Heart problems afflict millions of people every year. Heart problems also afflict many brands. In both cases, a lack of treatment can lead to disabling consequences, even death. Of course, we're not doctors at Fresh Fuel, but we do know something about brands.
What exactly is the "heart" of a brand?
Ask fifty companies this question and you'll likely get one or more of these typical answers:
Photo credit ~ CarbonNYC
- "Our logo."
- "Our product/service
- "Our customers."
- "Our name."
While they're all important, they're all wrong answers. As Charlton Heston famously screamed out in the sci-fi flick Soylent Green, "It's people!!!!!" More specifically, the heart of your brand is your employees.
Before I elaborate on that, let's think about heart problems for a moment. In the form of cardiovascular disease, they creep up on a person over time. Cholesterol and triglycerides go up, blood pressure goes up, plaque begins building on artery walls and eventually, all these things and more can lead to heart failure - often without much warning. In much the same way, the these things can happen to the heart of your brand. And in the same way that people can avoid, or treat and ward off heart problems, so can your brand
Is your brand heart-healthy?
Most companies spend much of their time and money marketing and brand building to the outside world and not much time on internal focus. This is a mistake. Marketing and brand building internally can play a crucial role in defining and growing a healthy business. To diagnose the health of the heart of your brand, ask yourself the following questions:
- Do you have a logo?
- What's your creation story? Do you have one? Is it written down and have you clearly communicated it to your employees.
- What's your creed/mission - your reason for being? Is it defined? Is it written down and have
you clearly communicated it to your employees.
- What are your values? Are they written down and have
you clearly communicated them to your employees.
- What is your brand position and does it clearly differentiate you from your competition? Do you have one? Is it written down and have
you clearly communicated it to your employees.
- What is your brand personality? Do you have one? Is it written down and have
you clearly communicated it to your employees.
If you answered yes to most of these questions, skip the rest of this post. Not only is your logo probably outstanding (along with your comprehensive corporate identity usage guide) but you're so far ahead of the game with your brand and branding execution, you could probably give me advice. Heck, You probably work for Zappos and you guys are external and internal branding all-stars.
If you answered yes to most but you're employees don't get it, read on and bear with me.
Worst of all, your whole brand is sick.
First, the worst case scenario. If you answered no to three or more of the questions, you have some serious issues that will be eating away at both your profitability and your heart. I say three or more because first, if you're in business, you probably have a logo. And, more than you might think, many businesses think their logo IS their brand. Second, while a good (compelling) creation story is important, it's not necessarily critical. However all the other items are. If you don't have them and they are not written down, you don't have a clearly defined and differentiated brand. And if you don't have that, you have nothing special to communicate externally (to customers and prospects) or internally (to your people). The heart of the company, your employees have nothing concrete to rally around, believe in and evangelize. That, in a nutshell, means you have a weak body and a weak heart. The two go hand in hand and here is why.
You can't rally the troops without a cause.
Think about it. Nothing or no one should be able to articulate the message, vision, values and personality of your brand better than your employees. If they are truly aligned around the brand and you have clearly communicated and trained them to understand it, they will become ambassadors and evangelists for you and proudly generate word of mouth and buzz that can be priceless. That can't happen if you have not clearly defined who you are as a company, why you sell what you sell, and what your vision, mission and promise are for your external target audience. That external point of view is what your employees need to live for. It is the foundation for your internal point of view - which provides the energy that pumps the blood to power the heart of your company. Regardless of whether you do it yourself or enlist a brand consultant to help, you need to figure it out - all of it. Define your brand. Then don't just develop a strategy and spend money on a campaign to communicate it to your customers and prospects. Develop a strategy and spend money on a campaign to communicate it to your employees as well. All the best brands do both very well - Zappos, Ikea, Virgin, Apple, you know the names. If all this describes your situation, stop reading and gather your team. You've got a lot of work to do.
What if you do have a cause, but the troops won't fight for it?
You answered yes to most of the questions, but the troops are listless, unfocused and deserting. The body is strong but the heart's not willing. If you answered honestly and you feel pretty good about your brand, its differentiated position and how you communicate it externally, you probably need to work on your Internal POV (if you actually skipped everything to this point, read through the paragraph above for clarification). Once you have the internal POV nailed down, it's time to develop your internal brand strategy and campaign.
What's the difference between an internal and external brand strategy and execution?
Fundamentally there are many similarities between internal and external branding. It's just that many companies don't spend the time or resources to build their businesses from the inside out. Most of what has been hammered into us over the course of our marketing careers is focused on the outside; strategies and tactics to reach our prospects and customers through advertising, PR and the myriad other tools at our disposal. But the same thinking and focus can be applied inside your business and that's exactly what companies like Zappos and Southwest Airlines do to create an internal culture that fosters employees who are raving fans of their own brand... a heart that swells with pride! How do they do it?
- They define their story - their brand.
- They define and understand the target (their employees).
- They then develop a strategy and tactics based on desired vision and measurable outcomes (ROI applies here, too) to align the brand and the culture.
- They understand employee touch points and use multiple channels to reach them.Then they communicate continuously, especially as the brand evolves over time, with methods and materials that show as much excitement, passion and brand persuasion as their external marketing vehicles.
- Before executing, they make sure senior management and all key stakeholders are on-board with the strategy and objectives - in other words, they involve everybody that matters in the process and ensure they buy in.
It sounds fairly simple, but then so does external branding (or just about anything complex) in bullet points. Many companies enlist the aid of experts to help them get it right. However you choose to do it, it requires careful consideration and thoughtful execution to achieve success. Following are some basic tactics you can consider for executing your internal brand strategy,
- Develop an internal point of view. This is essentially a cultural doctrine - a dynamically expressed mantra that clearly defines your mission and how your employees will live it every day at work.
- Celebrate often - the big successes and the little one.
- Develop an internal branding campaign - identify all employee touch points and develop materials to reach them with compelling, engaging materials that reflect your desired culture and brand personality (just like you would for prospects and customers). Even the employee guidebook can be fun, entertaining and persuasive. If you can get them to show it to their family and friends, you're on the way to becoming a breakaway brand!
- Develop an intranet - better yet, an internal wiki for easy sharing of information and collaboration.
- New employee training and orientation - cultural assimilation begins here. make it fun, make it engaging, put on a show. get them on board and then devise regular steps to keep them there.
- Internal newsletters.
- Regular team building events.
- Recognize achievement, publicize rewards.
There are many more tactics you can use for the health of your business and the heart of your organization. You've heard it a million times, "It's what's inside counts." Too many companies forget this and suffer because of it. To be the best your brand can be, you must take a holistic approach and nurture the heart of your existence. Your employees should be your best messengers, your biggest fans and the pump that primes your profits.
In these tough economic times and as the year comes to a close, all of us here at Fresh Fuel wish you and yours happy holidays and the best of luck! We hope this information can help make your business or someone else's better in 2009.
Have we left anything out? Can you add something? Do you have an internal branding success story you can share? Do you think we're nuts? Let us know. We welcome the conversation!
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