11

EMPOWERING YOUR BRAND

A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well.

Jeff Bezos, CEO, Amazon

With employees motivated and empowered to support customers, organizations in turn need to recognize that it’s entirely possible to dramatically increase the power of your brand and through their employees. Building on points we discussed in earlier chapters, marketing is best enabled by employees who clearly understand and connect with customer needs. This is more than just recognizing the value that employees can bring to building brand awareness. It also understands that a growing percentage of today’s customers are conscious of what organizations stand for and how they treat the environment as well as their employees. It truly is about the connection employees have with the company and the brand that sets high-growth organizations apart from others.

What’s in a Brand?

When it comes to building a brand, you may initially think of global power house brands such as Coca-Cola, Apple, or Microsoft. I once heard someone explain that a brand has reached the pinnacle of success when the name of the brand actually replaces the product or service they are selling. Q-tip, Kleenex, Band-Aid, Windex, and Ski-Doo would all be examples of organizations and brands that have reached this level of success. Although I think this explanation of a brand makes sense, it creates for many organizations what can only be perceived as an unattainable goal. A slightly more realistic goal is to consider the point at which your organization’s name or the name of your product or service is recognized by both existing and potential customers as the “go-to” source.

Although this definition seems quite valid, it’s missing something. If we refer back to our earlier conversations, we’ve discussed at length the fact that an organization is built on and around its employees, and as a result, an organization’s existing and potential employees must also somehow connect with its brand. Although a brand is typically something that is only customer-facing, the fact remains that unstoppable organizations recognize that a brand must appeal to not only customers, but also employees. Michael Beneteau, of CenterLine (Windsor) Limited, one of Canada’s Best Managed Companies, is the CEO of an unstoppable organization who believes this to be true. When I asked Michael how he and his team have built such a highly successful organization that has more than 700 employees in multiple locations serving customers from around the world, Michael gave me a different take on what a brand is. You see, Michael connects CenterLine’s brand with that of the organization’s employees.

Although CenterLine’s core product is that of designing and servicing custom automation, their success as an organization has come from having the right people and the right culture. Michael described CenterLine’s brand as “customer first,” something that has ensured the long-term growth and success of the organization. Michael and his team measure the success of their culture and their “customer first” brand by continuously asking customers what sets CenterLine apart from the competition. Repeatedly they are told that it is their people; not necessarily the skills of their people (although these are important), but rather the way in which CenterLine employees put their customers first, building strong and lasting relationships. This constant feedback confirms that CenterLine is indeed spot-on with their brand and culture.

This “customer first” approach is so critical to CenterLine’s success that Michael and his team realized that the key to achieving their commitment was to create brand awareness that was embraced by not only customers, but also potential employees. When I asked Michael to describe this approach, he said, “We instill a brand awareness with young people; we want to be known amongst our potential employees as a training organization that supports young people. In doing so, we attract the best talent, which appeals to our customers and in turn helps us to live and breathe our ‘customer first’ commitment.”

I asked Michael how well this branding with potential employees works and whether they ever experience employee turnover, to which he responded, “Our philosophy of being a training organization that supports young people means that we do lose some of our staff, but we are always sure to leave the door open.” What Michael confirmed is that sometimes employees will realize that working for CenterLine isn’t the right fit for them and if this is ever the case, then those employees should pursue other interests or careers. “I always let our employees know that if they decide to leave and things change, they should contact us first.”

I was invigorated after speaking with Michael, as I was with others interviewed for this book. In summarizing some points gleaned from my discussion with Michael as well as several other CEOs, the best approach to building a successful brand is quite contrary to what we’ve historically believed to be the power of a brand. Namely, success results from:

• Having two brands: a customer-facing and an employee-facing brand.
• Their customer-facing brand of “customer first” is also their cultural focus.
• Their employee-facing brand of “A training organization for young people” also appeals to their customer base.
• The brands coexist in benefiting the organization, its customers, and stakeholders, but create a foundation and focus that places employees first.
• Both brands are clear, concise, and meaningful to anyone who comes in contact with them.

The long-term and continued success of CenterLine’s approach to building a brand that is both employee-centric and customer-centric, serving to create meaning for both groups while primarily satisfying the need for employees with the right skills, mindset, and values, clarifies what a powerful brand really is and what it isn’t.

Redefining What a Brand Is

When you consider the simplicity of CenterLine’s approach to creating a brand, and the power and undisputed success they have had in growing their organization, their philosophy sheds new light on how unstoppable organizations are looking at their branding. Of course, CenterLine, like other organizations, invests in marketing that is relevant and meaningful to their customers. What Michael and his team have recognized, though, is that the best investment they can make to grow their organization is not in creating marketing campaigns, but in finding, attracting, and growing young talent that adopt and connect with the customer-first philosophy, because it’s this philosophy that is the key differentiator for CenterLine in what is a crowded market of competition.

Using this as an example, we can reshape our definition of a brand, recognizing that even in an industry that is highly focused on technology, such as CenterLine, it’s truly an organization’s employees who help it differentiate and stand out in the market. By incorporating employees into the development of a brand, we empower the brand to come alive. Similarly, Michael and his team realized that in order to place “customers first,” CenterLine as an organization needed to be first and foremost a training organization for young people to learn, grow, and increase their knowledge.

Michael’s approach to developing a brand is not new, although it is unique in that very few CEOs see a brand as being positioned first and foremost around employees. In order to assess what aspects are most important to both your employees and customers, begin with conducting some focus groups to address questions such as the following:

1. What is it that your customers find most unique or valuable about your organization (not just its products or services) that helps you to stand apart from the competition?
2. Identify the contributors to achieving this value, both from the perspective of your customers but also from internal dialogue with employees. Specifically, what are the key contributions the organization makes that ensures it provides this value on a continuum to your customers?
3. How does the organization make these contributions? What are the sources of the contributions; how are they attracted or found; how are they sustained?
4. What are the most successful sources of these contributions today? How can these sources be further improved?
5. Where might these sources be found in the next five to 10 years? How can the organization position itself to be connecting and attracting these sources to ensure their longevity?

Working through these questions is, in my experience, an exercise best completed by individuals not engaged in marketing, selling, or any other department for that matter, as their views and experiences can ultimately influence the responses. Ideally, you should have someone neutral from your organization, an individual not presently involved directly with any department or team to interview your customers and provide this summary. I’m not suggesting you grab someone off the street per say; however, considering the various influences those from across the organization can have based on their own departmental and personal objectives, it is better to have an outside expert conduct these interviews for three reasons:

1. A customer-centric focus. An outsider is not worried about trying to justify to your customer why they may not be pleased with some aspects of your organization and satisfied with others. They simply want to collect the information as it is presented, with no existing biases or conflicting priorities.
2. Message clarity. Similar to my recommendations on avoiding electronic employee engagement surveys, by having someone hold face-to-face discussions with your customers, they have the opportunity to dig deeper when confused by or are unfamiliar with customer comments. Professionals who conduct these types of interviews know when to dig and when to rest, with the benefit to the organization being complete clarity about customer ideas, feedback, and concerns.
3. Additional value. In my experience, customers are elated at the fact that one of their suppliers or partner companies (your organization in this case) is interested in learning how they can do more and be more to and for their customers. This is indirectly a means of adding value to your customers and further entrenching your organization as vital to the success of your customers.

With this new view of what a brand really entails, and some ideas on how to identify the very components of your brand that are both appealing to customers and attractive to potential employees, let’s turn the tables for a moment to explore how to empower your brand.

What’s Your Brand?

Let’s take a moment to develop your organization’s empowered brand. Ideally, you will do this with a cross-section of people from your organization (not just senior leaders, but also managers, supervisors, and most importantly, employees along with a small collection of key suppliers and important customers). The best group size for this exercise is between 10 and 12 people. You can of course do this exercise yourself first, to see how it works, but the best results come from gaining multiple inputs from employees, customers, and key suppliers.

Consider for a moment what your organizational brand or value promise is. Write it down at the top of a piece of paper or as the header on a flip chart, and then below this statement, draw two columns. On the left, title it “customer,” and on the right, title it “employees.” I’ve created an example in the following figure.

Ignoring your value statement for a moment, under the left column, identify all of the things that customers value from your products, services, and organization. When you describe this, don’t think about what goes into creating or delivering the value, but rather the value customers receive as a result. A customer would not describe your technology as something they value, but rather what they receive or achieve as a result of your technology. Apple describes its watch as helping customers to “live a better day” (the intended result of wearing it), rather than focus on the specifications or technicalities of the technology that goes into every watch.

Some examples to consider include:

• Quality or durability of your product.
• Responsiveness of your team (customer service, technicians, etc).
• Location or availability of your facilities.
• Attitude of your employees.
• Knowledge that your employees possess.
• The improved lifestyle or experience.

Now, under the right hand column titled “employees,” describe the attributes and benefits that employees appreciate in working for your organization. Examples to consider may include:

• Support of leadership.
• Freedom to set their own schedule.
• Location of your facilities.
• The value your product or service provides customers.
• The reputation of the organization.
• The impact your products or services have on the world.

With this information documented, the next step is to identify the top three points on each side. For example, identify three points that customers value and three points that employees value. These are the foundation of your new brand. Before we go any further, if you aren’t sure how to identify the top three points in each category, use a process of prioritization. My favorite is to have everyone involved write down on a sticky note what their single most important top priority would be from each side, then have them write it down and collectively share their sticky notes, working as a team to determine what the priority would be. Invariably, in my experience of completing this exercise through several years now, there has never been a team that hasn’t reached a collective agreement on what the top three priorities will be, although sometimes individuals have a difficult time identifying what their single most important priority would be for each category.

Make sure to visit www.unstoppableorganization.com to grab a printable version of this exercise to assist you in developing your empowered brand.

These priorities now provide the basis for identifying your double-sided vision; specifically a statement that encapsulates what customers value, but also aligning this with what potential employees value. Returning back to Michael and his team at CenterLine, their customer brand is “customer first,” and their employee brand is “We are a training organization for young people.” What these two statements suggest is that CenterLine is seeking young people to train them in guaranteeing that their customers’ needs are always put first. How can you argue with such a strong brand statement? More importantly, how CenterLine lives this statement is how they empower their brand. These aren’t just broad statements, but actual benefits that the organization ensures are engrained in daily operations.

From the employee side, CenterLine gets involved in sponsoring events and competitions by offering up their facilities and equipment to young teenagers still in school. This creates awareness in young people and supports their brand of training young people. On the customer side, CenterLine places an employee with their customers for specific projects, partnering with customers to hire talented people who are involved in the building of the customer’s automation. The intention is that the employee, who will be on CenterLine’s payroll during the build and installation, will then transfer to becoming an employee of their customer once the installation and testing is complete. They are partnering with their customers to ensure that their brand of “customer first” is achieved by hiring and training employees (employee brand promise) to learn and be involved in their customer’s large automation projects such that they become a subject matter expert for the customer, involved from the beginning to end of the build, installation, and application of the automation. In this way, they are placing their customer first in ensuring they have all of the knowledge and experience they need in-house.

This is a perfect example of an empowered brand, one which has three components that describe succinctly what customers find of greatest value in your organization, but also a complementary statement that describes what you offer to employees that is of value to them. This, in turn, is supported by continuous actions that demonstrate and support the achievement of both.

Empowering Employees Brings a Brand to Life

In Chapter 10, I discussed how unstoppable organizations empower their employees, and the multitude of benefits this provides not only for the organization, its employees, leadership, and shareholders, but also its customers, which drives higher revenue, profitability, and market share. More specifically, when you consider creating a brand that is empowered, the only means to successfully achieve and deliver the brand promise is to ensure that everyone, including your employees, is involved.

Following our discussions, then, take a moment to reflect on some of the most recognized brands that you can think of, and ask yourself the following questions:

1. Does the brand speak to both adding value to the customer and motivating and inspiring employees?
2. Does the organization empower their employees to support and satisfy the value promise?
3. How can you create a more empowered brand that will drive more value to customers while motivating employees?