Create a Brand That Inspires

Chapter 1: Branding your organization in an online world Perhaps the world is getting smaller, but its impact on each of us is anything but small. Sometime around the end of the 20th century we gained the ability to instantly communicate with people anywhere in the world; and they with us. Through the web, people are now able to have relationships with anyone else who is plugged in—from Surinam to Sri Lanka. This single change is having a greater impact on how organizations brand themselves than anything else that has occurred in the last hundred years. Where communications, such as advertising and public relations, used to be enough to build brand preference, these channels have been all but lost in the firehose of information we experience each day. A weekday edition of the New York Times contains more information than the average person in 17th century England would have encountered in an entire lifetime. And now, the web has libraries of data available at our fingertips. The need for new brand constructs By embracing this worldwide network of websites, blogs, and social networking sites, we have tapped into a new world where ‘brand identification’ turns into ‘helping customers build their identities’ and ‘brand experiences’ are seen as part of more encompassing ‘brand community.’ We need to replace our old branding constructs with principles that take into account these changes. The new reality is successful brands will be based more on individual employee expression and online group conversations that companies have little or no control over. What does this say for managing branded customer experiences? We need new ways of thinking that allow employees to more authentically connect with customers. What does this mean for branding your organization? On the downside, it will be much more difficult to influence customer opinions from the top. On the upside, potential customers can learn a lot more about why they should buy your products than they could in the past. If your brand is to thrive in this environment, you will need to have all of your ducks in a row. You will need to back up what you say with what you do and back up what you do with a deep understanding of your organization’s true value. In this new world, teaching people how to embrace change is a necessity. How your organization and employees represent your brand will evolve rapidly, with every online conversation. As part of this, companies will find themselves redefining roles from CEOs on down, to empower corporate culture, brand alignment and social expression. The difference between delivering high quality and delivering a branded experience The most frequent mix-up brand and marketing managers make is to assume that delivering high quality means you have a strong brand. Quality without a differentiated strategic direction won’t get everyone on the same page and put scarce resources where they are needed most. It won’t result in an ownable customer experience. While management approaches such as Lean and Six Sigma improve company processes and quality, they don’t deal with differentiation. If my company and one down the street provide the same service and adopt the same Lean practices, how does the customer choose between them? Brand is a definable and compelling set of differences in business approach and culture that leads to customer loyalty and relationships. Effective internal branding will give Lean and Six Sigma initiatives even more impact by focusing process development on activities that build brand difference. In turn, Lean and Six Sigma will provide a more functional and clearer-thinking organization in which brand building can thrive. How ready are you to build your brand? Here are some questions to help you assess your current brand-building capabilities. This will provide you with the information to answer each one of these questions and translate your answers into action. • Do you have a clear and actionable brand promise? • Does the promise include actionable brand tools such as a strategic role, guiding principle, culture norms, story, and personality? • Do you use your brand to develop strategy? • Have you hired employees who buy into your brand? • Are employees brand ambassadors? • Are brand goals integrated into employee performance expectations? • Does HR use change management principles? • Do your employee social media guidelines integrate your brand approach? The remainder of the book focuses on how you can align employees, create a vibrant brand culture and consistently deliver your company’s brand experience. Chapter 2: Understanding internal branding Chapter 3: Selling internal branding to your senior team Chapter 4: Branding the organization Chapter 5: The rise of the employee ambassador Chapter 6: Building organizational cultures that build competitive advantage Chapter 7: Integrating internal branding into the organization Chapter 8: Defining the CEO role Chapter 9: Using brand architecture to focus your internal branding Chapter 10: Creating understandable and compelling brand strategies Chapter 11: Creating an employee culture that builds your brand community Chapter 12: Developing employee brand ambassadors Chapter 13: Rewarding the moment of truth Chapter 14: Translating brand tools into operational reality Chapter 15: Internal branding measurement Chapter 16: Surviving the visionary Chapter 17: The future is for the agile