Brand-building, one comfy chair at a time.

Imagine a bakery with grimy, half empty display cases. It wouldn’t matter if that bakery sold the most delicious cupcakes in town — the state of the store tells potential customers a much different story.

And that’s the point. Everything about your Brand — including your location, employee workspaces, meeting rooms and customer greeting areas — has a direct impact on the way people perceive it. You can’t just rely on a good product or service to carry your business.

The best Brands know this.

Google, with its tricked-out, wacky gadget-leaden headquarters in California (a space known as "Googleplex" that attracts nearly 1,300 applications every day), has it down pat.

But it’s not just tech-savvy companies who understand that space can be consciously used to build Brands.

Consider TD Bank, a company whose Position — rooted in the notion of "comfortable banking" — has helped it move from a distant #5 to a close #2 ranking within its peer group. The now familiar "big green chair" has been used extensively to drive home the company’s commitment to making the banking experience less cold and daunting.

And now they’re going one further.

TD recently unveiled a new, modernized Branch environment dubbed "Bravo" designed to create a welcoming, comfortable place that customers actually enjoy visiting. A place with an open layout, a kids play area, free coffee, community rooms for families and small businesses, coin vending machines, digital displays, web kiosks, an online/printable brochure library, and video-conferencing with banking experts.

The physical embodiment of their "comfortable banking" Position.

Bravo, TD. Bravo.

What does the Brand Coach coach?

Every touchpoint with every stakeholder is an opportunity to either build Brand equity or destroy it. That’s why everything about your office space — even the nooks and crannies — will either positively or negatively impact your Brand.

Clarify your Position — what makes you different — and deliver on that promise in everything you say and do, paying attention to the physical space around you. If you claim your Brand is about relationship building, then knock down those walls and give your employees a chance to get to know each other.

And remember, you don’t have to do a complete rebuild like TD Bank to improve Brand perceptions. Simply start with your guest coat closet, one of the first things a new stakeholder might see. Is it full of forgotten shoes, abandoned sweaters, broken hangers, bulk FedEx materials, and overflow office supplies?

Those "forgotten" areas can say a lot about your attention to detail and your approach to customer service — especially if they’re all your prospective stakeholders know about you so far.

Don’t let your space tell them the wrong story.