Marketing From the Inside Out - Takeaways From Our Discussion With Sarah Flynn

Sarah Flynn is a dynamic leader with a reputation for building relationships and implementing top-notch marketing strategies. She has a broad skill set that comes from her 20+ years of experience in advertising, marketing communications, business management, and numerous other positions both on the agency and client-side of the business. Today, Sarah runs her own consulting practice, Sarah Flynn Consulting. She works with clients on brand, culture, and creative as well as helping clients decode how their HR and Marketing practices connect within their organization.

Sarah was kind enough to share her valuable insight about marketing from the inside out - the internal and external effects of having a solid brand and story behind your business. Thank you Sarah!

Here are our top 3 takeaways from this discussion:

1. Vision. Mission. Brand.

A vision statement is a company’s road map, indicating what the company wants to become. A mission statement is a declaration of the company’s core focus and purpose. They differ in the sense that a mission is the cause and the vision is the effect. Your organization’s mission can thus act as a litmus test to see the types of things you want your organization to do.

While vision and mission help people come together as a company, it does not tell a story externally. Brand answers the question of why you are different from competitors and why the consumer should care. In other words, the brand is written to influence how your audience perceives you. A clearly articulated brand provides a road map for how the brand is experienced at all points, both internally and externally.

2. Avoid Narrative Void

A narrative void is caused by a lack of a clearly defined brand, and it occurs when there is no consistent story behind an organization’s practices to keep everyone aligned. This void can cause issues internally, like a weak corporate culture and disengaged employees. That leads to external problems, such as poor customer experiences and brand confusion.

Why fill this void? Companies who rally their activities around a central brand story end up telling a better story, which benefits the firm internally by creating a clear corporate culture with passionate employees who share values. In turn, it leads to a clear direction externally. All employees need a consistent story to understand and communicate to others.

3. Brand and Culture

Culture is your brand brought to life inside your organization. Many people think brand is solely marketing’s responsibility and culture is HR’s, but they actually need to come together for an organization to thrive. When customers are invited to a magnificent story, it creates engagement. The same is true for employees. 

Especially in today’s competitive labour market, attracting and retaining talent in a sleepy organization is incredibly difficult. A good brand story keeps your frontline engaged. To push a consistent and engaging story out, you should hire those who share values with your mission. Consider how you want your brand to resonate in the marketplace, and hire accordingly.

Thank you again, Sarah, for sharing your experience with us.