What is brand strategy?

The first phase of a branding process. We define your position in the market and write your brand narrative, based on what's already true in your organisation. You come out of it with a sharp positioning, a brand narrative that holds up, and a leadership team that agrees on who you are.

Does brand strategy work in B2B too?

Especially in B2B. The purchases are big, the decision sits with multiple people, and the process takes a long time. The best proposal doesn't automatically win; the company that's clearest upfront about what it stands for does. A sharp brand gets you on the shortlist before the conversation even starts, and means you compete less on price. The idea that branding is only for consumer brands costs B2B companies exactly that head start.

How long does the strategic phase take?

Seven to nine weeks. We need that time to go into the organisation, talk to clients, and sharpen the choices.

Can't we just start with a new logo or a website?

You can, but then you're building on sand. Form without direction collapses fast and is expensive to fix. That's why we always start with strategy. The identity and the website come after, and then they actually hold up.

Is brand strategy a one-time thing, or something ongoing?

Both. You lay the foundation thoroughly in the strategic phase. After that it's your guideline, one you adjust every time your company enters a new phase.

For B2B companies that deliver good work, but whose brand has fallen behind what they're now worth. Often there's a turning point: an acquisition, a succession, a new market, or fast growth. Usually it's the marketer or the commercial lead who first sees the brand no longer fits and brings us in. We involve leadership from the start, because the choices we make together affect the whole organisation, from sales to the people you hire.

What does a brand strategy cost?

That depends on the scope and the size of your organisation. We always build a proposal tailored to you. The strategic phase can also stand alone as a starting point, if you want to lay the foundation first before moving on.

What is brand identity?

Brand identity is the phase in which your brand takes shape and finds its voice. We translate your positioning into a concept, a verbal identity with tone of voice and tagline, a visual identity covering logo, typography, colour and visual language, and a system for motion. The result is a brand that looks, sounds and feels consistent everywhere, supported by a brand guide your team can use independently.

What's the difference between brand strategy and brand identity?

Brand strategy defines what you stand for, your position and your story. Brand identity makes that visible and felt: how your brand looks, sounds, and feels. The strategy is the direction, the identity is the form that follows from it. That's why we do them in that order, not the other way around.

Can you just design a logo or visual identity?

We design a complete identity, not a standalone logo. A logo that does not grow from your positioning is decoration, and decoration may attract attention for a moment before fading away. What stays with people is a brand that evokes the same feeling everywhere. That is the work, and we deliver it as one cohesive whole.

Does brand identity work in B2B too?

Especially in B2B. Buyers often compare companies that look similar on paper and form a preference early. An identity that consistently evokes the same feeling helps people recognise and take you seriously before the conversation even begins. The idea that a polished identity is only for consumer brands costs B2B companies precisely that advantage.

Do we need to do the strategy with you too?

Preferably, because the identity follows from the positioning. If you already have a sharp, shared strategy in place, we first assess whether it is strong enough to build on. If not, we start there, because an identity built on a weak foundation will not hold up.

For B2B companies whose identity has fallen behind the value of the business. There is often a turning point involved: an acquisition, a spin-off, a new product or a new market. At moments like these, your brand needs to show who you are now, not who you were three years ago.

What does a brand identity cost?

That depends on the scope and size of your organisation. We always create a tailored proposal, usually as a continuation of the strategy phase.

What is brand culture?

Brand culture is your brand as it is lived on the inside and expressed through the behaviour of your people. We sharpen your core values, translate them into concrete behaviour, embed them in your onboarding and leadership and show how the culture comes across through your employer brand. The result is a culture you can actively shape and that feels consistent from the outside.

What's the difference between brand culture and employer branding?

Employer branding is how you present your brand culture to the outside world as an employer. First, we make sure the culture is genuine and visible in everyday behaviour. Only then do you have something real to communicate and use to attract the right talent. Employer branding without a culture to support it is a promise you cannot keep on day one.

Does this also work for attracting technical talent?

Especially there. In a region where the biggest names are competing for the same technical talent, you are unlikely to win on salary alone. What does work is a brand that lets people feel what you offer that a larger employer cannot: ownership, direct communication and a culture they can genuinely be part of. That starts on the inside and becomes visible on the outside.

We already have core values. What do you add?

Core values are often appealing words that do not guide behaviour. We translate them into concrete actions: what does a value mean in a conversation with a client, in how you say no or in how colleagues address each other? That is how a value moves from the wall into the workplace.

For B2B companies with a strong culture that remains invisible from the outside or is at risk of fading as the organisation grows. There is often a turning point involved: a change in leadership where the story lives in one person's head, rapid growth that makes it harder for new people to understand the intention or a fight for talent you are losing on reputation.

Do you do this once, or as a process?

Usually as an ongoing process or retainer, because embedding a culture takes more than a one-off workshop. We lay the foundation and stay involved while it becomes part of everyday behaviour and grows with your organisation.

What does brand culture cost?

That depends on the scope and size of your organisation. We always create a tailored proposal.

What does business succession have to do with branding?

At a founder-led company, the brand is often never made explicit: it was the founder himself. His network, his judgment, his way of working. At a succession, that needs to be detached from the person and captured, otherwise the story leaves with whoever is handing over.

When do you start on the brand during a succession?

Before the handover is complete, while the founder is still there. The story is in his head, so he needs to be there to get it out. Waiting until after the handover means reconstructing what's already gone.

What's the difference between founder-led and founder-inspired?

Founder-led means the company runs on the founder's presence. Founder-inspired means his vision is captured and anchored in the organization, so it keeps working even when he steps back.

Does this also apply if the successor comes from outside?

Yes. An appointed director can't inherit the founder's story and has to formulate one. For him, a sharp positioning is the instrument to make the new phase visible, in his first year.

Why do so many acquisitions fail?

70 to 90% fail to reach the expected value, and the biggest cause is culture, not the numbers (BCG, McKinsey). Two ways of working don't automatically become one. Without a shared story both teams recognise themselves in, people leave and what made the deal valuable dilutes.

What if we're the party being acquired?

Then you don't want to dissolve into the bigger whole. Your identity, your best people and your customers were the reason you got bought. A sharp brand story helps you hold on to what made you worth buying, even as the owner changes.

Which brand should lead after an acquisition?

Not automatically the biggest or the oldest. The brand that carries the most trust with the customers you want to keep should lead. Sometimes that's the acquirer, sometimes the acquired party, sometimes a new brand that rises above both.

When do you start on brand strategy in an acquisition?

Preferably before closing, not months after. The longer your brands sit side by side without direction, the more the market fills in who you are on its own, and the more expensive it becomes to reverse that.

Should a new product get its own name or fall under our brand?

That depends on how far it stands from what you do now and on who needs to buy it. If it's close to your core, it strengthens things under your brand. If it targets a completely different audience, a separate name can actually help. The choice should come from strategy, not from enthusiasm about the launch.

Why doesn't our brand work automatically in a new market?

Because your existing brand is built on relationships and recognition in your current market. In a new market or region, no one knows you, and the personal introduction disappears. There, the story has to do it alone, and that requires a brand that speaks for itself.

We've had multiple names over the years. What now?

That's called brand architecture, and at most companies it's history rather than a choice. We sort out what deserves its own name, what falls under a parent brand and what can disappear, so customers understand again how everything connects.

When do you start with this?

Before you launch or enter the new market, not after. The positioning of the new thing determines how you bring it to market. Adjusting afterwards costs more and is visible to your customers.

Employer branding doesn't start with HR

Read time8 min

Date published16/07/2026

Written by

Stijn de Jong

Reception area of Stuurmen Branding Agency with a stylish side table, artwork and minimalist interior.

Employer branding isn't something HR does on the side. It's your brand as your own people experience it every day. Things go wrong when there is a gap between the position you choose and what employees actually experience. You don't close that gap with a careers page or a badge, but by building your brand promise into how you hire, onboard and lead.

It doesn't start with a job advert

Your recruiter feels it first. The job advert promises a culture of ownership and courage, yet three weeks later the new employee is sitting through an onboarding session where nobody has ever heard those words. What the brand promises and what your people experience begin to drift apart. That is exactly where the real work starts, and it does not start with HR alone.

Employer branding is treated almost everywhere as an HR task. A better job advert, a careers page, a Christmas hamper at the end of the year. They are all visible gestures, while the brand itself lives somewhere else: in what people feel from the moment they step inside, whether you have written something beautiful or not.

Employer branding

What is employer branding, and what isn't?

Employer branding is not recruitment marketing. It is your brand, experienced from the inside: what you promise on the outside, made real in the workplace. A strong employer brand is not what you say about yourself in a job advert; it is what your own people say about you when you are not in the room.

The difference lies in where you start. Start with the campaign and you optimise the promise. Start with the brand and you make sure the promise matches the experience. Only the latter holds up.

	Employer brand built from within	Employer branding as recruitment marketing
What it is	A job advert, a careers page, a badge	Your brand promise, made real every day
Who carries it	HR, working in isolation	Leadership, strategy and HR together
Where it lands	With the candidate, up to day one	With your own people, every day
When it breaks	When the promise doesn't match the experience	When positioning and behaviour drift apart

Mobuline campaign poster with a shade cloth on a brick exterior wall.

The silo

Why it goes wrong when it stays with HR

Look at how most companies are organised. The brand sits with marketing and leadership, while the people side of the business sits with HR. The two rarely speak the same language, so without realising it, they tell two different stories. The market hears one; the new employee experiences the other.

That is not HR's fault. HR can only work with what it is given. If the positioning has never been sharpened or translated into the workplace, no recruiter can close that gap with better copy. The problem is not the department, but the silo between them.

And that gap is bigger than you might think. In practice, many employees cannot explain what their company stands for or what sets it apart from competitors. If your own people are not clear on that, no one can communicate it to the outside world, however good your careers page looks. Your employer brand breaks down in the very place it should live.

Recognize this?

You attract good people with a strong story, then lose them within a year because the reality of the workplace turns out to be different. Or top talent chooses the more familiar competitor, even though your culture is stronger and simply less visible from the outside.

Office interior with workstations, hanging plants, a basketball hoop and black room dividers

The core

What an employer brand really is

Your employer brand is your brand, made real from the inside. It is the same choice defined by your brand strategy and made visible through your brand identity, now lived by the people who carry the company every day. One brand, consistent inside and out.

That also explains why training is rarely the answer. You cannot coach people towards a culture that management itself does not live by. This is not about making your people better; it is about aligning the promise with the behaviour. It is an alignment issue, not a training issue.

Your employer brand is what your people say about you when you're not in the room.
Stijn de JongStuurmen Branding Agency

And that starts at the top. If leadership puts the values on the wall but does not act on them, everyone feels it within a week. Culture follows behaviour, not posters. That is why this is a leadership issue, not an HR project.

The approach

What makes up a strong brand culture?

A brand culture that holds up is not a vibe or a set of core values in the hallway. It is your brand promise, built into the moments that actually matter. Who you hire and who you do not. How the first weeks feel. What you hold people accountable for and what you praise them for. How leaders behave when things get tough.

You capture that in a brand guide that does not just show what something looks like, but also explains why you make the choices you make. This gives the recruiter, team lead and director the same language to describe who you are.

For growing companies, this becomes especially important. Up to around sixty people, you know everyone and the culture largely carries itself. Beyond that, it begins to dilute unless you make it explicit. In a region like Brainport, where talent is scarce and the biggest names are competing for the same people, a brand your own people genuinely feel is often the only thing that sets you apart from the better-known neighbour.

Business cards from Hyer on a black steel cabinet in the office.

The tipping point

When should you invest in this?

Not simply because you happen to have an open role, but when your brand and your workplace start drifting apart. That happens at recognisable moments.

During a succession, when the founder steps back and the story in their head threatens to leave with them. During an acquisition or merger, when two cultures suddenly have to become one brand. During rapid growth or a move into a new market, when the people joining no longer automatically know what you stand for. Or when you appoint your first Head of Marketing or HR and realise that nobody shares the same definition of 'we'.

In practice

What this means in practice

We build brands from the inside out, which means people and culture need to be involved from the start. Not as a separate employer branding track alongside the brand, but as the same brand carried through into the workplace. HR is not there simply to implement it afterwards, but as a partner at the table.

The sequence is the same as in everything we do. First, sharpen the choice: what do you stand for, and what do you not? Then make that choice visible through your identity. Finally, make sure you deliver on it every day through the people who carry the company. That turns culture from a matter of chance into something you can actively shape.

Employer branding is your brand as current and prospective employees experience it. It is not your recruitment campaign, but the promise you deliver in the workplace. It determines whether people want to work for you and whether they stay. At Stuurmen, we see it as your brand made real from the inside.

No. Recruitment marketing is how you bring a job posting to attention: the copy, the channels, the campaign. Employer branding is what lies beneath that: the brand a candidate experiences and an employee lives every day. Good recruitment marketing without a solid employer brand attracts people who leave again fast.

Both, along with the entire organisation. The brand usually sits with marketing, while responsibility for people sits with HR, and that split is exactly the problem. A strong employer brand emerges when strategy, marketing and HR share the same story and leadership lives by it. HR is a strategic partner, not the sole owner.

Brand culture is how your brand is lived from the inside: the behaviour, the choices and the way of working. Employer branding is how that culture becomes visible and attractive to talent on the outside. Culture is the source; the employer brand is what the market sees of it. Without the first, the second is an empty shell.