Chapter 10: Great Brands are Supported From Within: the Role of Management


Overview

Employment branding, that is, communicating the brand message to staff, is an idea that has gained momentum in recent years among branding experts. Brand expert Michael T. Ewing says,

[Employment branding] may be due to the realization that advertising is probably the most visible, recognizable and memorable element of organizational communication. As such, it has the potential to become a purveyor of organizational symbolism and mythology and thus to be part of the cultural, ritual and interpretive organizational fabric that is the thick medium through which leadership creates climate and thus organized action. [1]

Imagine the type of organization to which Ewing could be referring. It would be well defined and repeatedly communicated to staff at both rational and emotional levels. Organizational purpose and values would be clear, relevant, and understood by everyone. In such a situation, employees would more likely live the values that underpin who they are and what they stand for as an organization. The brand, delivered with product quality, service delivery, advertising, product and service guarantees, history, and name, would become a focal point of organizational cultural communication. Imagine the focus, energy, and momentum for performance that could be created within such an environment!

Interest in employment branding has arisen as more people realize that the major responsibility for delivering the brand promise lies in staff's hands. For many organizations, however, staff buy-in to brand values is extremely limited. A survey of one hundred senior corporate executives from major European corporations revealed that only 36 percent thought that buy-in to brand mission, vision, and values went further than senior management. The reasons cited for these weak numbers included a failure to communicate what the brand stands for because of fragmentation, weaknesses in internal communication channels, lack of clarity in the brand, decentralization, and failure to spell out brand relevance to employees. [2]

U.S.-based Kemper Insurance Company is an organization where key executives are interested in everyone at Kemper understanding the brand. When they were asked what they wanted to accomplish with a recent advertising campaign, executives said it was primarily to advertise core values (responsibility, quality, and integrity) to its agents, brokers, and employees.

Kemper found that humorous test ads had a high likability factor with audiences. The people who watched them, however, did not connect the funny ads to Kemper's brand identity and values. So Kemper decided to launch serious core-value commercials at a sponsored major golf tournament on CBS. After the campaign, Joel Borgardt, vice president of corporate marketing, concluded, "[The ad campaign has been] a good rallying point for the employees, and agents and brokers can relate to it as well. It's not about just an advertising campaign; it's about people living the values every day." [3] Kemper's president, Bill Smith, emphasized this point by describing how the insurance giant linked its strategic business plan with branding: "A brand is a combination of a people's perceptions of a company and their experiences with it. The relationships we build at Kemper are a key driver of these perceptions and are the foundation of a strong brand." [4]

[1]Michael T. Ewing et al., "Employment Branding in the Knowledge Economy," International Journal of Advertising 21 (2002). Ewing references M. C. Gilly and M. Wolfinbarger, "Advertising's Internal Audience," Journal of Marketing 62 (January 1998): 69–88.

[2]Ind, "Living the Brand."

[3]Rodd Zolkos, "Kemper Brand Image Stresses Core Values," Business Insurance 35 (July 16, 2001): 34.

[4]Kemper Insurance Company, Kemper Annual Report (2001), 33.




Branded Customer Service(c) The New Competitive Edge
Branded Customer Service: The New Competitive Edge
ISBN: 1576752984
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 134

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