Brands are inescapable. Every company has one whether they want to or not, whether they shape it or not. On the eve of our organization’s 125th anniversary in 2005, we set out on a mission of self-discovery and on the journey to shape our brand, to make it reflect our modern global company and our pride in the entrepreneurial and inventive spirit that started it all in 1881.

The journey began by tapping into the essence of our success and distilling it into an authentic global identity.  And just like an individual’s quest for self-discovery, a brand journey never really ends but becomes way of life, a way of living the brand and applying it to create a culture that unlocks each employee’s and customer’s full potential.

Distilling the essence
To ”know thyself” is an individual’s first step towards realizing their full potential and it is no different for a company. It is only when you know what you’re made of that you can begin to see what you are capable of achieving so we began our brand journey in 2005 with some soul searching.

“An authentic brand and shared values come from understanding our greatest strengths, what makes us unique and what emotions we evoke in the minds of our employees, customers and investors,” explains Jörgen Wahlström, Perstorp Brand Manager.

In depth interviews, research and benchmarking revealed a 360° view of us as a company of innovative experts and problem-solvers who keep their promises, care about their customers and take pride in their responsible business practices. This insight enabled the creation of a brand identity and set of genuinely shared values, namely focused innovation, responsibility and reliability, and charted a true course for the development of our brand. The resulting brand promise, Winning Formulas, works for the brand at every level, containing both a promise to customers and shareholders as well as internal inspiration to challenge employees.

“Winning Formulas promises our customers value and, internally, brings us together over national borders and differing cultures to be proactive, innovative and committed to keeping that promise,” says Wahlström and notes how powerful it is to have the same core values toward customers as toward employees. “They are equally valid internally as they are externally. That’s how strong they are.”

Bringing the brand to life
However, a brand promise and values are useless if they are just words. A brand needs feelings, ideas, actions and culture to bring it to life. Once the Winning Formulas brand platform was launched in 2005 and the new visual identity and voice were implemented in market communications in 2006, the journey was still just beginning.

As Brand Manager, Wahlström has focused his efforts for the past two years on creating the structure for building a united culture around Winning Formulas for our circa 2000 employees around the world. Global activities, including designating and educating local brand ambassadors, launching a brand inspiration book and e-learning program, workshops for creating a deeper understanding of the brand and gather success stories exemplifying core values, have helped build awareness and pride.

“Our goal is to guide each individual Perstorper on a journey from passive understanding to active support of our brand promise and core values,” Wahlström explains. “This is especially vital for our newest colleagues from recent acquisitions and activities such as welcome gifts, opening days and receiving their own personal copy of the Personal Chemistry book give them a positive feeling about our culture from day one.”

We built up the global launch of the brand inspiration book, “Personal Chemistry: A little book about a big idea,” with activities locally and globally in all internal communications channels including a countdown to launch day, launch parties and prize drawings with gifts linked to the core values.

“I see the Personal Chemistry book as a cornerstone of our company culture,” Wahlström declares. “When you read it, you effortlessly understand why we promise Winning Formulas, where our core values come from, why they are important and how you can contribute. It proves that Winning Formulas is more than just a communication concept and you feel inspired to start doing your part in creating winning formulas.”

Living the brand
We are now the fastest growing chemical company in the world and, inside, our commitment to the brand is growing as well and beginning to give measurable results. The next phase of branding activities will focus on communicating the our brand offer even more clearly to our customers, investors, media and potential employees.

“Employee satisfaction surveys are showing us that people have good knowledge and understanding for the core values and what they stand for and we see a clear positive trend in customer satisfaction surveys,” Wahlström notes proudly. “When we communicate a unified message in all channels, we create a synergy effect and both customers and employees understand that we are sincere about keeping our promises. A stronger brand increases customer loyalty and employee pride.”

2007 & 2008
Bringing the brand to life internally with a brand plan and brand management including brand ambassadors, local brand plans, Personal Chemistry book launch, e-learning program and brand workshops

2009  & beyond
Clarifying the brand offer, focusing on communicating it more clearly to customers, investors, media and potential employees and to continue the internal branding activities with special focus on our newest colleagues through acquisitions