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In a previous post, I broke down what a brand ecosystem is in comparison to the scientific ecosystems we all learned about in science class. It's important to understand what makes up a brand ecosystem to better understand what a cohesive one looks like.
So, let's take a quick trip down memory lane, shall we?
Your brand ecosystem is a living, breathing entity that's constantly evolving.
It's not just some static logo slapped on a business card – it's a whole world of interconnected elements that work together to create your brand's unique personality and way of speaking to its audience.
Here's a quick overview:
- The Environment: This is the foundation of your brand – your purpose, values, vision, mission and all that good stuff that makes you, YOU. It's like the soil, temperature, and water that nourishes everything else. We call them essential elements.
- The Organisms: These are the tangible outputs of your brand – your website, social media, products, and services. They're the plants and animals of your ecosystem, each playing a crucial role in the overall health of your brand. We call these outputs, adaptable elements.
Just like in nature, if one part of your brand ecosystem gets out of whack, it can throw the whole thing off balance. But when everything's working in harmony? That's when the magic happens. In this post, we're gonna dig into what a cohesive brand ecosystem looks like, how it functions, and how it helps you run the best business you can.
Understanding Cohesion in Brand Ecosystems
First, we must understand what being cohesive means.
Cohesion in this context means that all of the parts of something are working well and in harmony with each other.
To add to that definition, cohesion also means that each part is:
- Pulling its own weight
- Shares equal weight in value of the overall outcome
And in some cases, if parts of an ecosystem are strong enough - they can pick up the slack from other parts that are faltering a bit.
It's similar to a marriage - where typically both partners are each contributing 50% to the wellbeing of the relationship and its advancement. But we all know that's not the case 100% of the time. The test of any romantic relationship happens when one partner can't give their 50%.
Hopefully, in that situation the other partner can recognize that shift, and fill in as much as they can until the other partner is back on solid footing.
That analogy holds true for brand ecosystems. There may be times where one element or even one organism isn't pulling its weight but that issue doesn't affect the whole ecosystem negatively every time.
For example: having a outdated website for some businesses may not negatively affect the business's objectives in the short term because of the other elements of their ecosystem (their client experience, marketing, networking, referral system, etc) are all working together very well. In this example the website isn't pulling it's weight and it's not stopping the brand from maintaining it's growth and reputation at the moment.
Over time, that will change. Brand components that are left slacking for too long will always come back around to be your number one obstacle.
Ok, so what are the benefits of a cohesive brand ecosystem?
Benefit #1: Improved Brand Clarity and Consistency
Clarity and consistency only come from a brand that has a firm understanding of what it is, who it is, who it's for, and who it wants to continue to be for. Clarity like that can also come from knowing what the brand isn't and what it won't become no matter the circumstances (societal or economical).
When a brand has the clarity of knowing "this is who we are and this is why", it becomes easier to:
- Say yes or no to trends
- Ignore outside influences
- Weather economic shifts
- Say no to financially fruitful but overall damaging collaborations/hires/opportunities
- Develop new services, offerings and products easily
And with that clarity comes predictability.
Some may see predictability as being boring or unsexy - it's actually very important that audiences can predict how their favorite brands will react to certain trends, societal shifts, etc.
We all know that's true, because when a brand acts "out of character" in response to something - it causes confusion and a sense of not knowing who the brand was in the first place aka distrust.
Predictability in branding isn't boring - it's the foundation of trust and loyalty.
Benefit #2: More Effective Marketing and Communication
A cohesive brand ecosystem creates strategically defined boundaries for the brand's messaging and components to express themselves through.
Those boundaries are the results of the essential and adaptive elements working together to create a lens to communicate to your audience through. While some people believe that they can handle a lack of structure in their personal lives or in their businesses - there will always come a time when the lack of boundaries will make running your business feel aimless and inefficient.
Boundaries can actually provide more freedom.
Having a "box" for your brand to help you create content through forces your marketing to become more creative. With more creativity comes memorability and resonance.
Think of it like going bowling. When you use the guard rails aka the bumpers, you remove the fear of a gutterball so you can focus solely on the best way to can get your ball down the lane to hit as many pins as possible.
When you remove those guardrails, you're putting another layer of pressure on yourself for no reason. You're slowing the rate of growth you could if you just focused on one thing at a time.
Benefit #3: Better Internal Alignment and Decision-Making
This again comes back to predictability. When you and your team members are clear on the direction of the brand and the foundation that it's built, everyone is able to:
- Become more creative in their solutions to problems
- Suggest better improvements
- Make autonomous decisions confidently
- Feel more connected to the brand as a whole
The same goes for solopreneurs. When you have a clear understanding of what you will and won't do, what you will and won't stand for, what you will and won't fall for - you can make better informed decisions for opportunities, new services, new collaborations faster.
You'll be more confident in saying no, in what new skills to learn, in what sort of relationships and with who to cultivate for continued growth.
How Can a Brand Improve Its Ecosystem?
Remember, brand ecosystems are living breathing things that are never truly finished. Similar to the concept of self-development in that you'll never be a 100% developed person (although that would be really awesome).
You should expect for misalignments or shifts to happen, big and/or small, over time. The best you can do is be open-minded to spotting when these misalignments happen and be ready to take action on them.
If you can remove outlier variables (such as social media algorithms and the economy), and you still feel like your outputs aren't giving you the quantitative and qualitative results that you want, you have to dig deeper into the foundational core of your brand to find the answer(s).
Key Takeaways
- A cohesive brand ecosystem is one where all elements work in harmony, supporting each other even when one part falters.
- Clarity and consistency in branding lead to predictability, which builds trust and loyalty with your audience.
- Boundaries in your brand ecosystem provide structure and actually promote creativity and effective communication.
- A cohesive brand ecosystem leads to better internal alignment and decision-making, benefiting both team members and solopreneurs.
- Brand ecosystems are never "finished" - they require ongoing attention and adaptation to remain cohesive and effective.
- When troubleshooting brand issues, look beyond surface-level outputs to the deeper elements of your brand ecosystem.
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