BRANDING - AMBASSADORS

Brand people

Your people are one of the most overt expressions of your brand and the chances are they communicate more regularly and with deeper impact than most of your marketing communications ever will. So, what does your brand mean to your people?

Do they understand the business’s vision for the brand, what their responsibilities are in communicating it and how it impacts their individual roles? After the launch of a new branding or campaign, do you have a channel that delivers an ongoing dialogue about the brand? Is your brand an intrinsic part of each new employee’s induction and does it form part of your employee surveys?

People want to be proud of the company they work for and, given the right environment, they will feel a strong sense of ownership. Your brand is as important to them as it is to you as a marketer. It motivates them, gives them confidence, retains them as employees and protects your investment in them. In short, your brand culture should be lived by the people in the business.

When it comes to communicating the brand to customers and prospects your people play a vital role in delivering its messages and promise. Their actions can make your budget go further and improve ROI.

For example: Your TV campaign is running, your viral is driving visitors to your website like never before, more brochures are being requested every day and calls to the hotline are up 40%. But when all of these leads are followed up, do your people deliver the promise promoted in your marketing? If not, why not?

Ask yourself a few questions: What channels are open to ‘talk brand’ to the team? When was the last time you provided them with guidance on the brand (this is not the same thing as brand guidelines). Have you told them about the new campaign or about the success of the previous one? What about the new social media campaign, are they aware of how they can contribute to its success? (You let them send emails on behalf of the company, so yes, they can help spread the word in this activity too).

Everyone in the business is the brand – make sure they deliver its promises.