Once you have support from the top for your internal branding campaign, next steps require some strategy and planning. After all, the brand is here to stay. The most important thing to accompany your campaign is long-term commitment, because the process unfolds over time.
Internal branding starts with employee awareness and eventually leads to behavior. Companies who undertake brand strengthening must understand that it takes time and dedication for that commitment to infiltrate every corner of every department.
Think of every customer touchpoint at your company. Sales representatives are the obvious answer, but they’re only the beginning. Touchpoints include emails from marketing, requests with customer service and receipts from accounting – just to name a few. All of these exchanges define your brand. That can be good or bad, depending on the people shaping them.
To influence every touchpoint and be truly effective, your internal brand must be carefully introduced to every level of the company. It has to be built from the inside out. Starting with senior management, going to department heads and then to their employees, the brand must be shared methodically throughout your organization. Once it permeates internal culture, it will begin to spread to key stakeholders such as financial contacts, media and prospective employees. By this point, sharing it with customers will be second nature for the whole team.
Image via (cc) Martin Pettitt
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