This paper summarises the findings of a formal study conducted in late 2001. It argues thata singular approach - or blueprint - can form the basis for internal brand deployment.

HE ENCOUNTER BETWEEN thecompany and the customer has become the key management issue of our mar-keting age. As a brand manager for a large service organisation,I had often read about the importance of aligning the customer experience to the brand promise.But, while I recognised the benefits of building a strong brand from within, I could find little practicaladvice on how to make employees effective brandambassadors.Some authors suggested specific activities such as workshops (Gofton, 2000) or developing a ‘cata-lytic symbol’ (Murphy, 2000) that would signify a step change to employees. These singular activitiesseemed rather piecemeal, and therefore liable tofall foul of cynicism. My suspicions were confirmedby a casual conversation with front line employees who were evidently ‘living the brand’.The decision by British Airways to put its work-force through the

Putting People First

and

PuttingPeople First Again

workshops had been widely-pub-licised in the marketing press. So, on a plane flightback from Cape Town, I asked the crew what they thought of the workshops and how effectively they

We have seen a shift in the role of the brand from a marketing tool to an organisational principle for busi-ness. In the best-managed brands, particularly servicebrands, values are practised by the entire workforce aspart of everyday life and, consequently, all employeesare ambassadors for their brand, often without evenrealising it.

MATT STEVENS

K. Gofton,

Putting staff first in brand evolution

(2000); C.Murphy,

Instilling workers with brand values

(2000). See end for bibliography.

THE BRAND WITHIN

had supported a change throughout the company. As front line staff dealing with passengers every day, they felt patronised by the training, believing they already supported the brand values. With no appar-ent evidence of change elsewhere in the organi-sation, the impact of this ‘soft’ training had beenundermined by the employees’ lack of belief in a new order.

In search of an ‘off-the-peg’ solution

NDAUNTED, I continued to makea nuisance of myself by asking thequestion: “How do I persuade theemployee who delivers the customer experience to embody the brand?”Discussions with consultancy firms revealed strik-ing similarities in the way many organisationsapproached internal communications and training.However, they were reluctant to suggest a ‘onesize fits all’ approach to building the brand internally on the basis that ‘every organisation is unique’.But are businesses quite as unique as they’d like to think? We all have employees, markets and customers. We work within broadly similar depart-mental structures. The same issues concern eachof us on a day-to-day basis: communicating withcustomers; motivating staff; recruiting and retain-ing the right people; spending our budgets wisely;using technology efficiently; managing effectively. When I gauged the views of other brand managersat a conference, I was reassured to find I was notalone in desiring a framework to help my organisation ‘live the brand’.

The role of the brand manager is widely misunder-stood. In my own organisation, I have heard myself described as

Logo Cop

. It strikes me that we need to beon especially solid ground before attempting to ‘brand the employee’.

N ARTICLE ENTITLED

Bank On TheBrand (Interbrand Business Paper No.1),

and published on

www.brandchannel.com

,inspired me to consider developing a blueprint of my own.The article investigated branding within the finan-cial services sector. It asked 24 financial institutionsaround the world how their principal customer brand was used and managed, both externally andinternally, and revealed four specific stages of organ-isational brand development:

Stage 1 - Visual Identification

Where the brand is predominantly a naming deviceand has no clearly defined personality or relation-ship with stakeholders, especially employees.

Stage 2 - New Subsidiary Development

Where a sub-brand has been created which embod-ies the service promise, giving employees values andclues about how to behave towards customers.

The Four Stages of Brands in FinancialServices, Interbrand (2001)

Taking matters into my own hands

Stage 3 - Catalyst for Corporate Change

Where the company has identified a need toimprove, using brand strategically as an emblem of its vision and values. During this transitional stageof brand development, driven by a cross-functional team, the brand is used to motivate staff, raisestandards of customer service and communicate with customers.

Stage 4 - Centrepiece of Corporate Strategy

Where the corporate brand is at the centre of business strategy. Typically, the CEO and senior management have agreed the brand strategy andpositioning in parallel with the business vision so thebrand is the embodiment of the company visionand direction.These findings confirmed to me that similaritiesdid exist between organisations when it came tobranding, and so a singular approach, or blueprint,could be possible.

HighLowHigh

Role of brandwithinbusinessstrategyValue of brand to business

Stage 1VisualIdentificationStage 2New SubsidiaryDevelopmentStage 3Catalyst forCorporate ChangeStage 4Centrepiece of Corporate Strategy