Member Article

Your brand is a toilet

There are many organisations out there that only consider their ’front of house’ when they decide how they represent themselves. Restaurants and retailers are the ones we think of most with this clear break, but service based organisations are equally liable to do this too (with their marketing or products being their ’fronts’). They see that their revenue comes from customers who believe in how they appear — how well their window displays, their on trend decor, and their products pull in their audiences.

When you go ‘back of house’ at many of these brands then you’ll see a different side. A side relegated to cost efficiency — providing the bare bones of what’s needed — a distinct feeling of charity shop chic.

They don’t reflect the front of house at all. Why? Most of the time it’s because the people running the organisation only think to invest in the front of house, the areas they see making them money. Staff rooms, toilets, and back of house are relegated and invested in as little as possible as they’re seen as purely a functional need or ‘only’ for the staff.

(As a parent who’s children have often needed the loo at inconvenient times — a customer in many restaurants — and a designer who’s worked with organisations of all kinds — I’ve seen their toilets — and there are many that are, well, let’s just say — just serviceable.)

If that’s your organisation then your branding is, quite literally, window dressing’. It’s not your brand. And that means your staff, and your suppliers will see you as a business they work for — not a brand they believe in.

And let’s be honest, who wouldn’t prefer staff that believe in what they do?

A brand runs through every element of the organisation, from your head office to the furthest outpost your reputation reaches. Every touchpoint of every audience. Even to your toilets.

Your customers, your staff, your potential staff, your suppliers — everyone you interact with should all be treated — both in service and quality of experience — the same way. The benefit of investing across your organisations touch points is a brand greater than the sum of its parts. An experience for all audiences that will reach way beyond the ‘front of house’ experience and deliver long term results for your organisation.

So consider your organisation, and your toilets — are they your brand?

Paul Alderson is the Founder of Wonderstuff, a brand and design consultancy.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Wonderstuff .