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When it comes to building a successful business, scalability is more important than growth.
Growth is defined as the addition of resources at the same pace as income is being generated. So, for example, a firm that gets a client and employs additional employees to support them would increase revenue at the same speed as it increases costs. Such a situation is common in many professional services-driven company strategies. Thus, even though the firm is theoretically growing, it is not expanding.
Scale refers to the process of increasing income at a quick pace while simultaneously increasing resources at an incremental rate. Google, Salesforce.com, and Citrix are just a few examples of organizations that have expanded effectively. To achieve continuous growth and profit expansion over time, they have perfected the formula for rapidly gaining customers while requiring fewer resources than their competitors.
To sustain steady revenue growth and prevent stall points, it is necessary to create business models and construct your organization in a readily scaled manner. This is accomplished without incurring a significant amount of additional expense and resources along the way. Here are some approaches to consider when you examine brand scaling and authenticity and some examples to get you started.
Brand Scaling and Authenticity Best Practices
Designate an owner of company culture
As long as there is involvement, there is no need to be formalized or tightly defined. Not only is it this person’s responsibility to ensure that your eccentric corporate culture remains intact, but it is also their responsibility to establish a friendly, inclusive atmosphere that makes it enjoyable and straightforward for new workers to mingle with older ones. The business culture you admire will continue to exist and flourish due to this decision, without the need for embarrassing bonding trips or mandated happy hour gatherings.
In the case of AirPR, the Chief Strategy Officer, for example, wears this hat regularly. This has been beneficial to the company as they have swiftly expanded the company. So my recommendation is to identify those individuals who are naturally suited to creating and supervising culture and then empower them to take on the responsibility.
Automate important tasks
In the beginning stages of your entrepreneurial career, you don’t spend a lot of money. However, when your business grows, you should invest in automation to make it simple to add someone to your payroll and onboard new employees, and explain their advantages in an organized manner. Essentially, prioritize the use of the most up-to-date technologies. Overall, saving five minutes an hour of an engineer’s time is well worth the investment — and will also assist you in one of your new obligations as a growing company: customer retention.
Create a single source of truth
When your company is small, it is possible to get away with being a bit sloppy in your operations. Naturally, this is not ideal, but if there are just a few people in charge — and they are accessible — you will most likely be able to receive the information you want by simply making a phone call.
However, suppose your company has more than a handful of workers. In that case, it’s critical to have all of your business data and documents saved in a central location rather than scattered among multiple people’s inboxes and folders.
Try to find a solution that makes all of your essential papers available to those who need them. And the organization is critical in terms of accessibility; if something is kept on a server or in the cloud, but you can’t locate it, it’s as if it doesn’t exist. Every minute you spend centralizing and organizing your company’s data may save you hours down the road that you would have spent searching things down or recreating them from scratch otherwise.
Invest in technology that enhances communication
Slack has transformed the way we communicate with one another. The sophistication of email systems has increased over time. Project management software ensures that all activities are visible and responsible. Communicating effectively—with coworkers, across teams, and with customers—is essential to the success of any organization, and reducing the way we communicate is an effective method to maximize production.
Set communication priorities, invest in the appropriate technology (or technologies, albeit the more you can link your systems, the better), and ensure everyone is on board with the strategy and implementation.
Allow for remote workers and distributed workplaces
Employees are increasingly appreciating—and in some cases, expecting—the choice to telecommute. Yet, in many ways, the companies that provide it are still catching up with the rest of the world in terms of technology. (Can you tell me how long we’ve been buying, socializing, and watching movies on the internet?)
Remote employment has the potential to be beneficial to both the employee and the company. You may, for example, reduce company overhead costs by leasing a smaller office space if a substantial proportion of your workers work from their own homes.
Another advantage is that you may locate more talent by casting a broader net. For example, your headquarters may be in Iowa, but the ideal analyst may be found in Minneapolis. It is not an issue if you have designed your company, so that remote work is possible. Improvements in communication also make it possible to set up satellite offices in areas particular to your company’s requirements while still communicating efficiently with headquarters and other offices.
Know how to eliminate roadblocks
Scalers can see trends in their organization that indicate what will scale effectively and what will scale poorly. Then, they use this understanding to attack the roadblocks that prevent them from scaling. Four frequent barriers are taken into consideration by excellent scalers.
- Lack of empowerment: Are we delegating enough authority to our executors? Can you tell me how we can empower the execution community with additional decision-making authority?
- Lack of tools or processes: Do our employees have the tools or routines they need to succeed?
- Inability to learn from one another: Are our executors able to learn from one another? Are we assisting them in communicating?
- Insufficiency of feasibility: Are we making it too simple for others to say no to our proposals? Is it possible that our first investment demands are too large? Are we in control of the risks?
Test ideas for repeatability
According to their standards, scalers will not implement a new concept unless thoroughly tested for repeatability in the actual world. Therefore, organizers should avoid overwhelming executors with half-baked ideas, which is the worst thing they can do. Instead, the most effective scalers collaborate with executors to transform concepts into particular routines and behaviors used in their daily jobs.
Engage the disruption and execution communities
Scalers think that innovation is a process that must be repeated. If they run into difficulties during the first implementation, they resort to the idea generators for assistance. When a strategy isn’t working, the innovators might assist the scalers in pivoting or rethinking their approach. Scalers turn to the execution community for help when they encounter problems when scaling their operations. Executors may assist scalers in considering how to incorporate the notion into their everyday routines and actions. The most effective scalers communicate with both groups regularly to develop the concept.
Combine product and service management
By integrating product management and service delivery, a growing organization may concentrate on revenue development while maintaining a solid commitment to customer care. This not only results in more scalable service offerings but also results in a more scalable final product.
Product managers might be present at the early stages of a company’s development to see how their product is utilized, integrated, and optimized by the rest of the team. This, therefore, puts them in a far better position to productize the firms’ skills in the future via the use of a customer interaction platform.
Networking
A scalable perspective must be applied to all collaborations, including those with organizations outside of the company. Developing a solid public relations network is one of the most effective ways to increase the likelihood of long-term success. Initiate relationships with other organizations and individuals like partners, suppliers, service providers, and Restaurant Marketing services, among others, who may give essential input.
Marketing improvement
Marketing activities should be scaled in combination with the other factors listed above. As companies of all kinds compete for customers’ attention, marketing professionals are faced with an increasing number of obstacles. However, you may expand quickly if you have a solid marketing plan in place. When you grow your marketing activities, your company can stay adaptable even as it approaches the threshold of growth and expansion.
Recruit product-oriented individuals
Far too many businesses do not employ product marketers and product strategists because the CEO had never worked with one before, or at least not a quality one (Jason Lemkin of SaaStr recently wrote a great piece on this topic). This is particularly popular in the ad tech and corporate SaaS sectors, as well as other industries.
Hiring product-oriented individuals provide you with the following benefits:
- Customer-centricity.
- Product development should be coordinated with market requirements.
- A concentration on the efficacy of selling.
- A concentration on the efficiency and efficacy of delivery.
- From definition through implementation to launch, this course provides a cross-functional view on what it takes to effectively and scalably deploy a product from start to finish (define, develop, operationalize, launch).
This strategic role typically reports into marketing but may also report directly to the CEO in rare cases. When product managers (as opposed to product marketers or strategists) work within the R&D organization, they are less likely to achieve the objectives listed above because the role becomes more tactical, focusing on gathering and prioritizing technical requirements rather than product marketing or strategic planning.
Brand Scaling and Authenticity Case Studies
Dove
The strategy;
When Dove launched its Campaign for Real Beauty in 2004, which has evolved into the Dove Self-Esteem Project, the firm changed itself from a simple soap manufacturer to a corporation with a mission. Their new mission statement said that “beauty should be a source of confidence, rather than fear,” and that.
This is accomplished by a continual alignment of its marketing activities with its mission statement. As a result of this transformation, Dove has become a brand that honestly celebrates women’s empowerment and seeks to alter the dialogue around beauty. Dove’s commitment to redefining the advertising industry’s restricted vision of beauty has endured for a long time. In addition, its resources in this endeavor have helped the company look more trustworthy in its marketing statements.
It is via the Dove Real Beauty Sketches campaign that Dove has effectively connected its aim of assisting women in developing a good connection with their looks with its marketing efforts to create a pleasant experience for women. With approximately 135 million views, it was the most-watched viral advertisement campaign of 2013.
Dove asks women to describe themselves to a sketch artist who creates them without ever meeting the people in question in the film. The sketch artist then gets a description of the identical lady from a stranger. Then, when they position both drawings next to each other, they ask the ladies to look at them simultaneously. These ladies come to the idea that they are their own harshest critics due to this experience.
Why it is successful;
- The campaign is centered on Dove’s core beliefs, including empowering women and altering the dialogue around beauty.
- Produces an emotional connection: Many female viewers were moved to tears when they heard the women’s words and saw their responses to their photos. They may identify with the feeling of evaluating themselves too severely and concentrating only on their flaws rather than on what makes them unique and wonderful.
- Contains a clear and consistent message: this ad carried on the subject of Dove’s more considerable marketing effort.
- Dove has not only garnered several plaudits for their campaigns, but sales have increased from $2.5 billion to more than $4 billion within a decade of the launch of their Campaign for Real Beauty.
- They’ve been so successful in part because they’ve taken a stand on a topic that many women are very concerned about. Organizing initiatives, such as debates about cyberbullying, with groups such as the Girl Scouts, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, and Girls Inc. was the focus of a 2004 fund established by the organization.
Impact Power Solutions (IPS)
The strategy;
Restructuring the leadership team and recruiting using a strategic hiring approach are two critical steps. The IPS team collaborated with Eisen to ensure that the appropriate persons were seated at the right seats on the bus.
The leadership team deliberated on the areas in which each team member might have the most significant effect on the organization. Then they reassigned essential members of the team to new positions. Borell, who had previously served as COO, was promoted to CEO. Ralph Jacobson, the previous CEO, has been promoted to the work of chief innovation officer.
Meanwhile, the corporation made several essential recruits. Eric Hanson, the business’s chief operating officer, was hired to help the company expand into other areas around the nation. They also recruited Evan Carlson, who would serve as director of land and legal affairs.
They were aligning the team with the Daily Huddle and the OPSP. Borell and the group began conducting daily huddles at exactly 2:32 p.m. on Monday, February 12.
Other team members participate in weekly huddles, monthly company-wide meetings, and one-on-one meetings with their direct supervisors.
Eisen and the rest of the leadership team meet with Eisen once a year for an annual meeting. They’ve also finished the One-Page Strategic Plan, which they’ll share with the rest of the team when they’ve finished.
The brand promise is being rethought. IPS provides services to three primary categories of stakeholders:
- First, customers that buy rooftop solar systems are B2B customers.
- Second, subscribers to the company’s community solar gardens are trying to save money on their energy bills.
- Landowners who have agreed to lease their property to the corporation.
Borell and his team regularly analyze the company’s performance by closely tracking new business in their sales funnel and the Net Promoter Score (NPS).
They were keeping track of your financial flow. IPS does cash-intensive operations in the construction and development industries, making effective cash flow management important.
As a result, the leadership team attends weekly cash flow meetings to keep track of critical indicators such as their EBITDA and cash flow from operations.
The Power of One exercise guides the sessions. Specifically, the exercise examines the effect of a one-percent adjustment in your cash flow procedures across the seven levers that impact it.
Why it is successful;
- The company’s revenue increased from $3 million in 2015 to $35 million in 2016. It employs 25 people. They ultimately reached $38 million in revenue in 2020.
- Along the way, they’ve completed more than 1,500 solar-energy projects in the Upper Midwest. As a result, they have been selected to Solar Power World magazine’s Top 500 Solar Contractors list for the last seven years running.
Taco Bell
The strategy;
Do you remember the chihuahua from the “Yo Quiero Taco Bell” commercial? The tagline was amusing at first, and it eventually came to reflect Taco Bell’s former brand identity: inexpensive Mexican fast food with a mascot that was often mocked. However, as the following example illustrates, the strategy that established the company as a global brand did not last indefinitely. After seeing a decline in sales and more competition from other brands, Taco Bell decided to shift the story.
Even though they were and continue to be a significant fast-food brand, they wanted to carve out a niche where they could do more to excite and energize their consumers. Therefore, the introduction of the exciting new “Live Mas!” (“live more”) motto was timed to correspond with several other positioning adjustments, including the following:
- The company plans to construct premium Taco Bell “Cantina” sites with an urban restaurant-style, an open kitchen, a personalized menu, sharing appetizers, and even alcoholic drinks.
- Breakfast alternatives, as well as the trendy Doritos Locos Tacos, are among the menu’s trials.
- The branding has been subtly updated.
- Interior design that has been changed.
Why it is successful;
- These modifications addressed more discriminating customers and elevated the brand to the status of an experience brand. As a result, Taco Bell has swiftly established itself as a fashion and lifestyle brand. In addition, Taco Bell’s clever, meme-centric social media approach has assisted in expressing this identity and connecting with the company’s primary demographic of teens and 20-somethings.
- Taco Bell becomes more relevant, humorous, and human because of this sort of real-time involvement (with other companies and consumers). In addition, they’ve received a great deal of acclaim for their excellent brand repositioning approach, which has been particularly effective in relation to social media.
Patagonia
The strategy;
The company’s mission statement has guided every aspect of Patagonia’s operations since its beginnings. As a result, everything about the company, from its culture to its product design and manufacture to its marketing campaigns, is excellent.
Patagonia is devoted to the following:
- Building the most refined product possible while causing no additional damage and using business to inspire and execute solutions to the environmental issue are all goals of the Sustainable Development Goals.
- Patagonia’s aim and the feeling of honesty it instills in its activities are both difficult to define.
- The company makes investments in renewable energy.
- Employees who do not drive alone to work are given a financial incentive via the company’s ‘Drive-Less’ initiative.
- To control chemicals and environmental consequences associated with their worldwide supply chain, they established the Chemical and Environmental Impacts Program.
- Builds long-lasting goods and, if feasible, uses raw resources that are less harmful to the environment.
- The company donates one percent of its revenues to grassroots environmental organizations all around the globe.
- Fair labor standards and safe working conditions are promoted across the company’s entire supply chain.
- Actively advocates for environmental concerns such as the preservation of America’s national parks, among other things.
Patagonia’s Worn Wear initiative is another way the company guarantees that its product and marketing activities align with its philosophy. This service enables customers to purchase and sell pre-owned Patagonia clothes while also educating them on extending the life of their equipment. Their objective is to extend the life of their garments while reducing total consumption in the process.
Why it is successful;
- During Black Friday in 2011, Patagonia issued a full-page advertisement with the message “Don’t Buy This Jacket.” The ad language described the devastating impact that the manufacture and distribution of this jacket had on the environment. Consumers were encouraged to consider the environmental effect of their purchases in the advertisement. It impacted revenue growth, which increased by around 30% to $543 million in 2012, followed by another year of 6-percent growth in 2013.
- Why? Because Patagonia sticks by its beliefs and connects its marketing efforts with the company’s fundamental principles. It has the appearance of being a genuine brand. Furthermore, its genuineness has resulted in a devoted and rising consumer base, contributing to its success.
Final Thoughts
Making a brand authentic begins with the individual and permeates all elements of a company’s operations. When it comes to marketing as a genuine brand, it requires taking the time to figure out what your company is all about. This process ensures the alignment of your message with your basic principles and activities.
