Make the value of employees' work visible
Give employees a clear way to describe what makes their work valuable. For Yokogawa, The Frameworks developed "Precision Makers" to express engineering excellence that was already present but understated. The idea turned quiet expertise into a point of pride and helped shift the company culture. More than a decade later, it continued to carry Yokogawa's evolving sustainability-led story.
The task is not necessarily to replace an existing sense of pride. In its work for Price Forbes, The Frameworks sought to preserve the pride and panache of an established specialist insurance broker while making the innovation and optimism among its people more visible. The intended change was to challenge old-school perceptions without diluting what employees already valued.
The Frameworks argues that a brand needs to capture something employees are personally motivated to support. Before developing a new identity, consider how employees can strengthen it and how the change will affect them. Start with the expertise and attitudes people already demonstrate, then find language that makes their value recognisable.
Sources: Brand design and application | The Frameworks, Price Forbes: A bold brand for a new era of insurance, The inside story: why your people shouldn't be just passengers on your brand journey