Your greatest brand ambassadors are under your nose

April 01, 2008

John Foligno (jfoligno@ cubismbranding.com) is managing director of Cubism Branding, a branding, design and integrated marketing communications firm.

By John Foligno

When thinking of brand-building techniques, we consider typical methods of communication through traditional advertising, public relations, Web sites, etc. However, most often overlooked are your internal employees, or "brand ambassadors," as I prefer to call them.

These include not just salespeople and customer service staffers, but those who deal with billing issues, Web site inquiries, requests for return authorization or technical issues. Without properly educating and training these brand evangelists, you are losing valuable opportunities to retain your existing customers and maintain consistent messaging about your brand. Ultimately, this will erode both market share and profits.

The valuation of your stock An organization's two most valuable assets are its employees and its brands. A brand often accounts for between 50 percent and 70 percent of an organization's total financial value, while internal ambassadors that keep the brand alive and strong make up the rest. So it's critical that your employees aren't just enthusiastic about the brand—they also need to understand it. If they don't have a clear idea of what the brand stands for, they can't communicate effectively and deliver the kind of service you require.

Consider that the cost of acquiring new customers is vastly greater than the expense of retaining existing customers—sometimes costing as much as 20 times more. If you take the time to educate all of your employees that deal with customers, you can greatly enhance consistency in brand messaging. This reinforces that customers hear the same thing about your brand. Some fundamental ways to accomplish this include bi-monthly or quarterly town hall meetings, formal service introductions or training for new products, and sending monthly newsletters.

External vs. internal messaging You've invested in branding your product or service to your target. But you may not be applying the same level of investment to your internal team. Take some thought and care as this is a high-value area you need to include in your marketing strategy and budget. For example, develop a program to align the behavior of your employees with the brand promise; develop a culture that fosters suggestions for improvements and create rewards or incentives based upon the result of increased customer satisfaction or retention.

Survey the landscape You and your employees need to become students of the customer mindset. One cost-effective way to accomplish this is by surveying your customers and clients. Doing so will, one, help you gain invaluable insight of what works, what doesn't and what you should be doing differently; and two, send your customers a message that lets them know you are listening.

Consumers obviously want their voices to be heard and moreover, it's clear they want to participate, given the proliferation of blogs, chat rooms and social networks such as MySpace and Facebook. Your customers, who can help make your product or service better, are no exception. Always consider using a third-party survey resource to gain objective feedback.

So the next time you allocate your budget toward brand-building, set funds aside to educate and train your internal brand employees. Without properly investing for the long term, you could be leaving a lot of money on the table that your competition may grab right from under your nose.

John Foligno (jfoligno@ cubismbranding.com) is managing director of Cubism Branding, a branding, design and integrated marketing communications firm.

Editor's note: This article first appeared in the March 2008 issue of National Jeweler.