JEROME THE BRAND GUY SAYS:
BUILD A STRONG INTERNAL BRAND FOR YOUR COMPANY!
Some people make the mistake of confusing internal branding and corporate branding. Corporate Branding sells the brand outside and Internal Branding sells the brand inside the company. Corporate Branding is the overall identity that the consumers associate themselves with, while Internal Branding ensures that everyone working in the company lives and breathes the brand’s mission, vision and values. Some companies neglect the idea of building a strong internal brand but read on and find out how the existence and absence of an internal brand can potentially affect your external branding.
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WHAT IS INTERNAL BRANDING?
Internal Branding is a continuous practice of WHO the brand is, a constant reminder of WHERE it is going and WHY the company exists. The WHO, WHAT and WHERE behind any business is important to be embraced by employees because it contributes to a brand’s positive impressions, reputation and credibility. A strong and effective internal brand means that the company has transformed its employees to become its top brand advocates who speak the brand’s language and live the brand’s values.
Take a look at Facebook
Facebook started out as a small outlet with only a core group making its successful debut at several American colleges happen. The brand sells “connection” which is effortlessly the same offering within their company. Facebook has always been known to be a fun place to work at and with the brand’s playful approach to innovating technology and internet use, it has given the employees a freedom to explore and experiment. Even with its global success today, Facebook maintains its brand culture as it continuously grows and garner success, all because of highly motivated individuals working towards its success.
HOW DOES INTERNAL BRANDING AFFECT YOU AND YOUR COMPANY?
Internal Branding can make or break a company, almost the same as how an external brand can affect the relationship with consumers. In today’s marketplace, it has become important for customers to be associated with brands who speak and share their values too. One bad employee can spoil a customer experience. A negative insight from an insider can cause doubt on your company’s credibility. An employee’s bad behavior can damage a brand or disrupt the workflow and any untoward or unbecoming actions by a supposed advocate can become a brand’s weakness.
Don’t let poor internal brand affect your external brand. Look for the golden opportunities to further build and strengthen it. I am a believer of creating unique experiences that doesn’t hard sell the brand inside, but naturally creates that flow of employee-being in an organisation.
CREATE A UNIQUE INTERNAL BRANDING EXPERIENCE FOR YOUR EMPLOYEES
While Internal Branding is important, building a UNIQUE one can differentiate your brand from others. In the Global Brand Academy’s programmes, we encourage the practice of these TWO Internal Branding Strategies:
1. Look to your brand basics: Mission, Vision and Values.
These founding ideas are what makes your brand a whole. Making sure that these are properly communicated and implemented should be a top priority of any brand.
In these brand basics, you can also find an advocacy you can relate to. Today, it means making a stand for society, which is an important consideration for both employees and consumers when choosing brands they want to associate with. Some examples of advocacies are anti-discrimination, anti-bullying and inclusivity practices within companies.
2. Create Branded Experiences within your organisation
While companies often opt for a standard procedure in implementing and projecting brand mission, vision and values, a branded employee experience is a more effective way through employees. A company should never leave anything for an employee’s own interpretation, but it should be able to engage them in a way that is consistent with the brand’s unique personality and what they stand for. As with anything, we highly recommend creating experiences driven by your brand.
These have helped transform brands from the thousand employees we connected with. Our 40 plus signature programs have these as basics before diving into specialties. If you are interested in creating a UNIQUE Internal Brand for your company, check out our Internal Brand Mastery programmes here .
These two best practices have been shared by Jerome Joseph, Global Brand Academy’s Head Brand Coach, based from his personal experience as an Award-Winning Professional Speaker and Brand Consultant. He was ranked No. 2 in the world (2020) and No. 3 (2021) as the Global Brand Thought Leader. He is also a Best-Selling Author of eight (8) books on Branding and his book on Internal Branding is one of the popularly referenced reads when it comes to building company culture.
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Check out Jerome’s corporate training and brand consulting at www.jeromejoseph.com
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www.globalbrandacademy.com
The Global Brand Academy is a corporate training company that enables brand transformations by providing effective internal branding and leadership programmes for organizations and their employees.
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