The Hindu Business Line : Internal branding

Internal branding needs to be seen as A LEADERSHIP PRACTICE that aligns all actions and messages with the organisation's vision and the core values that it lives by.

Traditional belief about branding - and the biggest myth in the world of business - continues to be that branding is for external purposes, for communicating to consumers and that it is the exclusive preserve of the marketing function.

Then came the belief that advertising, PR, database and direct marketing, interactive media must all create a consistent impression, and thus was born integrated branding, 360-degree branding, total branding and what have you. Not to mention PR agencies, direct marketing agencies and interactive agencies. But you may notice, that there aren't, as yet, organisations that specialise in what is called internal branding.

Which brings us to the other apparently unrelated and widespread belief - and actually even practice - that the organisation's vision rests with the management committee and organisation values and culture reside with HR.

Research conducted in 1999 by Opinion Research Corporation International among 100 senior corporate communicators from major organisations showed that often the organisation brand's mission, vision and values stay with senior managers but do not permeate the rest of the organisation, according to its Web site www.orc.co.uk. ORC's findings are also backed up by other studies.

The question that arises here is: If the marketing department is making promises to customers then who is responsible for making sure that the promise is delivered?

The answer: All the people in the company.

Many experts point out (and it no longer requires an expert) that unlike a product brand, the responsibility for which may be with the marketing department, the responsibility for an organisation brand is shared - finance handles shareholders and investors, external affairs handles media, operations handles distributors and suppliers, sales handles distributors, HR handles employees.

There is no arguing that customer promise and outside messaging - typical brand strategy and marketing efforts - needs to integrate totally with organisation vision and goals - typical organisation strategy and HR efforts. The question is: Whose responsibility is it?

"I reckon about 20 per cent of a brand is its physical attributes, like a logo, colour, letterheads. The rest is all about behaviour," says Ian Buckingham, head of Interbrand Inside. "Marketing is the custodian of the physical brand, but who are the custodians of behaviour? If it is just HR, you've perhaps got a problem ... The best sponsor for an internal culture is the CEO ... Employees bring a brand to life; they are its ultimate custodians."

Internal branding needs to be seen as a leadership practice that aligns all actions and messages with the organisation's vision and the core values that it lives by.

In principle, leaders recognise the need to articulate the organisational purpose in a way everyone can relate to, but how this should be done is still begging for best practice. Although organisational size, structures and cultures could make this process difficult, the fundamental barrier is more to do with the process itself.

What, then, is the emerging best practice process?

Establish that internal branding is for better performance

Leaders need to convince the whole organisation that vision and values are not a framed poster in their rooms but need to be converted into an actionable agenda for every individual in the organisation, and that this can make a tangible difference to its performance.

The premise is, of course, that by aligning and integrating organisation vision, brand strategy, delivery processes and peoples' actions, a company is many times more likely to create rewarding relationships with its customers.

The goal of internal branding is to orchestrate and integrate everything the organisation does to ultimately create lasting customer relationships with a positive topline and bottom line impact.

Brand - articulate first, operationalise next

A well-knit organisation brand is one in which every part contains the whole, where every action is based on the brand. To do this, the organisation needs to clearly define its centre of gravity, communicate that centre and act upon it.

The best companies that have successfully done this are very clear that the brand needs to be `operationalised' into clear objectives and roles. While externally vision and values are converted into products and services that build customer commitment, internally, vision is translated into strategies and values into measurable practices.

Both are embedded in working systems - recruitment, appraisal, rewards, succession - and provide the substance to support brand promises, becoming a guide to drive everyday behaviour, encouraging employees to live the brand. If necessary, the company needs to announce and implement any additional training or incentives that will be necessary to encourage, support and reward the required behaviour.

"We've always been clued up about getting the right people on board," says Virgin's Group Brand Manager, Catherine Salway. "The external brand tends to attract the right people anyway. We ask a lot of questions that aren't traditional, to get a feel for what the person is like. We select on attitude and personality and a feel for whether someone's a bit different from the crowd, can cope with pressure and has a good sense of humour. That's what makes our brand come alive."

"You have to make sure that processes reinforce what you're trying to do with the brand internally," says Interbrand's Buckingham. "Brand values need to be represented in the performance criteria, and people need to be rewarded according to the brand."

Selling internally: Inclusive, consultative, imaginative

"If you impose a brand culture it will fail. If you expect to change behaviour without asking if it's a good idea, you will fail," states Allan Steinmetz, CEO of Inward Strategic Consulting. "You need to segment your internal population just as you would your external audience and communicate appropriately. Communication needs to be relevant, and in today's climate, experiential as well. That could be rallies, workshops, online training, even picnics."

Robert Swinton, Head of Marketing, Securities Institute Australia, says of his company, "We made sure that what we say about our brand resonated with employees. What we came up with had to be livable, feasible and acceptable. We conducted workshops with focus groups of employees to work through what our brand values mean, and define how this would translate into the work of different types of jobs."

Too many organisations go through the process of wall-postering their values without making them relevant to people. For brands to be a way of life for employees, employees must discover the meaning of their brand for themselves by actively participating in its definition and seeking its implementation.

"It's not good enough to run spin campaigns for staff," points out Ian Buckingham. "The top team has to foot the bill. They need role model behaviours. You can't ask thousands of staff to behave in a way that people at the top won't model."

Besides actively engaging the employees in discovering the brand, practitioners are clearly calling for choosing Brand Champions to spread the word from within.

Imperative for people-based industries

While this is becoming an increasing necessity for all organisations, it is even more critical where people front the brand and need to display brand values in every interaction: like the service industry - retail, finance, insurance, hospitality, telecom ... even education, tourism and hospitals; technology companies with long sales cycles and having people deputed and stationed at customer sites; industrial product and commodities manufacturing companies where brand consciousness may be low but will increasingly be the differentiator; and organisations that need to interact continuously with government bodies, export councils, importers and the like.

When marketing is trying to turn external customers into brand evangelists, shouldn't someone be trying to turn employees into active advocates? Should HR be applying the principles of branding more actively? Should marketing widen its sphere of influence to create engagement internally too? Or should this programme be brought to you by the CEO?

All the quotes in this article are drawn from `Promoting Brand Allegiance Within,' by Edwin Colyer, brandchannel.com, August 18, 2003

(The writer is Vice-President and Executive Planning Director, JWT Chennai. The views expressed are her own)

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