The Brand or the Bland: Defining Your Brand in the Mind of Your Staff

We have stated that branding is the sum of all the impressions customers form of the experiences they have with your brand. A less obvious conclusion, though equally important, is that branding is also the sum of experiences that staff have with the brand and the products they represent.

The staff-brand relationship is a special, multidimensional one that must be carefully nurtured, particularly when staff rarely or never use the product or sample the service they represent. This situation can happen because the product just happens to be one that staff would never use, such as farm tractors or large business software programs. It can also include products that are out of the price range of staff, such as expensive hotel rooms, luxury watches, or high-end automobiles.

We have stayed in hotels where the front desk clerks have never even been inside the guest rooms. With an almost total lack of knowledge of what a consumer experiences, it is difficult for staff to grasp what might enhance or detract from the brand. In these circumstances, staff can look at the situation only from their own perspective. They have no other context from which to understand what is happening to the consumer.

Years ago, Janelle and her family traveled throughout China on an extensive and lengthy trip. They each had two pieces of luggage, not an exorbitant number given the distance and length of their trip. Wherever they went, hotel personnel, taxi drivers, and train conductors all clucked their tongues and said, "Xingli tai duo," or in English, "Too much luggage."

Admittedly, the luggage was bulging, but under the circumstances and given everything they bought on the trip, two pieces per person was definitely not "too much luggage." But how were the local staff to know what is involved with a lengthy international trip where every purchasable item looks exotic and exciting? Most Chinese in the early 1980s had little money and probably had not been out of their province, let alone taken a trip to the other side of the world.

We have urged hotel executives in developing nations to make sure all of the staff have the opportunity to stay overnight in one of the guest rooms. This taste of the brand is an important part of educating staff about the product they represent. But that is just the beginning for getting the touch and feel of your brand into the minds of your staff.

Some brand concepts are very complex, and simple knowledge possessed by staff of products or services will not be sufficient to impact customers with the brand. Research suggests that not only does full understanding of the organizational brand reduce employee stress, but it also increases the likelihood that staff will deliver the brand. ^[5]

This understanding can be difficult to achieve. The new brand position of Hallmark Entertainment Network (now owned by Crown Media International, for example, was developed so that "viewers can experience a sense of growth, have a better understanding of life and appreciate it all with new meaning," ^[6] says Andrew Brilliant, Crown Media's executive deputy CEO. How do you get those ideas solidly placed in the receptionist's mind, for example, so he or she can reinforce this concept whenever anyone calls Hallmark? Brand learning experiences, such as those detailed in the brand toolbox, can start you on this road.

^[5]James Heskett, "Lessons in the Service Sector," Harvard Business Review (March-April, 1987): 118–126.

^[6]"Hallmark Entertainment Network Launches Redesigned Brand Strategy," Business Wire, August 21, 2000.