It’s Your Responsibility to Explain, Excite and Help Every Employee Be True to Your Brand
A few years ago, I was talking to an Assistant Manager at my local grocery store. The company, a market leader and one of the largest chains in the country, was undergoing a major rebranding, so I asked her about it. Her take? It was a colossal waste of money that could have been better spent paying her and her employees more. Her employer was spending millions and radically changing an identity that had been a market leader for decades and she claimed to be unaware of the reason, messages or mission. In fact, rather than promoting the initiative, she was speaking against it.
Her employer failed her, the market and its customers. It’s a shame because the situation could have been very different.
Smart brand marketers use every customer touchpoint to strengthen their brand messaging and talk with a unified, consistent voice. And one of the most powerful touchpoints is employee-customer interactions.
Make every employee a brand ambassador by making them part of the process. Here are some of the strategies and programs to consider:
- Make a big deal about brand. Communicate the importance by making it an agenda point in every company meeting or town hall
- Create an all-employee brand document or digital destination that explains the brand, its messages and why it’s important to customers and your company
- Be sure brand is part of employee training and onboarding in a meaningful way – not just the logo and tagline, but the reasoning behind the messaging
- Pay as much attention to brand with your internal communications as with your external communications
- Generate excitement with brand activities – for example, monthly “did-you-know” communications or a “Brand Ambassador Award” program
- Add brand to everything – on-hold messages, communications portals, employee-benefits communications – everything
- Reward employees for correcting off-brand issues
- Make brand a personal relationship with every employee
From conversations in Board Rooms with multi-billion-dollar ramifications to sports commentators talking about the latest phenom’s brand identity, brand is part of the national conversation. Everyone is an authority. Everyone knows the term. It’s your responsibility to make it part of each employees’ lexicon. That makes every marketing dollar you spend work harder.