By: Ebony Chappel
Organizations, both large and small, are spending more money, time, and effort on marketing and developing unique branding strategies. Getting your employees to buy-in to these concepts, also known as brand assimilation, is particularly vital. Prophet, a brand strategy and marketing consultancy firm, breaks the process of brand assimilation down into three structured phases
• Strategic Development: your company’s internal audience is defined and an assimilation road-map is created
• Foundation Building: materials are developed to train key leaders in the organization on how to disseminate branding messages to other staff members
• Implementation: internal communications are used to maintain brand dialog
Prophet’s staff recommends a company-wide, brand-driven approach to help foster customer loyalty that will ultimately translate into increased profitability and competitive advantage.
Read on for nine ways to get your employees on board:
1) Make it Personal
Encourage employees to live out your company’s brand by helping them to understand how it relates to them personally.
2) Keep it Fresh
If you’ve visited a Walgreen’s store lately, chances are you’ve heard an employee end your transaction at the cash register with the phrase “Be Well”. The two words are a simple yet refreshing way to drive home to consumers one of Walgreen’s cornerstone focal points, health and wellness.
3) Make it Clear
Take an informal poll of your employee’s knowledge of current marketing campaign slogans, or even your company’s mission/vision statement. You may be shocked to learn that a large majority of them may be unaware of what you have undoubtedly spent tons of dollars developing. Start simple by making sure these key messages are posted strategically around the office in high-traffic areas.
4) Involve Everyone
Every member of your staff will at some point, either directly or indirectly, interact with your clients and customers. It is important that even the building maintenance staff or IT department buy in and feel connected to the brand. 5) Measure Your Efforts Identify key measurable points surrounding branding such as employee awareness and customer satisfaction. The information you glean here can be helpful in determining whether or not a particular message is as effective as it should be.
6) Make it Cyclical
Although they have garnered their fair share of bad press, major U.S airline Southwest was considered one of the “Best in Class” for leading brand marketing agency Brandemix for their corporate culture of freedom and fun. Potential employees are asked to tell a joke in their interviews, and once hired, you enjoy a “Freedom to Dress” open dress code as well as a week-long celebration during Independence Day called Freedom Week.
7) Pep it Up
Who doesn’t love a good party? Have a fun company lunch or family event to launch new branding initiatives. This is a surefire way to ensure that employees not only know, but love, what you’re doing.
8) Follow up
After everyone has partied like rock stars, it’s important to build on that momentum with action. Consider a long-term plan that will further drive efforts to align everyone with the essence of your brand.
9) Incentivize Your Team
Create an award system centered on brand awareness and implementation that challenges employees to go that extra mile. Reward those diligent foot soldiers with cool perks and fun prizes.
