Selling brand truth: Inside and Out
In today's texting, YouTube, blogging, mobile messaging, media-obsessed world, consumers can get to the core of every business instantly. And they do. To them, saying what you do is not nearly as important as doing what you say. You sell more than a service or a product - you are selling a culture, a set of beliefs and your brand's mission. Consistency and transparency throughout every layer of your company influence buying decisions and are directly tied to your bottom line. So, your brand must be clearly understood and embraced by your entire organization.
To create a well-developed brand that's focused on profitability follow these steps:
Strengthen Your Core
Every company has a mission but your business will only grow if your core mission connects with customers. Sometimes, that requires talking about your brand's purpose in a new way. Recast your mission. When your brand no longer fits, step back and think about change. British Petroleum became BP, Beyond Petroleum, recasting its corporate image so consumers would think "environmentally conscious energy" company and not "big bad oil." Change the business model. ING's identification of a business model with low overhead and an easy-to-deliver, on-line platform turned the banking industry on its head. In a culture that encourages consumption, ING positioned itself as a champion of savings. Consumers immediately responded to its high-yield, direct savings product. Let your mission guide development. Apple has focused on selling consumers exclusive access to a digital lifestyle - they've branded cool. By allowing the company to produce an endless number of entertaining iproducts, they drove the core hardware and software business. Its stock has more than doubled in the past year and is at an all-time high.
There's Only One Department -- The Customer Department
Stop and look at your company from the perspective of your customers, because they don't see separate units or profit centers. She's not an online banking customer; she banks with Citi. Whether she clicks on your website, gets an email offer, requests technical support or shows up on your doorstep, she doesn't distinguish between departments. Identify how each function -- finance, operations, human resources, sales, IT, marketing and administration -- creates value for your customer. Then work with your senior team to determine how your business impacts the life of your customer.
Roll Out, Inside First
Success begins within your organization and an internal marketing communications plan provides a blueprint for that success. Utilize an interactive forum or executive-level brand day to provide senior management with specific goals. Give them the ability to use financial incentives, educational opportunities, and performance recognition to motivate their team. Watch as your senior administration become internal ambassadors instilled with a sense of pride and the motivational tools to effect change in your business.
Create a Committed Customer Community
With your internal resources aligned and ready to be mobilized, you can connect emotionally to your consumers by demonstrating that you share their values and interests. Establish your customer community by identifying all of the ways a customer might interact with your business and determining how to engage them in unexpected ways. Nike continued to tap into the passion and shared competitive spirit of its customers by creating an online runner's club to help members track their performance and socialize with other runners. By connecting to customer passions and becoming the central point of social interaction, Nike created a community committed to their brand.
Don't Just Measure, Celebrate Success
Your employees are your first customers and there's no better way to motivate them than to celebrate their success. Of course, traditional sales goals and performance benchmarks will set the tone early. But accountability can manifest itself in many ways.
Moving the heart and soul of your company requires acknowledging everybody. NPD, an international market research firm, celebrated milestone accomplishments of every function across the company with invitations to their corporate Caribbean cruise. At Cranium, performance metrics are communicated daily in board game fashion and Bank of Smithtown's CEO personally presents "Lucky Duck" employee awards with his duck whistle and a check for $100. These kinds of acknowledgements from senior management creates a sense of corporate community, pride of work and continued focus on driving brand value.
In a consumer surveillance culture, your public image is more than outer wrapping. It's built on the consistency of your thoughts, actions and customer experiences regardless of where or how often they come in contact with your brand. It takes an entire organization. That's the bottom line.
Every company has a mission but your business will only grow if your core mission connects with customers. Sometimes, that requires talking about your brand's purpose in a new way. Recast your mission. When your brand no longer fits, step back and think about change. British Petroleum became BP, Beyond Petroleum, recasting its corporate image so consumers would think "environmentally conscious energy" company and not "big bad oil." Change the business model. ING's identification of a business model with low overhead and an easy-to-deliver, on-line platform turned the banking industry on its head. In a culture that encourages consumption, ING positioned itself as a champion of savings. Consumers immediately responded to its high-yield, direct savings product. Let your mission guide development. Apple has focused on selling consumers exclusive access to a digital lifestyle - they've branded cool. By allowing the company to produce an endless number of entertaining iproducts, they drove the core hardware and software business. Its stock has more than doubled in the past year and is at an all-time high.
There's Only One Department -- The Customer Department
Stop and look at your company from the perspective of your customers, because they don't see separate units or profit centers. She's not an online banking customer; she banks with Citi. Whether she clicks on your website, gets an email offer, requests technical support or shows up on your doorstep, she doesn't distinguish between departments. Identify how each function -- finance, operations, human resources, sales, IT, marketing and administration -- creates value for your customer. Then work with your senior team to determine how your business impacts the life of your customer.
Roll Out, Inside First
Success begins within your organization and an internal marketing communications plan provides a blueprint for that success. Utilize an interactive forum or executive-level brand day to provide senior management with specific goals. Give them the ability to use financial incentives, educational opportunities, and performance recognition to motivate their team. Watch as your senior administration become internal ambassadors instilled with a sense of pride and the motivational tools to effect change in your business.
Create a Committed Customer Community
With your internal resources aligned and ready to be mobilized, you can connect emotionally to your consumers by demonstrating that you share their values and interests. Establish your customer community by identifying all of the ways a customer might interact with your business and determining how to engage them in unexpected ways. Nike continued to tap into the passion and shared competitive spirit of its customers by creating an online runner's club to help members track their performance and socialize with other runners. By connecting to customer passions and becoming the central point of social interaction, Nike created a community committed to their brand.
Don't Just Measure, Celebrate Success
Your employees are your first customers and there's no better way to motivate them than to celebrate their success. Of course, traditional sales goals and performance benchmarks will set the tone early. But accountability can manifest itself in many ways.
Moving the heart and soul of your company requires acknowledging everybody. NPD, an international market research firm, celebrated milestone accomplishments of every function across the company with invitations to their corporate Caribbean cruise. At Cranium, performance metrics are communicated daily in board game fashion and Bank of Smithtown's CEO personally presents "Lucky Duck" employee awards with his duck whistle and a check for $100. These kinds of acknowledgements from senior management creates a sense of corporate community, pride of work and continued focus on driving brand value.
In a consumer surveillance culture, your public image is more than outer wrapping. It's built on the consistency of your thoughts, actions and customer experiences regardless of where or how often they come in contact with your brand. It takes an entire organization. That's the bottom line.
Excellant article!