Brands are about products and services. True. Truer is the fact that brands are about the feelings and emotions the products or services invoke in the customer. These emotions are 20% a result of what the brand talks about and 80% the experience at the brand touch points.

Staff is an equal stake holder in brand building and they affect a customer’s brand experience as much as any advertising campaign. So can you encourage a workforce to behave “on brand”?

Internal branding has the answer.

Internal branding is the reflection of the brand’s values internally. “The core objective of internal branding is the attainment of competitive advantage not through easily replicated core business practices and policies but through people.”(Jacobs, 2003). The objective becomes all the more relevant with organizations growing by means of mergers and acquisitions.

In order for internal branding to work, organizations need to see the brand as the corporate strategy, not just a communications platform.

Space Branding

The work spaces serve as a constant reminder of what the brand stands for, making it easier for both the new and the old to imbibe the values of the brand. Clearly communicating the brand ethos via work spaces proves to be a support system in developing a corporate culture true to the values of the brand.

Employee Engagement

No longer does the human needs exist in a set hierarchy pattern as stated by Maslow. Once the basic subsistence is met they co-exist as an ecosystem where all needs have to be mutually satisfied.

With an employee engagement perspective having an eco-system approach to need satisfaction is crucial. Rather than just informing your employees, go a step beyond, engage them in the process.

Employer Branding

No longer can you sustain employees and win their loyalty with only rewards they need to relate, reflect and engage with the brand. In such a scenario it is of utmost importance that they take pride in their brand.

After all employees are the first and foremost brand ambassadors of the brand, the true custodians of the brand.