Brands that embrace Whole Brand Thinking™ see higher returns, faster growth and increased customer loyalty

Independent creative idea company Barkley has released its third annual State of the Whole Brand report and research study, “How to Build a Whole Brand. Right Now.”

The results: Whole brands out-profit, outperform and out-impact fragmented brands. In three years of studying total brand performance, Barkley found the Whole Brand Index can predict at near 70 percent accuracy what it takes for a brand to be successful in the market. The report also found whole brands are preferred two-and-a-half times more often than category competitors, are five times more likely to be seen as a brand on the rise, double the Standard & Poor’s 500 index in market performance and command a premium price among consumers.

“Whole brands firmly believe that every action they take is one more reason to choose them, or not,” says Tim Galles, director of The Whole Brand Project and Barkley’s chief idea officer. “They see everything they do — from sustainability plans, culture, product and service innovation, design and experience and marketing — as creative endeavors, knowing that their biggest unfair advantage is their belief and behavior system, and how creative their culture is.”

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The 2022 State of the Whole Brand report defines whole brands by four characteristics:

1. A whole brand is an organization that treats everything it does as the brand.
2. A whole brand is connected by a core idea, the red thread, that guides and inspires every action it takes across the spectrum of marketing to business ideas.
3. A whole brand is full of purpose and action, matching what it says and does internally with what it says and does externally.
4. A whole brand measures success by balancing profit and performance across the Whole Brand Spectrum with its impact on people, and the planet.

Barkley also interviewed global marketers and whole brand thinkers for the report, including: Eric Ryan, co-founder of method, OLLY, Welly and Cast; Stephanie Wissink, managing director, Jefferies; Bart Houlahan, co-founder, B Lab; Niki King, head of sustainability, Unilever North America; Mike Cessario, chief executive officer and co-founder of Liquid Death; KoAnn Vikoren Skrzyniarz, chief executive officer and founder, Sustainable Brands; Hilary Butler, director of marketing, Bonterra Organic Estates; and Ian Fitzgerald, global director of brand strategy and operations, New Balance.

“So much of creating a whole brand is to make sure you have a consistent experience through every touchpoint,” said Eric Ryan, co-founder of method, OLLY, Welly and Cast. “Everything is theater. Few do it well because they forget to think about how you create a unified experience through products, sales, marketing, culture, all the way. We live in a world that’s much more porous for consumers and brand relationships. There’s no longer a public face and private face for a brand. That’s why you have to be authentic from the inside out.”

Niki King, head of sustainability at Unilever North America, adds, “A brand is whole when it takes into account every person that will be impacted along the value chain — including shareowners, employees, suppliers, workers in the supply chain and consumers. The business is ethical, profitable and well governed and it positively impacts the world.”

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