Anne Sauve, a Toronto-based marketing communications consultant asked, “What do you think the role of employee communications is in the context of brand-building?”
One of the most important groups that we advise our clients to communicate with are the employees of their own company. They often know the brand intimately.
If they don’t project a good brand message, the problem can be that no one has helped them to understand it. So they tell it from their perspective–but then it might be their own individualized perception rather than the company’s well-thought-out brand message. If the branding is “created” or “fake,” that won’t do any good, either, because the employees won’t believe it (and might even resent it). However, when some thought is given to the brand to be projected, employees can be the best communicators for the brand. When you run across companies that do a good job of this, you get an exciting glimpse into the company through the eyes of someone who understands it from the inside.
The first time I flew on Southwest Airlines, many many years ago, the flight attendant accidentally poured coffee on me and then didn’t do a good job of helping me clean up. So, I vowed I would never fly on that airline again. A few months later, I was talking to someone about that incident. To my surprise, that person worked for Southwest. He was a baggage handler. And he went on about how everyone at Southwest tries to do the best job possible, from the CEO of the company to guy I was talking to! I was so moved, I flew again the next time I was going to LA. This time I flew thinking about what that person told me. I saw a completely different airline and had a completely different experience. I have by now flown on Southwest hundreds of time, all because at Southwest Airlines everyone understands the brand at a very personal level.
At Placemaking Group, the employees of our clients are one of the groups we work with initially to understand the brand. We then devise ways to help get the brand message clearly to the employees because they really are the best brand ambassadors!
But, again, I must stress that the brand message has to be real for the employees to accept it and communicate it.
