Rating Qualities

7
Applicable
For Beginners
Well Structured

Brand From the Inside

Eight Essentials to Emotionally Connect Your Employees to Your Business
Libby Sartain and Mark Schumann | Jossey-Bass © 2006

This branding manual has a slight twist: aim your branding efforts at your employees as well as at
your customers. Simple enough. Authors Libby Sartain and Mark Schumann have boiled employer
branding down to eight essentials. Generally, they focus on their core concept with a positive
orientation toward employees, although mostly helpful, their lists, checklists and lists within lists
do get repetitive. Maybe all those lists are intended to help the staff in human resources, where the
authors place much of the responsibility for internal branding. getAbstract recommends this book
to branding and internal marketing newcomers who want a rundown of the basics, and to human
resource professionals who may need to learn about marketing to harness the impact of internal
branding.

Take-Aways
• When employees feel connected to your company, they provide good service.
• See your employees as "internal customers"; create an employer brand for them.
• Half of HR managers view the company brand as "the essence of our offering" and say that
their companies conduct some form of employee branding.
• Your employer brand must meet your employees’ expectations.
• To create your employer brand, know the brand’s essence.
• Take eight steps: "discover, commit, diagnose, prepare, create, apply, market, nurture."
• Factors such as your reputation, corporate culture, workplace conditions, ethics and career
growth opportunities shape your employer brand.
• Work to create trust. In one study, only 51% of employees believed what their companies said
and only 48% believed statements from senior management.
• Revisit your employer brand whenever there is a merger or staff change, and in all marketing,
communication, policy and operational efforts.

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• To convey your company’s message, sponsor an event such as a conference that creates a
receptive mood.

Summary

From the Inside Out

Traditionally, branding efforts have focused on customers, but if you want to deliver exceptional
service, your branding program should really begin with your employees. When employees feel
an emotional connection with a company, they deliver exceptionally good service, which your
customers will recognize and appreciate.

“If the brand doesn’t live on the inside, it can’t thrive on the outside.”

Your employer branding campaign should include eight essential activities.

"Essential #1 - Discover"

Although you may not realize it, every business has a brand. How customers view your brand
determines whether they like, trust and buy your products. If your brand breaks its promises, your
customers may turn away. Conversely, when a brand delivers excellent service or quality, that can
have a positive "halo effect" on your entire product line. Brands can accelerate sales and customer
acceptance.

“Any business, in any corner of the world, must create an experience to engage its
employees before it can expect those employees to deliver the brand to customers.”

The best brands generate emotions that overpower common sense. For example, why do people
pay a few dollars for a cup of coffee at Starbucks when they could brew it at home for pennies or
buy it elsewhere for a buck? Millions pick up pricey lattes every day, but the individual decision to
grab a high end cup of coffee has nothing to do with reason. When customers identify with your
brand, it achieves a new level of influence. For examples of such powerful branding, turn to Apple
and Disney. Apple’s computers stand for creativity; Disney’s Magic Kingdom is the essence of a
happy childhood. Consumers feel an emotional connection with these brands.

“Brands paint the picture a customer steps into.”

Employees also have a relationship with your brand. When people believe in a company, they feel
good about working for it and delivering on its promises to customers.

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"Essential #2 - Commit"

A 2005 worldwide study found that human resource professionals see a company’s brand as the
"essence" of what it communicates "internally and externally." The same study found that 60%
of companies planned to start employee branding campaigns, which include many of the same
components as customer-directed campaigns.

“The key to employer branding is tapping the emotional essence of the company and
its brand, and using that emotional essence to frame and articulate the employee
experience.”

In a customer-directed campaign, you make promises to customers; in an employee campaign,

you make promises to employees. In both cases, you must honor your promises. An employee
campaign should connect your brand’s promises to customers with its promises to employees.
Both branding programs must complement your company’s business strategy. Your employer
brand promises employees such things as a positive corporate reputation, a supportive corporate
culture, safe and comfortable workplace conditions, solid ethics and good career-advancement
opportunities.

“A brand can connect a customer to what a business is all about - its character,
personality and values.”

A study by Yahoo! found that 94% of job hunters said they had to believe in a company’s mission
to accept a position with it. Companies with strong brands get good recruiting results. According
to one study, 79% of human resource professionals believed that employees ranked companies
with strong employer brands as top places to work. When employees feel an emotional link to a
company, they are more likely to remain with the organization when it experiences hard times or
intense competition. This is why internal branding is important in meeting HR goals.

“At their heart, brands touch the soul, excite the mind, satisfy the need and motivate the
action.”

Make sure employees understand your brand - which means more than just ascertaining that they
are familiar with your products and how they work. They must learn what your brand represents
to customers and why the brand inspires them. Encourage employees to use the brand. Hallmark,
for example, gives employees greeting cards to use.

"Essential #3 - Diagnose"

If you don’t intentionally develop an internal brand, one may develop by itself. An informal
employee brand may do a fine job of representing the company positively and accurately.
However, if it doesn’t, you must correct the problem by making sure that you are communicating

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the right values to your employees and customers. Ask employees and marketing executives to
answer the following questions, and use their responses to diagnose how well you are conveying
your internal message and to formulate your internal branding strategy:

• Do those who work here understand what the brand promises?

• How strongly do they believe in the brand’s promises?
• Can staff members do more to deliver what the brand promises?
• Does the brand support the company’s recruiting efforts?

"Essential #4 - Prepare"

When you plan and prepare an internal branding campaign, your goals are:

• To generate more revenue.

• To reduce employee turnover.
• To enhance recruitment potential.

“Only by addressing each stage of an employee’s experience can you truly make an
employer brand come to life.”

Internal branding should become part of your business plan - however, don’t overstate what
branding can accomplish. A change-resistant corporate culture, road blocks from company leaders
and departmental turf battles can become obstacles to any campaign.

Although a good employer brand can reduce the amount you spend on recruiting and replacing
employees, branding campaigns cost money. You may need to invest in research, the services of
an ad agency to communicate your new messages and additional HR support, if the plan involves
significant change.

“To make the employer brand real for your employees, emotionally and functionally, it
must live during each part of each day of an employee’s experience.”

In most companies, internal branding is the HR department’s responsibility. Depending

on the type of business and the project’s scope, staff members from marketing, corporate
communication, customer service, the call center, sales and information technology may also get
involved. All these disparate people must learn to work as a team.

"Essential #5 - Create"

To carry out the plan, the team should take the following steps:

• Set ground rules - Specify the problem. Is there too much turnover? Cynicism? Are new
competitors eroding sales and taking your customers? The team should analyze the effects on
the brand of both external and internal factors.

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• Perform research - Research can help you define your company’s "essence," or what your
brand means to your customers - which is not the same as what your product does. For
example, Hallmark’s essence is "enriching lives." Harley-Davidson’s is "we fulfill dreams."
Heinz’s is "doing a common thing uncommonly well." Anheuser-Busch’s is "we will add to life’s
enjoyment."
• Set attainable goals - Specify objectives for each key area: the company, the brand, the market,
and prospective, current and former employees.
• Communicate the goals - Everyone in the organization should know and understand the goals.
The team should develop a creative "big idea" that inspires employees and conveys what the
company represents.

“Your business must create a multisensory experience for your employees in which the
brand is present all around.”

Implement the employer-branding process whenever you experience major staff changes or other
significant shifts, such as a merger. Communicate your employer brand in all your marketing,
policy and operational efforts.

"Essential #6 - Apply"

Your employee brand must meet employees’ expectations. Don’t frustrate your staff with a gap
between what the brand promises and what it delivers. Make your promises clear; for example,
FedEx’s "purple promise" to employees includes a compensation package and a rewards program.

“Ultimately, an employer brand is only as successful as the way in which it directs the
choices people make every day.”

Break down distinctions between employees and customers by regarding your employees as
"internal customers." The HR department should insure that employees are aware of the employer
brand at every stage of their life-cycle with the company:

• Noticing the company.

• Deciding it is an attractive place to work.
• Applying for a job.
• Joining the company.
• Working.
• Leaving.
• Remembering the work experience.

"Essential #7 - Market"

Share your employer brand messages with everyone the company touches: customers, the
community, employees, regulators and competitors. The Internet, with its capacity to spread

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messages instantly around the world, has changed the way organizations communicate. You must
explain what your company does, and how it benefits customers and employees.

“To clearly communicate the employer brand, your business must reveal its core and
define its relationship with your employees.”

When UPS changed its company logo in 2003, it gave every employee a small package containing
a pin and a message from the company president explaining the reasons for the logo change, and
how the new logo would look on company vehicles and packaging.

Hallmark uses another creative way to deliver its company message. Its annual employee brand
conference puts participants in the mood to receive a positive message. Employees explain how
the company and its products have enriched their lives. Company artists and writers discuss how
they create the cards. The goal of the event is to help employees understand the business and to
strengthen their belief in the company mission.

“Every once in a while, do something outrageous, and stop, think, and wonder.”

Washington Mutual appointed 75 brand managers, representing all lines of business nationwide.
"Brand rallies" around the country had a 95% employee-participation rate.

To communicate your employer brand, follow these steps:

• Recognize that emotions are powerful communication tools.

• Re-evaluate your employee-communication program.
• Tell the truth. A 2003 study found that only 51% of employees believed what their companies
said, and only 48% believed senior management.
• Tell your company’s story from the employee’s perspective.
• Involve senior management in telling the story.
• Train key personnel to be employer brand advocates.
• Explain how employees benefit from working for the company: "WIIFM" ("What’s in it for
me?"). Then, explain again.
• Demonstrate the business’s personality. Southwest Airlines, which has a reputation as a fun
place to work, holds job-recruitment auditions, where interviewers encourage candidates to
sing.

"Essential #8 - Nurture"

Once you’ve created and communicated your message, it will take on a life of its own in the
workplace, through daily interactions between individuals and among small groups. All of your
senior managers should reinforce the branding effort by embodying what the brand represents.

To keep the branding program focused, monitor feedback from employees and customers.
Determine whether the brand is meeting employee expectations. Use focus groups and surveys

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to be sure that the customer brand and the employer brand are aligned. On the UPS "brand
exchange" Web site, customers, suppliers and the community interact. The site protects the brand
and ensures that everyone has a consistent experience.

About the Authors

Libby Sartain is senior vice president of human resources at a major Internet company. For
more than 25 years, Mark Schumann was the global communications practice leader for a
leading consulting firm.

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