The BIG Kahuna

As I travel the globe and speak to clients about branding one thing I find consistently is the lack of an internal branding strategy within organizations. Clients are still somewhat behind on external branding never mind internal branding.

How important is internal branding??Internal branding is and should be the backbone of your organization. You need to seriously consider developing a plan to roll out your brand strategy internally.

Here?s why.? Let?s hypothetically say that you?re Volvo and your brand positioning is safety. Everything you say and do to the public screams safety. You?ve covered yourself as far as external branding is concerned. But you?ve neglected your employees. Sure you say your safe but your employees don?t know what you?re talking about. They?re not part of the program so to them it?s all talk.? Eventually your employee?s lack of knowledge or understanding of the safety positioning will be undermined.

Soon customer service will have cracks in their armor and customers will start to form a new perception of your brand. Just because you say safety doesn?t mean you live safety.?Getting all employees on board is just as important as getting clients to perceive you as you want. Maybe even more important.

Here are a few tips that you can use to develop your internal branding efforts:?

1. Blog ? Develop a blog and invite employees to join and participate. There you can discuss your brand and the direction it?s headed.
2. Social Media ? Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace are great tools to form groups and share experiences. Use this to your brands advantage.
3. Newsletter ? Develop an e-newsletter where you showcase employees, case studies, wins and company happenings.
4. Brand Team ? assemble a group of employees that protect and represent the brand. This group will make sure customer?s interests are protected and that employees understand the promise of the brand.
5. Training ? A fun way to do training is to develop a name and brand it. Call your training (your company) University and give out certificates, diplomas etc. Employees will enjoy the training more if it?s customized.

These are just a few tips you can use to improve your internal branding efforts. But remember your employees need to understand and speak the brand.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 7th, 2007 at 9:18 pm and is filed under Branding News, Branding Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.