This is the first step in cultivating a strong brand. And while it seems self-explanatory, there are a few things to keep in mind.

• First, you’re brand lives at the intersection of what you do well, what your customers value and what you can honestly own in your market. It’s is not any one of these things, but a sub-segment of all three. You can’t be something you’re not. And customers sometimes don’t care about everything you are.

• Your brand should also be made up of simple, easy to understand concepts because a brand that can’t be acted on is useless.

• It’s also important to have leadership buy-in on the brand tools so that they can actively support and model this work in their daily jobs.

• And finally, everyone at the organization needs to know what the brand tools are and how they can apply the brand in every decision they make—more on that later.

A great example of a company who has done this well is Merriman Berkman Next—a team of money managers in Seattle. Part of their brand is around “peace of mind”—not just taking care of people but making them feel taken care of. They surveyed their clients and employees to learn more about what makes them different, came to consensus as a leadership team and then started rolling out the brand through events and workshops to all employees. Ask anyone at the organization what their brand is all about, and he or she can tell you. Since determining that “peace of mind” is a significant portion of their brand, they’ve applied it in some important ways. They used it as a filter when considering their new name—making sure the name is differentiating and yet not so far out there as to make clients feels unsettled. They’ve also used the concept to drive processes such as how and how often they talk to clients about certain types of financial transactions.