The Impact of Internal Branding on Employee Motivation
and Competitive Advantage
F. Joseph LePla
W ho of the following would you rather
work for: a hotel that offers super-lux
accommodations or a hotel committed to
giving its customers the over-the-top experi-
ence you’d want to have in your best hotel
stay ever? If choosing between a company
that prides itself on making the lowest-cost
heart defibrillators and a company that saves
lives every day, which would be your choice?
If you chose the second option for both,
then you are starting to sense the motivational
power of internal branding. Companies that
integrate brand distinctiveness into the cul-
ture and use it to guide employee action have
a head start on employee motivation. The
simple truth is that people want to work at
places where what they do resonates deeply
with their beliefs and goals.
Emotional resonance can be as simple as
being excited about going to work or can tie
to a deeper need for creativity and doing
work that matters. Internal branding, done
well, builds employee commitment by offer-
ing clarity, reinforced through culture and a
company’s strategic direction.
Far from being a soft business strategy,
building employee commitment to your brand
has a direct customer benefit. Happy employ-
ees create emotional bonds with customers
that result in such bottom-line advantages
as product preference, higher repurchase
rates, product price premiums, and positive
peer recommendations.
© 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI 10.1002/ert.21395
Internal branding recognizes that doing
business can’t be separated from our hard-
wired nature to look for meaning and build
relationships. Effective internal branding
employs brand tools stated as principles
that guide company direction and help
strengthen culture. Two brand tools that
are essential for employee motivation that
I describe in this article are cultural norms
and strategic role.
TURNING CULTURE INTO ACTION
Cultural norms are the behaviors that
employees cite when they take action. They
are fundamental to employee motivation
because they speak to the reality that all
organizations act as distinct social groups,
each with its own unique expectations and
power relationships. While HR often spends
a great deal of time training employees on
how to be more effective, most employee
training is lacking when it comes to helping
employees build competitive differences. If
two competitors create workforces that are
equally productive, how will that help cus-
tomers choose one over the other? Cultural
norms offer both emotional reinforcement
and direction for effective employee decision
making.
Cultural norms are phrases that leaders
and employees use to guide and justify deci-
sions. Here are some examples:
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Employment Relations Today
• We reward initiative.
• We always put the customer first.
• Questioning is an important part of quality.
• We practice respect for each other and our
customers.
Values and cultural norms are closely
related concepts—beliefs that guide com-
pany and employee actions. The differences
between the two center on how they are held
by the company. The term “cultural norms”
first recognizes that these are beliefs that
exist within the culture, and, second, that
they are norms—commonly held standards
for action. It’s also very helpful to employ-
ees to identify and clearly state the action
expected—by stating norms for guiding action
as well as giving examples of how other
A company’s organic mix of norms probably
does not facilitate optimal decision making,
because you may have one or more negative
norms that work at cross-purposes.
employees are using them, norms move out
of being nice statements, which often hap-
pens to values, and become useful tools.
Employees use norms to justify actions to
the group. This makes it safer and easier
to make decisions that will have a greater
chance of being accepted—hence, norms
relate directly to job success. They have the
added benefit of speeding the decision pro-
cess because groups will apply similar norms
to a given problem. How are they used by a
given employee? Take “rewarding initiative,”
for example. Let’s say sales leads have been
declining for several months and you are the
marketing director. You might say: “Since we
reward initiative, I’ve decided to institute this
new inbound lead program without waiting
for the next planning cycle.” Here, the norm
20
gives permission for innovation while helping
to build consensus around that decision.
There is another reason why you want to
actively manage cultural norms. A company’s
organic mix of norms probably does not
facilitate optimal decision making, because
you may have one or more negative norms
that work at cross-purposes. One of the most
common in larger companies is: “No one ever
gets fired for the safe choice.” In fact, this
norm is often the result of a lack of norm
definition or attention paid to defining the
company goals. In companies where norms
aren’t clear and, hence, where there is little
trust, this belief that caution is rewarded can
deep-six entire product initiatives.
A related issue is where a seemingly posi-
tive norm creates poor decisions. The norm
of “we practice respect for each other and
our customers” can turn an organization
into one where bad decisions are enabled
and the benefits of collaboration are eroded
all in the name of respecting others. When
respect is interpreted as not making waves or
questioning directions, it hinders collaboration.
When starting on the road to manag-
ing your norms, seek balance. In the above
case, for instance, along with a norm around
“respect,” make sure you have one around
the important role of “questioning or testing
proposed actions.”
Although cultural norms typically start by
employees’ observing and emulating senior
managers, after a while, they take on lives of
their own. Norms helped the Four Seasons
Hotels and Resorts define “who we are and
inform the decisions we make.” Four Seasons’
cultural norms include “Do unto others as
you would want them to do unto you” and
“Experiences of exceptional quality.” These,
in turn, have steered it toward hiring only
people who genuinely like people.
F. Joseph LePla
Employment Relations Today DOI 10.1002/ert

Four Seasons’ cultural norms help them
rapidly develop service innovations. A door-
man who noticed that joggers often drank
water on their return to the hotel decided
to greet each jogger with a bottle of water
(“do unto others,” “experiences of exceptional
quality”). The concept went over extremely
well and was translated into a best practice
to all Four Seasons properties within one
week of the decision. Using norms as part of
employee management and service develop-
ment reinforces other Four Seasons norms
of “respecting each other’s contributions” and
“working together cooperatively.”
To ensure that the culture and cultural
norms were alive and well, Four Seasons
employees fill out an annual questionnaire
consisting of 200 to 300 questions as part
of their formal review process. No problem
is too small to escape the immediate con-
sideration of senior management. Because
senior managers also walk the talk, they treat
employees as they would want to be treated—
reinforcing the emotional resonance of this
norm.
Management and staff share and nurture
stories of extraordinary service, which, in
time, can become legendary. Take, for exam-
ple, the delivery of a common cup of coffee
to a popular satellite radio talk show host
by the general manager of the Four Seasons
of Boston. Through a couple of miscues by
the Four Seasons’ staff, this celebrity did not
get the cup of coffee he anticipated during
a stay. He vented his frustration on national
radio. The general manager of the Boston
hotel, hearing the newscast in the morning,
managed to bring down, while dressed in
the uniform of the service staff, coffee and
sundry treats to him and his staff while they
were broadcasting live. According to a well-
placed source, it left the host momentarily
The Impact of Internal Branding on Employee Motivation and Competitive Advantage
Employment Relations Today DOI 10.1002/ert
Spring 2013
speechless, and the event turned into an
internal branding legend.
The results for the bottom line have been
significant. Four Seasons has expanded
to over 90 hotels in 36 countries and has
received more AAA Five Diamond awards
than any other hotel company. The Four
Seasons is also only one of a handful of
firms that have been on the list every year
since the launch of Fortune magazine’s Top
100 Companies to Work for in America in
1988.
The second company I referred to at
the start of this article—where employees
Medtronic has created a culture around storytell-
ing so that employees understand the impact
they have on the people who benefit from their
pacemakers and other life-saving products.
go to save lives every day—is Medtronic.
Medtronic has created a culture around story-
telling so that employees understand the
impact they have on the people who benefit
from their pacemakers and other life-saving
products. Patient stories bring immediacy to
the brand, keep company norms front and
center, reconfirm why employees work there,
and give employees continuous emotional
reinforcement. Here are some examples of
how Medtronic uses stories:
❏ A salesman drives miles at night to deliver
equipment needed immediately to treat a
patient.
❏ The founder, Earl Bakken, goes out of his
way to talk to patients and then shares
those stories with employees.
❏ Website stories offer something for every-
one under categories of “Economic Value,
Clinical Outcomes and Societal Impact.”
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Employment Relations Today
What are the results of internal brand-
ing at Medtronic? Eighty-seven percent of
employees indicate that Medtronic’s mission
is consistent with their personal values, and
an amazing 92 percent believe the work they
do supports the mission.
STRATEGIC ROLE: MARRYING EMPLOYEE
MOTIVATION WITH THE BUSINESS GOAL
Although cultural norms give employees guid-
ance on the day-to-day “whys” for what they
are doing, a strategic role provides the under-
pinning for creating value for the customer.
Too many HR branding initiatives separate
the employee brand experience from the
customer brand: Effective internal branding
ties employee action directly to the customer
experience. When employees clearly under-
stand how to build compelling brand value,
the employee brand becomes indistinguish-
able from the company brand. A strategic
role gives employees the opportunity to find
greater meaning and satisfaction in their work
because it creates great directional clarity.
A strategic role supplies the answer to
why prospective customers must consider
you. It defines the organization from a cus-
tomer point of view, speaking to the need the
organization fills in the customer’s profes-
sional or personal life. Without a strategic
role, your brand effectiveness will lack a
compelling, big-picture, customer-oriented
focus. Employees will be motivated to sup-
port the brand only when they clearly under-
stand what actions they can take to make it
successful. It will help employees determine
what is on-brand or off-brand while keeping
company management out of the rule-making
business.
Carmaker Volvo has a strategic role of
“building safe cars.” Since the 1920s, the goal
22
of the company has been to keep car occu-
pants safe. Further, they’ve put this notion
into action through accident research and
innovations, including the shoulder har-
ness and rearview blind-spot camera. Volvo
employees know that the focus on safety
starts with them—employees are empowered
to create a safe work environment—a natural
extension of the strategic role. Companies
that choose to go wholeheartedly into inter-
nal branding are standouts, and their success
becomes more obvious over time.
One way to really cement the strategic
role with employees is to use it to make their
jobs better. Some companies develop initia-
tives early in the game that create greater
employee buy-in or educate on ways employ-
ees can act on their strategic role. For Seattle-
based Salal Credit Union, the strategic role is
“Your money management made easy.” Tradi-
tionally, Salal had had a reputation for help-
ing its members with all things financial. But
to do this, customer representatives needed to
develop a series of workarounds from loan
applications on—to make things very easy for
customers. This made work more difficult
for employees who sometimes had to use
heroic efforts to satisfy customers.
Shortly after determining its strategic role,
Salal created an internal branding initiative
to create a searchable, real-time knowledge
base housing all data, policies, processes, and
procedures specifically to assist employees in
their work.
Salal’s rationale was that current and
future employees needed to consistently
deliver their brand promise. Therefore, it
was critical that employees have access to
the information they need to make money
management easy for members. Although
many financial companies invest in informa-
tion technology, Salal’s decision to design it
F. Joseph LePla
Employment Relations Today DOI 10.1002/ert

so that it enabled employees to make it really
easy for customers reinforced its strategic
role in a way that was very impactful to
every employee. In addition to making cus-
tomers’ lives easier and building loyalty, this
program also featured workforce paybacks
that included reduced training needs, mis-
takes, and employee turnover.
Another brand that’s done a great job with
motivating employees via a strategic role is
Mayo Clinic. Its strategic role can be stated as
“Collaboration among physicians to get to the
right answer” and to always keep staff acting
on the principle of “The patient comes first.”
Doing what was in the interest of the patients
resulted in all employees asking themselves
the question, “Is this best for the patient?” as
they went about their daily work.
Mayo Clinic’s approach to internal brand-
ing echoes its approach to patient care,
reflecting dedication to consistency and inte-
gration. An outside consultant observed that
the Mayo Clinic brand “is created every day
by every employee in every interaction with
every patient,” though within the organiza-
tion the word brand isn’t used. The success of
the word-of-mouth branding approach abso-
lutely depends on the near perfection of care
delivery; employees are the primary brand
demonstration and communications channel.
One of the ways Mayo Clinic supports
its strategic role is to find people who are
motivated by teamwork. Once a clinician is
on board, Mayo Clinic reinforces the team
approach and the importance of delivering
quality care through its compensation struc-
ture. Almost all employees are on salary, so
there is no incentive to rush patient care
or to be territorial about case management.
According to one surgeon, “by not having our
economics tied to our cases, we are free to
do what comes naturally, and that is to help
The Impact of Internal Branding on Employee Motivation and Competitive Advantage
Employment Relations Today DOI 10.1002/ert
Spring 2013
one another out . . . [and] to make all clinical
decisions on the basis of what is best for the
patient.”
Another important measure of success for
Mayo Clinic is its ability to keep the right
people. Because so much of its external suc-
cess depends on the quality of its internal
branding efforts, hiring, training, and retain-
ing those who can deliver on that brand
promise are keys to success. Benchmarking
Mayo Clinic against industry peers reflects
its success; whereas the nurse turnover rate
industrywide is 20 percent, for Mayo Clinic
in 2003, it was 3 percent at Rochester and
Although many financial companies invest in
information technology, Salal’s decision to
design it so that it enabled employees to make it
really easy for customers reinforced its strategic
role in a way that was very impactful to every
employee.
7 percent at Scottsdale. Physician turnover at
Mayo Clinic in 2008 was lower than 6.9
percent, less than half the national average.
STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE TO REVEALING
CULTURAL NORMS
Whether you are already on the road to being
norms-driven or this is your first foray into
using these tools—we recommend fielding
research to determine what norms currently
exist in your organization. Start with an
online questionnaire to senior management,
department heads, and employees who dem-
onstrate leadership skills. Ask each group
these questions:
1. What do you find meaningful about our
company or your job?
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Employment Relations Today

2. If a prospective employee asked you how
to get ahead at the company, what would
you say?
3. What are the ways we do things around
here? If someone makes an important deci-
sion, what do they say about the way the
company operates to justify this behavior?
4. What kinds of behaviors are rewarded here?
5. Which employee behaviors would custom-
ers say are important to them?
6. What would customers say are the behav-
iors that detract from their experience?
Review each answer and gather common
ideas. Typically, you’ll end up with a manage-
able list of concepts. Use this list as a starting
point by eliminating redundancies, discuss-
ing the relative merits and importance of
each norm, and creating an integrated set of
norms to manage from in the future. During
this process, you will likely find that there are
areas that you’d like to see norms where none
now exist as well as negative norms that you
want to eliminate. To do either, you’ll need to
create a plan, complete with milestones.
Managing to norms requires that these
become part of employee job descriptions, be
measured each year, and be integrated into
internal communications.
Internal branding pays off in higher levels
of employee motivation and customer sat-
isfaction. And those benefits, based on my
experience, are augmented by additional HR
benefits that can include a higher job-offer-
to-acceptance rate and employees who are
willing to trade a percentage of salary for
branded job experiences that they strongly
identify with. In surveys we’ve conducted
over the years, we’ve found that employees
who are extremely committed to their com-
panies also said they would be willing to
work for up to 15 percent less than if they
worked at competitive firms. Although this
may sound farfetched, consider your own
situation. Would you prefer the highest salary
at an undefined or unknown brand or take
less money to work at a company with a very
well-known brand that you find inspiring?
Although many companies think of
employee motivation only in terms of job sat-
isfaction, brand moves employees into a differ-
ent territory—one where alignment with the
central mission of the company and a strong,
supportive culture become prime motivators.
To reach this goal, internal branding has to be
about more than just good communications
or the right financial incentives; it must be an
integral part of why and how people work.

F. Joseph LePla is a principal strategist in the Strategy group at GreenRubino, a full-

service branding, marketing, and advertising agency located in Seattle, Washington. He
was an early innovator of internal branding methodologies and has worked with over
300 companies since the early 1990s. GreenRubino’s Strategy group helps clients define
and operationalize internal branding programs. LePla is coauthor of three books on
internal branding, including the recently published Create a Brand That Inspires: How
to Sell, Organize and Sustain Internal Branding (AuthorHouse, 2012); Brand Driven:
The Route to Integrated Branding Through Great Leadership (Kogan Page, 2003);
and Integrated Brand: Becoming Brand-Driven Through Companywide Action
(Quorum Books, 1999). He may be contacted via e-mail at joel@greenrubino.com.

24 F. Joseph LePla
Employment Relations Today DOI 10.1002/ert
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