The value of internal branding
Internal branding is a hot topic these
days because businesses interested in creating a brand have
discovered that if their employees don’t understand and
buy into the brand message, neither will their customers.
 | ||
Even more than just understanding and
supporting the brand, employees will make or break your brand.
Either they do or they don’t. Your branding program will
live or die with this reality.
Internal branding is especially important
for drycleaners because customer relationships are built on
multiple touch points.
It’s not unusual for customers to
have regular contact with several different CSRs, management,
drivers and other members of your staff. Many opportunities
exist to build a convincing brand personality — or one
that’s full of holes.
Getting employees on board starts with
recruiting the right people in the first place. If you have
taken the time and effort to paint a detailed picture of how
employees are supposed to behave, it’s much easier to
find new employees capable of doing that.
The next step is to create an action
inducing brand strategy. This begins with a mission statement.
Most mission statements promise all things to all people and
that just isn’t going to happen.
Once you have a simple, actionable brand
strategy, the next step is to ingrain this into your corporate
culture.
There are no quick-fix solutions here.
This is a long-term objective that requires top-down and
bottom-up implementation.
Top-down, of course, starts at the very
top — with you! You have to be the number-one champion of
your organization. If your employees see you only giving lip
service to the mission statement, they will too.
Your internal branding program should
reward employees for brand-supporting behavior. Employee
recognition is always good. Compensation that provides monetary
benefits for walking the talk are even better.
The other side of this coin is to root
out behaviors that are inconsistent with your branding values.
It’s your job to coach employee performance to be more
brand focused.
Bottom-up tactics can begin with new
employee orientation. There’s no better time to start
painting the picture of what desirable performance looks like.
Allow them to watch other employees who are promoting the brand
the way you’ve envisioned it.
No single internal branding strategy is a
magic wand, and you can’t expect overnight results. A
considerable amount of time should be spent on internal
branding before any attempt is made at external branding.
Internal branding is a work in progress, just like external
branding.
Loss of momentum
New branding programs are often launched
with great fanfare, only to be forgotten six months later. Even
programs that are consistently executed over a period of years
can experience problems. Things are humming along and,
suddenly, you hit the wall. Enthusiasm slows. Interests shifts.
Results start to decline.
Then it’s time to inject new
excitement into your program. You should budget for refreshing
activities and events each year.
Just because your external branding is
starting to bear fruit is not a sign you can afford to lose
focus on your internal branding. That could bring an end to
what you’ve built up until this point.
Regularly measure employee branding
attitudes and activities. Look for situations in which employee
behaviors are inconsistent with your brand values. Try to
assess the gap between your brand promise and the actual
delivery.
The ultimate goal of internal branding is
called brand systemization, or bringing the brand to life. You
want to align your brand with your company’s values and
corporate culture. Not an easy task, to be sure.
But companies that successfully
accomplish this are the ones everyone wants to work for. Morale
is higher. Turnover is reduced. Employees are more productive
because they know what’s expected of them. It’s
definitely a goal worth striving for.
Make sure your internal branding is in
place before you launch a branding program to the public.
It’s a critical first step in building a lasting brand.
 |
