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EXTEND YOUR BRAND: Turn Your Employees Into Brand Ambassadors

 

Guest Post By: Cyndi Zidell

No matter what type of business you are in, your employees are your greatest assets. They humanize your company. While logos, taglines and marketing campaigns are important to your brand’s success, employees are the brand custodians that are responsible for delivering the brand promise.

To leverage your brand, creatively tap into your employees’ networks – both offline and online. It is a way to reach new markets, generate “buzz”, and put a real face on your business. In today’s world your business needs the human touch integrated with marketing your goods and services in order to succeed.

You will want to develop a healthy, supportive work environment developing enthusiastic, engaged communicators with a good work ethic. To determine Brand Ambassadors from your employee pool, you will want to directly engage them and obtain their input on such matters as: Performance of your business’ core values; customer service delivery – is your company delivering the highest level, and if not obtain their ideas for improvement; engagement of the workforce across all levels of the company or business.

Once you have identified your Brand Ambassadors consider the following areas to make the best use of their talents:

  1. Share the Knowledge. Find an opportunity to connect your employees with your brand. Starbucks CEO Charles Schultz states that, “The (Starbucks) merchant’s success depends on his/her ability to tell a story.”
  2. Build Community. Actively participating in the community in which your business is located enriches your company. Encourage your employees to volunteer and/or participate in team building community events. Collecting food or clothing for needy or displaced persons; promoting spay, neutering and pet adoptions, and fundraising for education or charitable events are some examples.
  3. Seize Every Opportunity to Communicate With Your Employees. Speak honestly with your employees about your business achievements as well as the opportunities and challenges your company faces. When you build a sense that your employees are important to your business, they will be more willing to work to meet your goals.
  4. Encourage Participation. Create a company newsletter or blog and allow employees to contribute, or offer topic suggestions. Identify employees with excellent communications skills to post on your social media sites strictly adhering to the your company’s standards for those types of communications.

A company should strive to create Brand Ambassadors from their employees no matter the size of the organization. When this is achieved, each employee will be positively marketing the company to their individual circles of influence creating larger opportunities for increased sales and profitability. When you find Brand Ambassadors within your company that have made a positive difference to your business’ performance, recognize those employees. Public recognition is an excellent way to encourage your advocates to keep up the good work and a way to inspire others to get involved.

 

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Is It Time To Give Back?

 

It is just good business to give back to the community or industry you serve, don’t you agree?

Not only does volunteering of your time and talents help the organization, it allows for you to learn about a new industry, meet fresh faces, and showcase your area of expertise.

Getting involved in a cause that speaks to you and aligns with your personal brand can also help boost your business’ brand image.

Specifically, in the marketing, advertising and public relations industries, there are many local, non-profit organizations that are looking for volunteers to help generate awareness, create networking mixers, promote educational programs, share tools and resources, and further their chapter’s mission.

Here are the top three industries:

  • The American Marketing Association – Inland Empire Chapter (AMA-IE) http://ama-ie.com/

I am the 2014-2015 Communications Chair for the AMA-IE, where I offer my creative services in the areas of: E-marketing, Social Marketing and Public Relations.

Previously I served 6+ years as President, Vice-President and Programs Chair for the AAF-IE, and sat on a committee in sponsorship for the PRSA-IE, which provided invaluable experience and connections.

Sound interesting?

Consider a committee role first, before jumping in too deep with a chairperson position.

Choose a role in which you have had experience with or if you have an interest or passion for a particular area such as: membership, sponsorship, event planning, college relations, administrative, treasurer and more.

With volunteering, you will gain a deeper knowledge about the inner-workings of a board of directors, help problem-solve, think creatively and become a team player, all while having fun and making connections. In the end, you should feel good about contributing.

Volunteering not only helps shape a professional career; but also can help build brand equity by positioning your business in a positive light as you seek to improve your community and add value.

Outside of your business and business interests, volunteering for a cause that pulls on your heartstrings and speaks to you personally–i.e. animal-welfare, child-welfare, the homeless – will reflect positively on your brand if done with authentic intentions and integrity. Personal interests show a “human-touch” in your business and can reassure customers, strengthening your position in the community.

Ultimately, if you feel a calling, you owe it to yourself to explore the rewards you’ll gain personally, professionally and to enhance your brand image.

Let us know where you serve!

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Re-branding? Key Factors to Consider to Remain Viable

When Re-branding, Will It Help Or Hurt Your Image?

Imagine a brand so successful it is a household name: A brand that has been in existence since 1902. Certainly over time, the brand has had several leadership transformations in which new ideas were tested, successes measured, practices overhauled, and yet the brand survived turbulent economic times and buying habit trends for over 111 years. The brand was J C Penney’s, now known as JCP.

When a brand makes modifications process begins with “cosmetics”: a new logo design, new color standards and tagline to capture the brand’s essence. These positive aspects of re-branding, done correctly, can have resounding success.

When going beyond a change in the look and feel of the company that represents its new direction, the customer must be eased in to this new model, but to give them time to accept the other transformations in the new vision.

In the case of JCP’s new modernized logo and name change, it seems there was disconnect with the elements that were working favorably for the store over its history. Instead, all of their changes – logo/name change, vendor and price strategy, and new advertising campaigns – were all rolled out at once, allowing for resistance from their loyal, established customer base.

If Penney’s goal was to broaden their base, attract new customers and positively impact sales to this well-established brand, the effect of “too much too soon” seems to have produced the opposite effect.

Reviewing the lessons from JCP and other large brands, we have made a more nuanced transition as perry design + advertising recently re-branded after 16 years serving businesses’ advertising and marketing needs.

If you are thinking about making changes to your business brand, consider the following:

(1) What is it about your current operations that your customers like, and how to embrace those elements into your new image?

(2) Considering your target market. If you are going after a new demographic, are you making sure your business is in alignment with your product, pricing and media reach?

(3) Are you planning to stage the rollout of your brand’s changes so that it is subtle and easier for your customers to adapt?