Encouraging employees to live the brand

Sunday, August 07, 2005

Jo Birriel, president of the Brand Inside consultancy, lists the five "As" or acts of leadership that ensure employee engagement with your brand:

1. Aspiration
Successful branding begins with recognizing the two distinct consumers that impact your brand: the internal (employees) and the external (customers). Your aspiration represents the promise you make to both of them every time they experience/deliver your product or service.

2. Articulation
Communicate in a way that truly inspires, frequently through multiple mediums. Real communication is required, which by definition is two-way and demands as much listening as speaking. It can take the form of employee meetings, town hall gatherings, messages boards and e-mail. It requires visibility and involvement by the leadership team and cannot be completely delegated to HR or communication.

3. Alignment
This is where your approach to internal branding begins to change your organization. It means everything when the organization works together and supports one ultimate outcome - a satisfied customer who returns frequently. This step is often the hardest because it can require tough decisions about significant changes.

4. Adaptation
It's about managing expectations. It's where difficult personnel decisions get made to ensure you have the right people in the right jobs and where you hold people accountable. It's where consumer-focused metrics are introduced and where employees begin to see what changes are required to succeed in the marketplace.

5. Affirmation
This is how people are recognized and rewarded. It's also everything you do to be crystal clear about what's required from your employees to deliver your promise to consumers. It's more than a catchy phrase but a way of leading that recognizes all the employee touch points for influencing consumer experience.

Source: The above article appears in the latest issue of The Business Communicator.

Blogged on 10:39 PM by Upay

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