Joshua Warren  0:06  
First of all, stepping back away from just your industry, like we mentioned, but then looking and trying to find, what's the second or third level that you're providing your customers. So not, you know, hey, we build ecommerce websites, but we build teams that scale companies through E commerce, strategy, technology, innovation, providing peace of mind to the chaotic industry, you'll hear some key words in there at Creatuity. Our values are determined united and innovative. So we've kind of worked it into that statement. But it just shows how if you want someone that is going to do something chaotic, and maybe cheap, or fast, but not stable, then we're not the right company for you. But if you're really focused on having that long term that immunity that innovation, then we are the right company for you.

Darin Newbold  0:57  
Good day and welcome to Commerce Today. My name is Darren Newbold, and with me, as always, is Josh Warren. And we're here to bring you what's happening in the world of commerce. And with that, we have a interesting topic today, Josh, basically it is transforming e commerce through identity, and ultimately finding your common purpose. Now that all sounds really cool. And I'm a little conflicted in a way because I love this topic. However, comma, I'm a little concerned, we were given away the secret sauce in all this process. I hope not. But Josh, help us out. Yeah, hopefully

Joshua Warren  1:35  
not. So I'm allergic to that apparently, too. I just started sneezing. No, we, we are giving a little bit of a way just because some of the concepts we're talking about today really apply to ecommerce brands, but they can apply to e commerce agencies as well. So I'm excited to share really from both of those perspectives from work we've done on Creatuity his brand, as well as work we've seen ecommerce brands do.

Darin Newbold  2:00  
Okay, well, speaking of brands, and all of that, tell us about the importance of brand identity. I know there's some misconceptions out there. And then there's also this kind of employee customer bridge that we need to look at. So what does that how does that come together? For merchants and their brand identity?

Joshua Warren  2:20  
Yeah, so I feel like most brands get their brand identity wrong. And what I mean by that is, if I asked you, you know, what's your company? Do? You tell me your industry, you tell me, what sort of industry you're in what you're selling how you sell it, like, you know, we're a b2b provider of pipe fittings, or we're a b2c company selling pillows or something like that, and not about really the identity behind the company. And what I mean by that is like, what, what impact you have on the world? What sort of big, awesome, audacious thing are you trying to make happen? How do you improve your customers lives. And the reason it's so important to distinguish between those two things is that there's a lot of people in your industry, and you are going to sound just like them. If your brand identity is as simple as what your industry is, it makes it so easy, basically, for someone to select a competitor and never even hear about you, for you to become a commodity. And so I've seen a lot of companies and I feel like even our own that plateau for a while because they get lost in the noise of just talking about what industry they're in, and not developing their own separate identity. And then you mentioned that employee customer bridge. And this is really how your identity can create a sense of belonging, and a sense of belonging for your employees, as well as your customers. So really tying that identity back to something that people can rally around and be excited about. And for us, our values. really help with that. So by establishing kind of a clear set of values that our employees can understand that if you feel passionate about these three things, Creatuity is the place for you. And then they can deliver a better experience for our customers around those three values as well. Basically,

Darin Newbold  4:05  
one of the secret sauces to this and kind of the next piece, finding your true outcome is how can you take what you're learning to be your identity, and then bringing in how those values are intertwined in that process. So how does that look?

Joshua Warren  4:23  
Yeah, so really trying to find your true outcome is really about looking at, first of all, stepping back away from just your industry, like we mentioned, but then looking and trying to find what's the second or third level that you're providing your customers so not you know, hey, we build ecommerce websites, but we build teams that scale companies through E commerce, strategy, technology and innovation, providing peace of mind in the chaotic industry. So really kind of looking beyond that and you'll you'll hear some key words in there at Creatuity. Our values are determined United Innovative, so we've kind of worked it into that statement. But it just shows how, if you want someone that is going to do something chaotic, and maybe cheap or fast, but not stable, then we're not the right company for you. But if you want, if you're really focused on kind of that long term, that unity that innovation, and we are the right company for you. So again, it kind of helps us stand out in that busy marketplace. And that's kind of how we have basically tied our values into that outcome and vice versa.

Darin Newbold  5:31  
Yeah, that really comes together. And there's a, there's another piece that you that we were talking about earlier, that you had characterized as finding, finding your through line. And I didn't totally understand that until you started to share of what that looks like, is really kind of digging in and, and finding the stories, maybe it's the story behind the story, but it's the history around your, your company, and those stories that are there that provide some deeper meaning and deeper satisfaction or or impact in that brand. And maybe you have an example of how that might come together or how it came together for Creatuity. Yeah, so

Joshua Warren  6:09  
these three lines, they can be about the company itself, or lots of times, they're actually about a founder, or, you know, maybe some key employees, that sort of thing. And for us that Creatuity One of the things is very clear through line I see in my life is really a desire to help people improve and succeed and have a positive experience and do so in kind of a calm way. And that peace of mind way. And that actually I remember all the way back to graduating from college in the late 90s, early 2000s, the software engineering industry was not a fun place to work, as seen in the movie Office Space that is almost required watching that Creatuity. So it wasn't really a place where people were encouraged to be united, they weren't really encouraged to learn and grow, things like that. And being different. And providing an environment where people can do that is something that even before I started Creatuity was important to me. And so that's part of that through line that we have, I've seen other brands, there's actually a brand that is pretty familiar to anyone in the Magento space probably five years ago that their owner keynoted, a lot of Magento conferences, and he had a background in mountain climbing and everything to him. I mean, they had awards and concepts even that were surrounding the special kind of acts you use while mountain climbing. And so they're through line really became about encouraging people to get outdoors and to kind of expand what they're capable of. And so that became part of their outcome and brand identity.

Darin Newbold  7:46  
That's awesome. That's awesome. That's a neat way to bring it all together. Well. So as we're bringing it all together, there's a few other things that are really important. And I know these come from some deep dive that we did into some Disney training around their exceptional service and delivering exceptional service. And those two were common purpose and quality standards. What can you share? Or help us understand around that common purpose quality standards? And what do those look like, as you're bringing this brand identity together?

Joshua Warren  8:19  
Yeah, and this is where I think you might actually have more to share, you're always so humble, but you did lead Creatuity, kind of through the process of setting our common purpose and quality standards. The interesting part for me for it all, kind of jumping ahead. And and I'll let you describe more what it is, is, we did this, we went through the common purpose and quality standards before we started thinking about our brand identity. And there was some overlap there. I don't know which order I would necessarily recommend brands go through these two things. But I think connecting them is really important. So for us, our common purpose can really be summed up as peace of mind. And so that peace of mind is a big part of our brand identity. So kind of combining those has been critical for us. But how would you describe the common purpose and quality standards?

Darin Newbold  9:07  
The interesting thing is, is Disney makes it very clear that your common purpose is different than your than your mission statement. And I understand why that is. And it does make sense. We chose to go a little bit different route through our process. But it makes sense because that common purpose is a simplified way of saying, This is what we do. And this is what we want to do and deliver each and every time. And that's why it makes it different than an overall or a broad speaking mission in a way. And so for us that became we looked at and part of what we peel back in this process was looking at what are the stereotypes in in the industry? What are things that people run into? Well, they run into, Hey, someone you know anybody that can type some code and works in there. Roger whatever can throw a website together, but you don't know what you're getting? And is it going to be is it going to be at that level that the merchants and the people that we work with? Is it going to be where they need to be. And so there's this, this stigma of, hey, I'm either I'm either going to be scared to death that my stuffs not going to work, or it's going to break or it's going to fail, or I'm going to be on calls all hours of the night, and all of that. And that's where we ultimately peel back the onion and came up with peace of mind. And what's been interesting, and you ask a great question, Josh, which do you do, which comes first the common purpose quality standards and or does the brand identity. And I guess, I would say as a recommendation is do what feels right, or what feels what you feel the strongest about that you can bring together the best most easily. And for us, we kind of slog through this, this common purpose. And I say slog, it was just it was it was a process. But it forced us to ask some hard questions that we really, really needed to get through. So hopefully, that kind of provide you a little bit of background. But he didn't talk anything about the quality standards. And those are, those are beyond just the quality, common purpose of knowing what we're going to do each and every day. And then the quality standards just set up the parameters of how that's delivered. And so in Disney's case, they're four keys, as they like to call them, therefore, quality standards are, gosh, I hope I remember these but safety courtesy show, I think is how they call it and then effectiveness, or efficiency efficiency begins with the That's right. It's that and that's how they approach service in any kind of service situation inside of Disney and all that they do. So well, hey, we beat this up a little bit. We encourage you, we'll have it in the show notes. So next steps, Josh, kind of before you jump ahead, no, no, bring it on.

Joshua Warren  12:02  
As you were talking one thing that I thought about, and that helps kind of simplify the relationship between brand identity and common purpose and what you should do first, and that sort of thing is, to me, your brand identity is like this is the big awesome thing we want to provide like we want to change the world in this area. And then the common purpose, and especially the quality standards, really drive home, how is our team going to make this happen? How is our team going to actualize this big awesome identity statement that we've written?

Darin Newbold  12:31  
A question that comes with that? And the question that you answer is, when you're delivering that brand identity and delivering the common purpose, what does that look like? What does it sound like? And what does it feel like from the perspective of the customer?

Joshua Warren  12:45  
Yeah, and that is what I feel like Disney has really nailed. And I know that we've talked before about how I love that the quality standards and the way Disney sets them, they are in kind of priority order. So their employees know like safety is literally number one. And so while show is important, while basically providing that amazing customer experience at a Disney World Park is so important. If you start to do something that you know threatens your own safety or the safety of those around you, you will be escorted off property real fast. Like they, they keep safety number one. And that's where I feel like going through this process, setting this common person purpose, setting the quality standards really helps your employees deliver that brand identity and kind of brand promise, because if they're faced with a situation where like, Hey, I know that safety is important, but I know shows important. Which one do I prioritize? And so it makes it super clear and easy to roll out. So but now back to our practical steps and takeaways.

Darin Newbold  13:45  
All right. So with that, and our regular scheduled programming here, how do we start building this brand identity? What are what are some questions and it looks like you have a few of them here? What are some questions that merchants can start asking? Yeah, so

Joshua Warren  14:00  
there's there's four questions that I put together. And I'll put them in the show notes as well, everywhere we publish this podcast, but basically, what do you want to be known for? What is the true outcome of your work? What is your team's common purpose? And what's your biggest differentiator? The one thing that sets you apart in the noise? And I think with that you really have to think through those four things and think through your ecommerce brand, and answer those questions to kind of build out your identity. Also, I think it's important as you look at those questions, you might say, Hey, I'm just the ecommerce director. I'm not the director of marketing. I'm not the Director of Strategy. I can't set this for the whole company. That's okay. It doesn't have to be a big you know, marketing lead rebranding effort. You really can start by changing how you think and talk about your company, how you write your website, content, that sort of thing. Start this small within your team.

Darin Newbold  14:56  
Yeah. And sometimes it's it's almost best to be A grassroots effort as opposed to being a, Hey, this is our project. And suddenly it has a name. And it has a team and, and all of these things where it just kind of grassroots evolves. So all right kind of wrapping, wrapping a bow around this before we get to our last piece, but wrapping a quick bow around on kind of conclusion, we talked about this brand identity, the misconceptions that if industry is not your identity, the employee customer bridge, understanding that that being able to create that sense of belonging is so important. Moving beyond the basics here and finding the through line as, as we shared of kind of finding that story and finding that, that emphasis that can really lead lead where you want your brand and where you want that to go. Calling in and bringing in the great exceptional service that Disney has done in putting together a common purpose and quality standards, and being able to then deliver on that brand and stay on brand. And putting that together, and then giving you some four basic questions, but good questions to at least start the process and get things rolling. But there is a couple other questions that that we have kind of do challenge you as our listener to do maybe start this process, and some things for you to think about. So Josh?

Joshua Warren  16:24  
Yeah, so my challenge is to really think through, let's say, I met you at an event today and asked you, you know, hey, what's your company do? Think about how you would describe it? And are you going to describe it based on the product you're selling? Or are you going to describe it based on the identity that you've kind of intentionally built around that positive change you create for your customers. And as you think about that, maybe even think of both versions of that and think about which 1am I more likely to remember and then to refer other people to you for

Darin Newbold  16:53  
and mine is just a play on that. But just moving it slightly instead of because sometimes, sometimes you're so in the weeds that it's hard to think about, oh gosh, hey, we build websites, or hey, we sell widgets, and you just sew into it. So step back and say what is the what is the brand that I love? What do I go to all the time? I we've talked about Disney, we really like it? We've may not have we have we did talk about it, because we talked about their latest product. But we're both Apple fans here at both Josh and I. And so we take another brand and think about and ask those questions. What is it about that brand that causes you to just Instantly and Easily Hey, you'd recommend it without question. Even when things have gone wrong. You've still come back, you still go to it? What are those things and then when you can, when you understand those things, it can make it easier to grab those or extrapolate those from your own company. So those are a couple of challenges for you. Last thoughts, Josh?

Joshua Warren  17:50  
Wow, it was great talking with everyone about brand identity today. And I would encourage you if you have questions or if you're trying to apply this to your own brand, feel free to reach out to us comment on YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, wherever you happen to watch this at today. And let us know I'd love to hear kind of how your brand is approaching this whole thought process.

Darin Newbold  18:12  
Absolutely. And with that, as always, we appreciate you listening and definitely shoot us a note. We look forward to it. Until next time, have a great day.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai