Building Winning Brands - 11 of 16

The eleventh most important thing to know about building winning brands is that the corporate culture must reinforce the brand positioning. 

As I mentioned earlier, The Conference Board found this to be one of the most important contributors to brand strategy success.  Brand management pioneer, David Aaker posed the following very important question when he visited Hallmark several years ago: “Until everyone from your CEO to your receptionist can accurately and consistently articulate your brand’s promise, how do you expect your customers to?” At the Institute for International Research’s The Branding Trilogy conference in Santa Barbara, California, Kristine Shattuck, Los Angeles Area Marketing Manager, Southwest Airlines put it well when she said, “Enthusiastic employees spread enthusiasm to customers.  Market to your employees as much as your customers.  If your employees don’t ‘get it,’ neither will your customers.”

Hiring employees whose personalities and values match those intended of the brand will ensure that the brand experience is consistently delivered as intended.  Hiring employees who are category enthusiasts ensures knowledge, passion, credibility and the ability to communicate more easily with customers and potential customers.  It also helps you tap into customer networks more easily.  This is important across functions – from product development, sales and customer service to marketing research, quality control and senior management.  For example, Oakley looks for employees who have a serious interest in sport.  Southwest Airlines hires people for their sense of humor and positive attitude.   Virgin Atlantic also hires people based on their congruence with company values.

Comments

[Martin Jelsema]

Brad: I agree with the need to align corporate culture and brand positioning. But I'm not sure that culture needs to reenforce positioning as much as positioning needs to reenforce or complement the culture. My experience is that credibility comes from culture and positioning based on credibility is most powerful. Martin