A common concern among clients is how to take the work they have done with their brand and use it to rally and engage internal audiences. Unfortunately, more often than not this is an afterthought in the branding process. And a disconnect here can mean the difference between a brand message that truly resonates across all customer touch points and one that rings hollow.
Your employees interface with customers, partners, and investors every day. If they fail to reflect the voice and values of your brand, you’ll look at best schizophrenic, at worst completely dysfunctional. But if employees do “get” your brand, they will become amazing ambassadors and standard-bearers for your company. In my mind, this is the holy grail of branding – and it can be the most challenging phase of any brand initiative.
Here are six elements to help you overcome this challenge:
1) Engage from the start. The first step in getting internal audiences on your side is to make sure their voice is heard in the process. Involve representative groups early in your fact-finding. Messaging strategies and planned communications efforts need to be contemplated within the context how your business behaves in the real world.
2) Be flexible to the needs of your business. Your brand is a fundamental business asset. The key is to make it a more valued asset to each practice within your company, to give each of them a competitive advantage in the market. If your brand creates too many hurdles or roadblocks to the success of each division, something’s wrong.
3) Make it relevant. Stay true to who you are. Your employees will be the first ones to tell you if your new positioning is off base. They will also be the first to sing your praises – to colleagues, partners, customers – if your new corporate messages recognize a positive truth they have always known to be inherent in what makes your brand special.
4) Follow through. Rebranding is not a one-shot deal. A blowout launch about the “new you” followed by… nothing is a guaranteed recipe for disaster and employee disinterest. Communicate a rebranding initiative over time, and maintain it with the same thought and dedication you give to the launch.
5) Involve HR. Living the brand is not just some marketing-speak. Strong brands incorporate brand-inspired goals and objectives into behavior. Reward employees – with anything from recognition to compensation – for exhibiting and engendering behavior that advances the goals of your brand.
6) Leverage divisional leadership. The most successful internal initiatives take the time to socialize internal leaders about the value and contributions of the brand while enabling them to take ownership of it in the eyes of their staffs. Brand training or other targeted internal efforts will have their greatest impact when division leaders publicly endorse the values and voice of the brand.
The bottom line is this: Employees are the most vital communications force in making any change a reality for customers, investors, recruits, and partners. Sure, you can make a splash with a redesigned logo or a new ad campaign – but if your workforce fails to continually energize the promise you’ve spent all that money creating, your “new brand” will start feeling old very fast.
Jonathan Paisner is brand director of CoreBrand, a New York-based branding consultancy.
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