Internal branding in a digital age 05/10/2009
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(2 Votes)Employer branding, employee branding, brand engagement – call it what you will - but companies and organisations have decided that they need to do something to “sell” themselves to their workforce. In my experience much of this interest and activity is in response to the much discussed “war for talent”.
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- A bygone era of marketing
- Employer brand sceptism
- War for talent
- Digital brand experience
- The same value set
- A company is what it does, not just what it says
- Brand reputation
- Delivering a single brand
Jan Kewley, Fishburn Hedges
A bygone era of marketing
It used to be, once upon a time, that an organisation had a brand. That brand was its product or service, or sometimes, its corporate persona – like ICI or Hanson Trust (remember them?).
The marketing people polished and pushed that brand to a welcoming, eager public who believed what they were told and trusted these companies implicitly. Ah, the golden age of marketing!
The marketing people polished and pushed that brand to a welcoming, eager public who believed what they were told and trusted these companies implicitly. Ah, the golden age of marketing!
Employer brand sceptism
Of course, it was never really like that, but in the 20 years or so that I’ve been working in marketing and branding, consumers have become less impressed by what the organisation has to say about itself, and more inclined to trust their own experience. And why shouldn’t they? We are right to be sceptical about what companies say about themselves, because we’ve seen financial scandals, product recalls, software shipped half-finished and services that don’t live up to the hype. From Enron to the cowboy builder down the road, companies have shown that they say one thing and do another.
War for talent
At the same time I’ve noticed an increase in attention on internal branding. Employer branding, employee branding, brand engagement – call it what you will - but companies and organisations have decided that they need to do something to 'sell' themselves to their workforce.
In my experience much of this interest and activity is in response to the much discussed 'war for talent'. By establishing a set of values or guiding principles, the organisation can send the right signals to potential employees and treat their existing employees in a certain and consistent way.
In my experience much of this interest and activity is in response to the much discussed 'war for talent'. By establishing a set of values or guiding principles, the organisation can send the right signals to potential employees and treat their existing employees in a certain and consistent way.
I have a couple of difficulties with this, and these difficulties are being exacerbated by the ubiquity of digital channels.
Digital brand experience
Firstly, big, successful brands attract top recruits. It’s easy for Nike, McKinsey and Mercedes to have their pick of the brightest and best. Is this because of their 'internal brands'? I think not. It’s because the external brand is successful. Potential candidates are attracted to the brand because of their experience of it. They may have used the product or seen the adverts. They have seen the brochures and – more and more – they’ve had some kind of digital contact with the brand. It’s only when they start seriously job hunting that they learn about how an organisation treats its people.
The stories that live out in the digital landscape, good and bad, shape what an individual knows about a brand. Some of these stories are controlled but the organisation itself, but many come from analysts, the media, interest groups, bloggers and a myriad of consumers, both satisfied and fuming. The digital brand experience is far, far more powerful than any brochure proudly bearing 'Our Values'.
The stories that live out in the digital landscape, good and bad, shape what an individual knows about a brand. Some of these stories are controlled but the organisation itself, but many come from analysts, the media, interest groups, bloggers and a myriad of consumers, both satisfied and fuming. The digital brand experience is far, far more powerful than any brochure proudly bearing 'Our Values'.
What about Google, you might ask, whose people-policies are becoming legendary? Well, that brings me to my second point. Successful brands are clearly differentiated. They have to be, or consumers won’t choose them over the competition. If they can’t be unique (and most can’t) they do everything they can to stand out from the crowd. Google has a clearly differentiated service and persona, and it has carried that differentiation through to the way it treats its people.
Google knows that its leadership of the market depends on having the right people who also understand fully what it stands for and how it works. It doesn’t (as far as I’m aware) have a set of internal brand values or guiding principles. It has “Ten things Google has found to be true” and these are mostly about how it operates in its marketplace.
Google knows that its leadership of the market depends on having the right people who also understand fully what it stands for and how it works. It doesn’t (as far as I’m aware) have a set of internal brand values or guiding principles. It has “Ten things Google has found to be true” and these are mostly about how it operates in its marketplace.
The same value set
What you won’t find, at Google or any genuinely world-leading organisation, is a list of words setting out what the organisation must be. You know those words: innovation; team-work; integrity; openness; professional; commitment; passion. If I had a pound for every time I’ve seen these…Not that there’s anything wrong with them per se, they are all laudable and sensible. But ask yourself this: when wouldn’t a company want its employees to work as a team, be professional and committed?
When shouldn’t any company try to be open, work with integrity and innovate for its future? They are hygiene factors. And they will not drive your business in a way that makes it better than, or different from, your competitors, because they’ve probably got exactly the same set. They will not give your potential and current employees a reason to come or stay.
When shouldn’t any company try to be open, work with integrity and innovate for its future? They are hygiene factors. And they will not drive your business in a way that makes it better than, or different from, your competitors, because they’ve probably got exactly the same set. They will not give your potential and current employees a reason to come or stay.
A company is what it does, not just what it says
Finally, and as I started out, a company is what it does, not just what it says. This is where those identikit internal brands really let you down. Your employees aren’t just ambassadors for your brand, as some consultants like to put it, they are your brand. Service brands have realised this some time ago and they try to ensure their staff at least understand what the brand is all about. But this isn’t enough. Every member of staff, customer facing or not, makes decisions that eventually have an impact on what your customers and stakeholders experience.
Let me give you an example: obviously a call-centre operative influences the caller’s experience, but so too does the operations manager who, for process or financial reasons, has set targets that calls should last no more than 90 seconds. If your brand is all about being customer focussed (another of those perennial phrases) then how does the 90 second target fit? Everyone has a role in shaping the experience that your customers (and other stakeholders) have. So everyone has to know what makes that brand special, different and important to stakeholders. They have to use the brand to guide the way they make decisions because sooner or later the impact of those decisions will be felt.
Let me give you an example: obviously a call-centre operative influences the caller’s experience, but so too does the operations manager who, for process or financial reasons, has set targets that calls should last no more than 90 seconds. If your brand is all about being customer focussed (another of those perennial phrases) then how does the 90 second target fit? Everyone has a role in shaping the experience that your customers (and other stakeholders) have. So everyone has to know what makes that brand special, different and important to stakeholders. They have to use the brand to guide the way they make decisions because sooner or later the impact of those decisions will be felt.
Brand reputation
Companies have never operated in a vacuum, but now it's more important than ever that the inside and outside perceptions match. The world wide web is what it implies, and it’s always on, always watching. Employees are bloggers, customers are YouTube viewers. I’ve seen more than one hilarious and excruciating 'internal conference' posted for us all to ridicule.
Your brand is a huge asset – too huge to be left to the marketing department alone. Your organisation already invests in maintaining its outward perception; you can make the most of this spend and this asset internally. Don’t waste energy, time and money trying to reinvent what the company is and stands for as if you were speaking to a different audience: thanks to digital cross-over it’s now the same audience.
Your brand is a huge asset – too huge to be left to the marketing department alone. Your organisation already invests in maintaining its outward perception; you can make the most of this spend and this asset internally. Don’t waste energy, time and money trying to reinvent what the company is and stands for as if you were speaking to a different audience: thanks to digital cross-over it’s now the same audience.
Delivering a single brand
All the tools and techniques used to raise the brand’s profile to the customer, client or stakeholder can be used for employees or future employees: blogs, wikis, forums, social networking, virals, SMS and hundreds of others I don’t know about or which have yet to be invented. Just be consistent, unite your people to deliver a single brand to your stakeholders, and you’ll have a greater chance of managing your brand reputation both internally and externally.
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