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Brands are powerful tools for creating and promoting the identity of organizations. But brands are not just a marketing device, they can also be used to inspire greater commitment among employees. This ‘how to’ guide provides seven steps to help create brand champions.
Brand champions are employees who spread brand vision and values through what they do and say. Every organization needs committed and passionate brand champions. For a brand to be strong, everyone in the organization must be able to understand and express the attributes of the brand through their work.
Seven Steps Towards Creating Brand Champions
1. Create Brand Awareness
Brand awareness starts at the top of the organization. Before going any further, it is important to be clear about the brand and how the organization uses it.
Use existing mechanisms such as induction training, team or organizational meetings, emails, intranets, newsgroups and newsletters to generate a greater employee awareness of the brand. Check that it is used consistently in all communications. For example, if the style of an organizational newsletter does not reflect the brand properly (e.g., not using consistent logos, colors or fonts), this will send out confusing messages to employees. When employees are in constant contact with branded communications, they will begin to become more aware of the brand.
2. Communication
Once employees are aware of the brand, the next step is to help them understand the values and visuals that make up the brand and how it is communicated. Branding guidelines could help employees understand the brand's importance and how supporting it contributes to the organization's success. This can be backed up by presenting information and statistics on, for example, repeat custom or customer feedback and how this has increased bottom line profits.
3. Commitment
Ensure employees buy into the brand values. Three useful ways of helping employees to understand their own roles in supporting the brand are:
- Events – for example, a Brand Awareness Day, where people get involved with various activities devoted to promoting and supporting the brand
- Feedback – seeking employee feedback on the brand
- Competitions – contests that recognize and reward innovative or creative ways in which employees have promoted the brand
4. Performance
By becoming more involved, employees are likely to take more responsibility for communicating and supporting the brand. They will feel they are helping to foster the brand in their day-to-day activities, and their performance will be consistent with the brand vision and values in everything they do. It will eventually become second nature to them, and this is where true brand champions emerge, as they begin to find new and creative ways to endorse the brand.
5. Show the Results
When employees see the results of their actions, they will support the brand even further. It is important that organizations communicate about the status of the brand by sharing brand research results and comparing organizational performance with organizational objectives. This can be done, for example, by presenting financial results or distributing positive feedback at meetings, conferences, via email or newsletters.
6. Recognize and Reward
An excellent way to reinforce positive brand behavior is to recognize and reward it. This can be done by creating Brand Champion awards that give special recognition to employees who consistently live the brand or who have come up with novel ways of communicating the brand. Also, sharing profits with employees will help them understand that organizational success is directly related to their own efforts in championing the brand.
7. Refine and Improve
Keep returning to the first step in order to refine and improve internal branding communications. This will ensure that new employees become engaged more immediately, and longer-serving employees are continually inspired.
