There are countless ways to approach the branding or rebranding process, but there is one “rule” that Market Crafters never deviates from: to be effective, branding must be an inside-out endeavor.

That means that all the promises and expectations you want to define your brand must first be embraced, trained, adopted and tested internally before the brand ever goes “public.”  After all, those promises and expectations will live or die in the hands of those charged with delivering them.

Problem is, there is very little “sexy” in the traditional brand arsenal of missions and visions, attributes and behaviors.  Put those things in front of your staff, and after a brief period of feigned enthusiasm, their brains will completely dismiss them.  And the most important moment in the brand architecture process will have failed.

Years ago, somewhat by accident, we started writing brand stories for that exact purpose: to better communicate internally the brand’s unique value, and to preview the ways that the brand’s central promise should permeate their everyday work.

By capturing the emotion, voice and personality of the brand, these stories deliver what traditional brand elements cannot: staff engagement and true brand enthusiasm.

Over time, we started “producing” our brand stories – first as simply mixed audio files, then as videos, and finally as externally appropriate messages that brought the process full circle.

We’ve selected a couple of examples for your viewing enjoyment.