The Outside in: Your External Marketing Impacts Your Insides

After Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon, someone at NASA commented that NASA had a significant advantage in achieving a very difficult goal: every night the engineers could actually see their goal. Constantly seeing your brand also plays a powerful role in aligning culture and service with the brand. Every advertisement, billboard, brochure, and sign can remind staff of their brand promise and, assuming they have been exposed to branded customer service concepts, their role in delivering on-brand service.

Organizations that successfully brand their customer service grasp that advertising is designed as much for employees as it is for customers. The brand and the story communicated in advertising highlight staff spirit, attitude, and values. Unfortunately, this opportunity is frequently lost, especially when advertising is used primarily to promote specific products or offerings. Even worse, sometimes advertising undermines the branded customer service proposition.

Recently a large division of a major commercial bank asked TMI to review the alignment between its new brand positioning ("100 Percent Professional Care") and its service culture. Management successfully sold the brand to staff by reinforcing the critical role they played in delivering the brand promise through high-quality customer service. The "100 Percent Professional Care" promise was launched to staff at a big, splashy event. Employees loved the idea and were excited about the personal role they were asked to play in supporting the brand.

A few months later, a low-budget advertising campaign was launched with the goal of attracting new customers and building awareness of this division. When public awareness measurably increased, marketers believed they were successful. But the experience was deflating for the staff. In discussion after discussion, we heard one consistent lament: "The look and feel of the advertising doesn't reflect our promise of 100 Percent Professional Care." The ads were off-brand!

Many staff lost their sense of aspiration about the brand, and their motivation to deliver it was diminished. A single advertisement set an expectation of service that certainly did not require staff to stretch. It actually implied they were overdelivering on service.