The Optimal Corporate Brand

Chapter 1, Part 3 - Corporate Brand Personality

The lines between corporate brand and personal brand have always been a bit blurred. People say things like, “my personal brand values are very different to those of the company and it would be wrong to change who I am just to fit in”.  This is true. However it really is quite simple – to gain the optimal projection of the corporate brand and maximise investment, you firstly need clarity on what you stand for as an organization in its most simple state. Then take people out of the corporate space, giving them time and tools to reflect on their personal brand and as such what these simple corporate values mean to them. By doing this you are encouraging them to interpret and internalize the values individually and inspiring them to modify behaviours in their everyday communications, being the best they can be. You then create this Yin Yang between corporate values and personal values that can otherwise sometimes appear not to correlate with each other.

Ultimately you need to help your employees to build their personal brands in order to raise your corporate brand equity.

Measurement of people brand and behaviours

I spoke to several Brand Directors to gain an understanding of how much focus is put into measuring the actual effect of brand investment and how much of this effort, if any, is based on the human element of representation of the brand. As a result of this research, I found that does there seems to be a high degree of appreciation for the importance of people behaviours on the success of the brand messaging. However I also found that in reality there is not enough being worked through strategically with Learning & Development to get to the deep levels needed to effect the necessary engagement levels.  Nor is there effective measurement in place. In later Chapters we will explore what is missing and what some companies are using in order to reach the levels required.

Sarah Dickins, Executive People Director of Friends Provident (former) believes that in the past, the brand of any business has not been seen as playing such an important role as it is now. She says “When there are strengths in the customer base, the perception has been that we don’t need to focus on brand as much. That’s now changed”.  At Friends Provident they do seem to understand the importance of the links between brand and people and they have robust systems in place to support this belief. We’ll hear more about how they are addressing this in later Chapters.

Case Study

Some organizations do manage to achieve a high level of consistency with their customer experience. John Lewis is a chain of upmarket department stores throughout the UK, with 23,000 partners (as they call employees).  I interviewed Andrew Murphy, Board Retail Director of John Lewis and he believes that their biggest success factors in achieving this level of consistency are in recruiting the right people and then in putting their partners, first. He says, “The single biggest focus for us is our partners’ happiness. This is a focus from the Chairman down”.  Their number one commercial focus is the customer, but their partners are number one to them. “It might be more logical or fashionable to put customers first, but in order to genuinely achieve what the customer wants and needs, you have to do something, which on the surface is counter-intuitive and place them second”.

John Lewis’s recruitment process is managed 100% by themselves and they don’t involve agencies. They also have in place what they call ‘Time with the Team’. This involves a potential candidate for a role, following initial interview, spending some time with the actual team they would be working with.  This process allows them to uncover behavioural elements that they wouldn’t be able to in a formal interview and helps them to be so successful in recruiting the right people.

In addition, when asked about the happiness factor they focus on, I found out that they constantly monitor this by a group of peer-selected partners meetings each month to discuss what’s working and what’s not working. The findings are regularly reported back to the Retail Director and most importantly they are addressed.  There is no measure attached to this process, but because partners know it is in place they are more consistent with and conscious of their behaviours. “Partners feel they are listened to and heard, and therefore valued for that they do in their role”, says Andrew Murphy.

John Lewis also focus heavily on relevant training programmes that provide partners with “a route to identify and understand themselves in the context of that bigger and potentially distant brand message”. They have a training programme called Love to Sell, which has sub-modules called Love to Serve, Love to Solve, etc. These are part behaviour-focused, part psychology and part technical skills. The programmes are closely linked to the brand messaging and they serve to keep partners in touch in a relevant way with what the business aims for and stands for.

However, in publicly quoted businesses, the challenge that arises is sustaining this level of training investment and management when the business is subject to quarterly pressures on results and Profit & Loss. It is still crucial that a level of investment is retained for keeping employees engaged.  The negative impact on consistent customer experience is too great without it.

As an executive or person of influence in your company, it’s time to stop paying lip-service to customer experience, or just simply talking about ‘living the brand’, and instead start measuring the effect people behaviour is having on your corporate brand investment and do something strategic about it. It’s not only a threat to your business but also a major opportunity to stand out, stand up and be different, creating a magnet for customers and clients, and a story for them to shout about.  After all, people love to talk about positive experiences and recommend something they have experienced to their friends and business colleagues.

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