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About Us
C2Believe, founded in 2012, is a Taiwan-based consulting company specializing in Brand, Marketing, and Management.
After years of working with Taiwan’s tech companies, I noticed their struggles to sustain sales long-term, with CEOs and VPs sharing similar concerns but unsure how to adapt.
In the early 2000s, I discovered the concept of “Brand,” a powerful ideology that built icons like Starbucks, Nike, and Apple. But how? This was the big secret to unravel, and it became my mission, to help Taiwan companies use Brand strategy to survive, sustain and thrive.
But there was much more to Brand than what you see on the surface.
Searching for Brand.
15+ Years of Understanding Brand.
The buzzword “Brand” had reached Taiwan in the early 2000s, showcasing how companies like Starbucks employed Brand strategy to attract and sustain large market segments of loyal customers.
But back then, Brand was not well explained, much less understood.
How can the “Starbucks” brand dominate for decades by simply selling coffee? It had to be more than just a pretty Logo, Website and product specifications.
And so, it became my mission to find out and help Taiwan companies understand Brand to help grow their businesses.
What I Found About Brand.
Brand is Difficult to Understand.
Many still think Brand is about attracting customers focusing on aesthetics (Logo, Colors, Website). It’s not.
Brand is the personal connections with your customers that build up over time. But establishing these connections involve elusive concepts in culture and human behavior that are often difficult to grasp.
There’s a Missing Piece – Brand is Inside-Out.
In the 2000s, research showed that marketers independently trying to manipulate customer behavior using branding strategies was misguided.
Brand should start from the core of a company, beginning with its mission, trickling throughout the company, and establishing a brand culture.
This is how your entire company becomes aligned, ensuring a consistent brand character to your customers every time – Ergo, branding is inside-out.
Brand, Mission, and Culture determine harmony in a company.
Having worked with over 30 tech companies in Taiwan, many of the CEOs I talked with are the first to acknowledge conflict and dissatisfaction in their companies.
Understandably, tech companies focus on products, growth, and survival – who has time for Mission, Brand and Culture? But these are the foundational cornerstones in an organization – without them, a company has to accept some levels of dysfunction, disorganization and lack of direction.
It’s a dilemma, and after years of operations, CEOs feel stuck.
But how do you implement Brand?
So the challenge was how to establish a company-wide Brand ideology and culture to right the ship.
Objectives and Key Results – Establishing Mission and Culture.
Management is an integral part of developing company culture. We found that most companies use varying aspects of MBO, KPI, SOPs, top-down management control, but they are not perfect, and not conducive to Branding.
We turned to OKR management methodology, which is focused on company alignment from the Mission of the company down through all the projects, teams and staff.
OKR was the perfect management structure for Brand implementation and alignment.
Developing your Brand and Messaging.
How do you develop your brand from your Core Mission? From the mission statement (purpose), you plan your Vision of the future. From there you formulate the strategies to achieve your Vision.
Mission > Vision > Strategy
From there, you can write your brand messaging. What’s the problem (from mission), how are you going to solve the problem (strategy), how will you make a difference (Vision).
Where does the logo, colors, slogans, imaging and website come into play? These are still important designer tasks, but should be inspired by and closely connected to the brand message.
Digital Marketing – Delivering the Brand Message.
The next task was delivering the Brand Message to the market. Traditional marketing is still very much in use, but it’s expensive, time consuming and people intensive. And the overall outcome is never certain.
We found modern-day Digital Marketing leverages the advantages of the online space to disseminate your Brand Message at the speed of the internet, using Big Data, Social Media, and Email Marketing. It’s inexpensive, and all you need is a computer and access to the internet.
Practice Making Perfect – Results.
Beta Case 2022-2024
It was time to put our knowledge and theories to work.
It took a few projects before we could get our feet firmly on the ground, but in 2022, we approached a 12-year technology company still reeling after the COVID epidemic.
We implemented OKR and established purpose and direction for the company, managers, and employees. We boosted their Brand authority in their industry, improved their website messaging, and streamlined their marketing efforts using Big Data analytics, Social Media, and Email Marketing.
We doubled website visitors over a 6-month period and increased sales by 18% for standard products, all attributed to a solid management structure, a burgeoning brand, and digital marketing.
And today, they are on course for an IPO in 2027.
“The main value we gained from the OKR course came from the ideas and adjustments you helped us brainstorm and refine.”
“I sincerely hope you know that your guidance for our company over the past two years has been 100% successful. It has had a tremendous impact on us, helping our company not only survive but also thrive.”
AH – Sales Manager at Taiwan Technology Company
Everything is easier with a Strong Brand and Solid Management.
Foundational aspects of business.
Running a company is tough. Many businesses simply muscle their way through business operations. Though they can achieve growth and stability, owners are aware of the internal problems that exists but are unsure how to change.
These conflicts can be avoided by establishing the “Foundational Aspects of business.” These are Brand, Culture, and Management, which together become the company ethos that gives purpose and direction to every aspect of the business, and to all the stakeholders.
Because these concepts are hard to understand the first time, we want to help companies get over the hurdle, to take advantage of the awesome power underlying a strong brand, solid management, and a robust culture.
Sam Nada – Director at C2Believe
