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SCORR Marketing Advice: Brand Building Begins at Home
SCORR Marketing Advice: Brand Building Begins at Home
By Cinda Orr
Brand management would probably be a lot easier if you had only one audience to worry about, but for most companies, it’s just not that simple. In addition to customers and prospects — each of whom deserve separate consideration — companies need to be aware of the message they are sending to investors, suppliers, strategic partners, the industry, prospective employees and the general public.
Another group that’s often overlooked when developing a communications plan is your own employees. Once you get beyond the number of employees you can casually keep track of in your own brain – and maybe well before that – it’s wise to consider your own workforce as an audience needing and deserving special attention.
Obviously, you need to communicate basic, company-wide information such as changes to the health care plan or 401k, and maybe a notice on the cork board in the lunchroom is adequate for that. But if your goal of communicating with employees is to foster a more stable, loyal and long-term workforce, one that respects your corporate values and reflects them in its work, you’re going to have to stretch a little.
For example, how do you celebrate big news like a product launch, merger or significant new contract or client? At one end of the spectrum is, say, an email notice from the CEO or possibly cheese and crackers in the conference room. Ho-hum. At the other end, when one company we know “hit a home run,” they sent jerseys and ball caps to employees’ homes and had a mid-week party with logo baseballs, beer, hot dogs, Cracker Jack and stars of a local ball team.
Even as a part of your regular, ongoing marketing communications, your employees are a critical audience, and it’s important to use creative techniques to communicate corporate values – such as those you portray in your advertising. If your ads are all about speed, reliability or customer service, it’s vital that employees match those values in the performance of their jobs.
When we created an ad campaign for a medical center recently, we developed a matching internal campaign at the same time, one that was carried out in posters, the newsletter and screen savers on company computers. Even if you don’t go to that extent, at least make it a point to share with your employees the communications you plan for the outside world. If you’re publishing a new corporate brochure, make sure your employees get a copy. Why not? They deserve to know what you’re saying about them. The same is true of your advertising or PR. It costs relatively little to pre-print ads or extra press releases so that your employees see them before your customers do, and it gives them a sense of being an insider and pride of belonging.
Brand building is about awareness of the impact your brand has on everyone it touches. And, as with many things in life, brand building begins at home.