One of our favorite concepts is that your brand walks around on two feet.  What does this mean?  Simply stated, it means that your employees are your brand and they are representing your brand every day as they interact with your stakeholders (co-workers, customers, suppliers and shareholders).  But wait a minute here!  How about all of the money your company spends on branding, marketing and advertising?  If we already have a brand walking around on two feet, then why are we spending this money on traditional marketing campaigns, or highly creative and catchy ones?

OK, so before you cut your marketing spend, let’s expand a bit on what we mean by this.   Let’s ask this question—who do your customers interact with most often?  Most likely with sales and service employees in your company.  Do you think that your customer develops their view of who and what your company is through your advertising and branding materials, or through the people that they personally interact with?  The answer is obvious, we, (all of us) are impacted much more by those we personally interact with than words we see, hear or read.

That doesn’t mean that branding and advertising campaigns can’t be worth the investment.  But here’s the critical point—your campaigns need to be consistent with what your customers and other stakeholders draw from their interactions with your employees.  If you are branding your organization as customer focused and your customers feel less than a priority in dealing with your employees, then your advertising is going to lack credibility and sincerity.

So, as you are considering how to communicate your brand to your customers, it would be worthwhile to think about this—will your employees be able to deliver your brand promise?  Do they believe in and will they embody it in each interaction?  Do they understand the brand promise that you are sending out through your campaigns?

All of this leads us to another important point—as you are developing your campaigns, it would be very wise to include your employees in the process, since they will be responsible for delivering it.  We have seen many examples where marketing departments developed a brand promise that the employees don’t understand, don’t believe in, or aren’t even aware of.

A Definition of Promise: “a declaration or assurance that one will do a particular thing or that a particular thing will happen”.  So a brand promise needs to be taken seriously.  In order to fulfill your brand promise your employees must be completely invested in carrying it out.

Here’s the critical point—if you believe like we do that, good or bad, your brand truly walks around on two feet, then it’s all about culture.  The culture of your company will determine what your stakeholders experience from your employees.  Is it a culture that aligns with your brand promise, strengthening connections with your customers, or is it one in which your promise lacks credibility?