The importance of brand and the concept that it is far more than a simple logo is pretty widely understood today. What is far less well understood is the importance of embedding the brand internally. An awful lot of time, effort and intellectual rigour go into defining or redefining brands but all too often that is where it stops. Far less effort seems to be given to making sure that your people fully understand and support your brand’s aims and ambitions. This is missing an important trick and one which ultimately will undermine the whole brand building exercise.
We still hear talk of the ‘employee brand’ as if it is some entity in its own right, separate from the brand that customers see. In reality there is only one brand, at least there should be. If you have separate internal and external brands, not only will that take up too much of your time (and money), it will also confuse your audiences. And confusion is anathema to strong brands. Of course, you will need to converse with your internal audience in a different way from how you talk to customers but the overriding brand (values, positioning, proposition and so on) must remain consistent. The messages will change but the brand must stay the same, it must remain true to its core.
We still hear talk of the ‘employee brand’ as if it is some entity in its own right, separate from the brand that customers see. In reality there is only one brand, at least there should be. If you have separate internal and external brands, not only will that take up too much of your time (and money), it will also confuse your audiences. And confusion is anathema to strong brands. Of course, you will need to converse with your internal audience in a different way from how you talk to customers but the overriding brand (values, positioning, proposition and so on) must remain consistent. The messages will change but the brand must stay the same, it must remain true to its core.
The brand belongs to everyone, not just management
But the irony is that despite a seemingly more open environment, internal dialogue seems to be as constrained as ever. In the course of our work, we are often struck by how little employees often know or understand the aims, ambitions and values of their employer organisation. This is not their fault. Core values should be central to a company’s operating behaviour, yet seemingly this most basic of brand elements is either never disseminated or not disseminated in the right way for staff to latch on to and use in their daily working lives.
It raises the serious question – if your staff do not know what your brand stands for, how on earth do you expect your customers to? By not engaging their staff many companies are failing in one of the most basic marketing rules and wasting precious resource.
So how do you get your people fully motivated behind your brand?
Staff are people and people like to feel valued. They like to be listened to, they like to feel that they have a voice, that their contribution will be recognised and that they are important to the organisation they work for. Being valued for your participation is a key factor in satisfaction at work. So, entering into face-to-face dialogue with staff is critical.
No one would argue that experiencing a holiday by sitting at your computer is in any way comparable to being there and experiencing the real thing. Stakeholder engagement is a bit like this. You can write as many emails, put up as many posters, do as many online surveys as you like but one of the most important initiatives you can do is to get your employees in a room and have a proper conversation with them.
Dialogue is the starting point for effective staff engagement
The truth is that unless you understand your people and know what they are thinking and what their frustrations and challenges are, the likelihood is that you will never get over the first hurdle. The first step in any brand development is to get talking to your staff and bring them onside.
Not only did the findings direct the subsequent communications and engagement programme, making sure it was one that resonated with staff but just by having those conversations staff immediately began to feel more valued and more at one with the company. The programme was so successful that it was rolled out globally. This would simply not have been possible if we had not had that dialogue.
Get talking
At Housebrands we believe that dialogue is fundamental to the success of every brand. Good brands don’t talk at their people they enter into a dialogue with them, they want to hear what their people have to say, they want to listen. Satisfied staff are not only more productive, they are less likely to leave. With recruitment and retention costs under scrutiny, improving the numbers can significantly help profitability.
We know we can create all the clever communications programmes you like but they won’t be effective if they fall on deaf ears. It’s only by talking to the people at the heart of your organisation that you can create the right communications package – one that has every chance of translating onto the bottom line.
So, let’s get talking.
