How Can a Business Grow and Preserve Its Brand?

As a company grows, several factors emerge that make it challenging to maintain the brand essence that has contributed to that growth. Let's examine the smallest of businesses-the sole proprietorship-to see how this develops. Our example is a service business owned and operated by a craftsman who is passionate about his work and who has become a highly skilled worker in his industry. He wants to increase output but has no time of his own left to spend so he hires someone. If the owner and worker produce the same amount of work and have the same amount of direct client exposure, the brand essence risks 50% dilution. How can the owner prevent brand leakage by the expansion? Even with the most efficient hiring system, the new worker will alter the brand by the way he communicates with clients, by the quality of the work he produces and by the customer service and support he provides.

Brand essence reflects the personality, quality and homogeny of a company. It is the cornerstone that makes a company unique and can provide the compelling reason that consumers select one company over another. It is the solid platform that enables advertising campaigns to generate sales on a continuing basis. If the brand falters, the company falters. One reason that companies fail where they once excelled, is that they stop the behavior that caused the excellence in the first place. This can be seen in customer service disintegration and from a breakdown in corporate culture and spirit. It can be caused by unrealistic growth targets based on bottom-line figures instead of organic growth techniques.

The problem magnifies in medium and large businesses. Look at how many companies grow by acquisition strategies. What happens when a 400 person firm is purchased by a 1,000 person firm? How is it possible to grow by 40% and retain any brand essence? Even if the parent company was purring along with solid branding and great corporate culture; how will that brand survive while being watered-down? How can corporate culture survive in such turmoil? Look at a law firm that has just acquired a smaller shop to provide a broader range of services. How can an attorney in a parent firm risk referring one of his oldest and most valued clients to an attorney he has no track record with because his firm now offers a new area of service?

Maybe corporate growth needs to occur at a much slower rate than the business world has come to expect. Maybe a 50-person shop can only grow by one person at a time instead of 20. This approach might increase quality instead of just quantity and serve to build trust in a brand rather than squander it.