Leverage the Value of Brand Ambassadors

Part 2 of 3

By Allison Ries

The process of branding is built on planned strategy, but it is also built through consistent use over time by supporting the brand in everything the company does. What generally makes up a company? Who does a company usually rely on to deliver what your brand promises? Its workforce — people. Your company’s workforce is one of your strongest vehicles in building a strong brand — your brand ambassadors.

THE GOLDEN RULE — CONSISTENCY. Once you've developed and defined a relevant brand, you must begin building it with employees, clients, prospects and partners through consistent use. Repetition is key to branding success. A small deviation even just one time is the first domino falling in a line of many that make a good brand completely irrelevant. With each inconsistency, the brand identity that you spent so much time defining begins to look diluted or a lot like multiple-personalities. Without consistency, brand awareness becomes impossible to achieve, no matter how much money you spend on marketing. Building brand ambassadors throughout your organization will help to ensure consistency.

BUILD INTERNAL AWARENESS. Every department should be asked how it would apply and reinforce the brand promise, traits and values. A series of employee “Brand Camps” can be implemented to ensure complete awareness and use of the company brand. Depending on how your company sites are organized, these camps can be set up as in-person brown bag sessions or as a webinar series for more widespread organizations. To help ensure you build the habit of consistent brand execution company-wide, publish your brand elements in a “Style Guide” or “Brand Book” that every employee has readily available for reference and use in online and offline materials. Provide this as a guideline along with a suite of branded templates for every employee to use in daily activities.

EMPOWER BRAND OWNERSHIP. To successfully build a brand and see it last, all employees must work together as ambassadors of the brand. They must know that you are depending on them, that they have been empowered and have ownership in upholding and delivering the brand. This means being consistent in how they present the brand to each other, new coworkers, clients, potential clients and partners. By representing your company in a consistent and meaningful way, you establish a promise and an expectation of your offerings in the marketplace that helps build awareness and loyalty.

BRAND PROTECTION. As you infiltrate your brand strategy throughout your organization — from operations, to sales, to marketing — you must make a point of regularly auditing for consistency. Establish brand ambassador committees or associations who audit company communications and activities for brand compliance. Don't forget to include your clients in this audit. Something as simple as annual client satisfaction surveys can help confirm where you stand and what improvements you need to make to better reflect the brand strategy you're following. It can be very enlightening to see the difference between what you think the reality is and the true perception your client base has of your brand. Use these audits as an official task for reviewing how you're doing and as a guide to staying on the right track to brand success!

Stay tuned for next month’s Part Three in this Hop To It series! Because branding success is so important and affects Return On Investment for so many of us, we are offering further insights to you in this special Hop To It series dedicated to brand strategy, brand ambassadors and messaging to tell the story of your company. As always, LeapFrog Solutions is here to help at any point in your branding process and overall marketing efforts, remaining dedicated to Make Your Message Matter^®.

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