I would be willing to bet that the most common element found in corporate vision/mission statements and values lists is “customer focused.” While that is a very good thing, I would argue that the priority focus of companies and brands should be employees – internal audiences.

First, let me admit that the very first item on my company’s corporate values statement is what we call “Clients First” (our version of customer focused). After all, everything we do as an integrated digital marketing firm is intended to help our clients achieve greater marketing results and success. We are in business for, and because of, our valued clients.

But, to live up to that core value of putting Clients First, I realize that my primary focus actually needs to be on my people, and how are they building and consistently delivering upon our THUNDER FACTORY brand promise. If we can get that internal brand promise and process right, then delivering for our clients is pretty well assured.

This “branding from the inside out” approach (our shorthand is Internal Branding) is in many ways the greatest untapped marketing opportunity for companies and their brands. In this and future posts, I plan to closely examine this Internal Branding opportunity, and explore how it is being effectively used (and not) by marketers and their organizations. Most importantly, we will outline how you can employ this approach to strengthen your brand and drive your marketing results.

There are multiple reasons why Internal Branding is so untapped by companies and organizations of all types. First, organizations tend to be outward directed, mainly because that is what they were designed to do. A company tries to sell more product, more profitably. To accomplish these goals they need customers. Consequently, the primary emphasis is on identifying, engaging and satisfying those customers, the lifeblood of the company. Non profit organizations are not terribly different in this regard. Their mission typically is to provide services and support for members, stakeholders and other constituents. Again, the focus tends to be externally focused.

Another reason why Internal Branding has traditionally been a stepchild in the marketing world is that it does not fall neatly into one area of the corporate structure. Actually, Internal Branding bridges a number of corporate departments, including marketing, HR, training, corporate communications/PR, customer service and operations. The fact that Internal Branding touches on all of these myriad corporate areas ensures that, as a function, it frequently lacks an essential internal champion (should it be the COO, CMO or head of HR?). This can lead to in-action.

Internal Branding is indeed a multi-departmental and multi-disciplinary function. That makes it even more important for the success of your company, organization and brand.

As readers of this blog know, my favorite definition of a brand is “a promise made and a promise kept…consistently over time.” If you are in the business of building, nurturing and growing a brand (or brands), wouldn’t you want to make sure that even before you reached out to any other audiences, you made sure that you were keeping your “promises” first and foremost to your employees? After all, they are customers and clients, too; with consumer products, they are probably major users and customers of your brand. As such, shouldn’t they be totally loyal to your brand, while also being true advocates and even evangelists for it?

That employee brand evangelism is the Holy Grail of marketing (and business overall), but how often does it really occur? How many times in your interactions with representatives of other companies — either as a consumer, partner, customer or client — do you feel like they truly understand their brand and are passionate about it?

Think about it? If they don’t deeply care about and believe in…and love…their brand, why should you?

There are some great examples of companies and organizations that have embraced Internal Branding with great success. They may or may not realize that what they are doing is Internal Branding, but that is what it amount to. In future posts, we will examine leading internally-focused branding organizations such as Zappos.com (the fast growing online seller of shoes), Southwest Airlines and the Marine Corps. All three of these entities have built category leading brands by treating their people as critically important audiences and stakeholders, and holding them accountable for delivering on the organization’s brand promise.

We’ll also delve into what we believe are the core principles of Internal Branding. I will briefly mention them here, and then provide much more detail on these Internal Branding imperatives in a future post:

• Co-Creation — Just as effective external marketing is no longer about just “telling and selling,” Internal Branding needs to be a collaborative effort between management and employees, and amongst employees themselves. From the beginning, you should not be thinking about creating your brand and then educating your employees on it. It is much more effective to ”co-create” your brand in concert and close collaboration with your employees. Senator Obama’s remarkable campaign has demonstrated the incredible power of leading and creating from the bottom up rather than directing by the top down. That is great Internal Branding at work.
• Empowerment– Yes, this is a bit of over-used corporate jargon, but it is central to an effective Internal Branding effort. You need to “empower” your people with the tools, information and support to live your brand and represent it consistently in the way you want it to be perceived. No empowerment leads to zero employee brand advocacy.
• Education – This is fundamental to effective Internal Branding, but it is much easier said than done. How many times in your career have you experienced a corporate education effort that really inspired you and/or had a tangible, lasting effect? But, without effective, focused and inspiring education, Internal Branding will not amount to much. It probably goes without saying that the education I am referring to is not just monthly employee town hall meetings, brown baggers with the CEO, email campaigns, corporate intranets or employee orientation sessions.
• Accountability– Internal Branding requires giving employees much greater responsibility for creating and delivering the brand experience. In doing so, we also need to hold employees and management accountable to the goals of the Internal Branding program. As part of this, the Internal Branding objectives and key metrics need to be built into the performance goals of both employees and management.
• Shared Incentives — As we enlist our employees as vital players in an Internal Branding initiative, while also holding them accountable for their performance and results, we need to make sure we are providing incentives that are appropriate for, and commensurate with, this effort. Of course, incentives are a cornerstone of organizational management, cohesion and success, but they become especially important when we are truly making employees front line participants/principals in the branding process. By the way, incentives are not just compensation based. Of course, that is certainly a part of it (and should be).
• Measurement– Another one of the roadblocks to greater adoption of Internal Branding programs is the perceived lack of measurability. And, I am not just referring to employee performance reviews. Actually, measurement is just as important to the successful Internal Branding program as it is to an external marketing campaign.

I believe there is significant potential for you and your ogranzation/company to improve performance, strengthen and improve your corporate culture and increase results through Internal Branding. This really is an untapped and under-leveraged process that bridges multiple organizational functions. In future posts, we will share with you specific strategies and steps to take advantage of this powerful form of marketing (or is it really marketing?).

Internal Branding works. You should consider putting it to work for you.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS