When you think about internal branding, you often fall into the mistake of focusing all efforts towards exclusively achieving the emotional connection with customers. The reality is that any company and any brand has multiple interest groups to which it must communicate its value proposition: customers, employees, shareholders, suppliers, community. This does not simply imply how the information is organized for them, but it is about how the same business is organized and understood.
Internal Brand
Unfortunately, employees are the big forgotten in this equation for brand building. Let us think that nobody like them can get to live the brand firsthand and yet that enormous potential is not taken advantage of and too many times, what they know about the brand is what they see through advertising. Despite this circumstance, it is demonstrated in various studies that employees aligned with the brand, who know their values, who share their culture, are much more productive, have the capacity to generate better experiences and greatly increase their loyalty towards the company.
In this context, those companies that believe that internal branding is something that only affects the marketing department is missing a great opportunity to build their brand strongly.
How to ensure that the entire organization is aligned with the brand strategy?
Start The Commitment From The Management
The internal alignment starts from the management team so that it can inspire the rest of the staff. If employees believe that it is a priority objective, they will also adopt it as something fundamental and chain transmission will be much easier.
Develop A Clear Strategy For The Brand
You cannot achieve alignment if you do not have a well-defined brand strategy that clearly frames your purpose, your values, your personality and how this affects what is expected of your employees. It will be very timely to define the behaviors in line with the brand and establish the expected performance guidelines. This will facilitate alignment through the different levels in the organization.
Connect The Inside With The Outside
Employees need to hear the same messages that are sent abroad to feel motivated. It is not so much an aspect of form but of content. Too many times internal and external communication work in isolation. To build a brand it is necessary to align the areas of marketing and human resources. In addition to the planning and execution of internal communication strategies, it is advisable to organize training programs that facilitate the understanding and integration of employees according to the objectives described.
Reward The Effort
When employees realize the outcome of their actions, it is much easier to get their commitment. Perform and share with them periodically reviews of the situation, and make sure that their bonuses or variables have a direct relationship with the value they contribute to the brand. In addition to tangible rewards, there could be other intangibles as prizes for the best brand ambassadors.
Let’s not forget that one of the fundamental principles in building a brand is authenticity. That is why an employee cannot be forced to feel emotionally linked to the Company and the brand that represents it. As with customers, it is necessary to build a two-way relationship and generate a brand experience also within the Companies. Only in this way can we ensure that the outward experience will reach its maximum potential.
Do you like to know more about Internal branding? We offer you downloadable e-books to guide you in your gateway to success. Visit our webpage https://www.internal-brand.com or email us at jerome@jeromejoseph.com for more information.
