A Cup of Tea for Your Brand

Ever watch a tea bag enter a hot cup of water? Notice how the dark tea slowly starts to balloon out and around the bag, finding it’s way into every corner of the cup. Eventually, the entire cup of tea is colored evenly by the tea – and the taste permeates through the entire cup evenly.

photo by mangpages

Branding should be the same way. When you create your brand and “drop” it into your organization’s consciousness it starts to color the areas that come most in contact with the brand — just like the water nearest the teabag is the first to begin to be affected by the tea. But if you keep at it, eventually, the brand will be evenly distributed throughout the company (and your cup). The longer you leave that brand/teabag to steep in your culture/cup the deeper and more intense your brand/tea will become.

Not coincidentally, if you stir the teabag into the water, your cup of tea will color more evenly and quickly than it will if you just drop the teabag into the cup and let it sit there. As you are introducing your brand to your company, be sure you’re taking the time to mix it into the things you do, the conversations you hold, the events you create, and the strategies you embrace. The new brand will go farther, faster for the effort.

If you don’t have an intentional brand position that you are working toward, it doesn’t mean that a brand isn’t developing. It just means that you did not choose the type or flavor of the tea that is permeating your culture. But nevertheless, chamomile, peppermint, jasmine, green, oolong, black, or white – your culture is both coloring and influencing your brand. You owe it to yourself and to your company to intentionally choose what you want your brand to look, smell, and taste like.