Is your brand keeping up with your expertise?

I talked with a potential client for ten minutes. I understood their history, unique process, and what's great about their team. None of that came across in any of their marketing materials, including their website.

I also overheard this in another conversation:

Their team is a group of experts pushing each other to get better by sharing books, podcasts, reports. But they're having a hard time attracting the next generation of talent who don't want their personal brand diminished by their perception of the company's brand.

Ouch. These are two examples of many that illustrate the expertise-brand gap.

The seed of the idea started with Marty Neumeier's book, The Brand Gap, an explanation of why business strategy is so often off from customer experience.

But there is an additional nuance for professional and financial service companies, as illustrated in both examples. Culture (i.e. your expertise) moves faster than the brand. You gain expertise constantly, but don't have a mechanism to keep the brand in step.

So what? Does it really matter? If you are maintaining, no. It probably does not matter. Your current customers and your employees know who you are.

If you are building, it matters quite a bit. The gap undermines trust. And trust is what we all build our firms on.