Welcome to Q4 2025! In what has felt like a loooong year, we’re in the final quarter. Whew!
In working with organizations on core branding exercises in recent months, I have noted a strong correlation between how analytical and engineering-focused a clean energy company is and how much they struggle with branding. Diving deeper, it has become clear that this struggle is tied the answer often being: it depends.
It depends. There is much in the clean energy space that can be clearly articulated in numbers. Dollars per Watt installed. Charge capacity. Operating temperature. Operating voltage range. Savings over grid rates. EBITDA. And so on. Quantifiable. Yet, in branding, “the good stuff” isn’t so easily quantifiable. It lives in the limbic system, in a liminal space that requires looking at it from the corner of your eye to catch it in order to define it.
That can be tough when used to working with numbers. Is that vision and mission right for your organization? It depends. Are the core values of your company a good fit? It depends. When those who are used to working in quantifiable answers hear “it depends”, it can be easy to say branding doesn’t matter. It’s too nebulous. And frankly, it’s hard work to get to the “core” where we know we’ve hit on the right path.
So, organizations opt for a logo and call it good, missing out on the benefits that come from an investment in branding. Overcoming commoditization, shorter sales cycles, lower customer acquisition costs, and attracting/retaining top talent are a few of the measurable metrics from companies with clarity in brand. In fact, McKinsey & Co found that B-to-B companies with strong brands outperformed weakly branded companies by 20%.
I’ll leave you with two (and a half) questions:
- What is your company’s vision statement? Could you remember it without looking it up?
- How does your own job fit into moving that vision forward on a daily basis?
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From the Creative Purpose Blog
Engaging Visual Storytelling for Clean Energy Brands
Speaking of taking in information in different ways, this month’s featured post is full of advice on how you can make your visual storytelling more powerful (pun intended) for a clean energy audience.
Whether it’s a social post, a presentation deck for a board meeting, a tradeshow booth video, a white paper, or anything in between, using visual storytelling to enhance and lead your audience through your materials helps with engagement and retention through engaging with more senses.
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October Joke
What room is off limits to ghosts?
The living room.
