for being, at the center holding all the elements together:

• The combination of vision, mission and positioning is the basis of a company’s business plan.
• From 2:00 to 8:00, the combination of targets, total offering and positioning is the basis of a company’s marketing plan.
• From 3:00 to 9:00, the combination of promises, personality and positioning is the basis of a company’s communications plan.
• From 5:00 to 11:00, core values, positioning and name, the combination is the basis of a company’s internal corporate culture. 

In less than 300 words, a Brand Octagon captures the organisation itself, its culture, strategies and purpose, and provides the organisation with a blueprint for its future. No silos, no lost efforts; only clarity, purpose, and unity for integrated strategies and cross-functional success.