How to Go about Creating the Super-employee Environment – A Process

It's been a while since I posted my last blog but things have been busy and I finally got some much needed vacation. So, here's a brief introduction on how to start creating the platform on which an INternal Brand Marketing program might be launched.

By now, you’ve read enough evidence to support the benefits of developing an INternalBranding program aimed at creating an Employee culture within your company. However, you might wonder how to get started. First, let’s review something critical that was mentioned earlier in this work, and it is imperative that you buy into this philosophy. It starts with the Senior Management team. Executive management is the genesis of where an INmployee culture starts. Let me repeat – the buck stops, but also starts with Senior Management. They must understand, accept, and live the following ‘truths’ if an INternalBranding program is going to be successful:

1. Brand strategy is the visible expression of business strategy
2. Brand strategy means senior management leads by example
3. Branding is every employee’s responsibility

Management must be willing to:

INclude employees and listen to what they have to say about their current work environment – and even more important – be brave and willing to suck it up when hearing bad news

INvolve employees in being part of the solution and not the problem

Empower employees to take INitiative to correct what’s broken and leverage what isn’t

Encourage employees to be INnovative in creating a dynamic INternalculture, products and services

INvest seriously in infrastructure, training, social advocacy, and the INternalMarketing program to reach ‘end game’

Set the gold standard for INtegrity within the organization

Have fun, lighten up, act silly, pepper in some humility, and create INthusiasm. Within the organization … be like HERB !

Is Hollywood a Brand?

The 80th Oscar Awards Ceremony Neilson Ratings

And, so I pose the following questions to all you Brand-savvy readers of this Blog. Is HOLLYWOOD a Brand? Yes, yes, it’s a location embedded in greater Los Angeles, CA, but it stands for so much more ! The silver screen, entertainment, glamour, wealth, trendiness, indulgence, betrayal – all engendered in that iconic ‘logo’ sitting atop the Hollywood Hills. Might those be (and stand for) the values of this Brand … for better or worse? And if Hollywood is a Brand, who might be the most visible ambassadors of the Brand? The actors and actresses, directors, writers, cinematographers and editors who make magic happen on the silver screen? Are they Hollywood’s Super-employees who represent this Brand to the entire World? After all, the biggest shindig on earth – other than the Superbowl – is aired annually to celebrate them.

One might say yes and no. Employees of Hollywood, yes. Super-employees, I'm not sure! I was a bit surprised – but hardly shocked – when I heard today that preliminary Neilson ratings of the 80th Oscar Awards ceremony were 14% lower than the least watched Oscar show ever aired. 14% lower. What might that say about Hollywood as a Brand? Has the Brand become tarnished? Are people of sick of hearing about Brand-ambassadors like Brittany Spears, Lindsey Lohan, Mel Gibson, Michael Richards, and all those other employees of Hollywood that seem to believe that behaving badly is the way you represent a Brand that makes you wealthy and famous? We keep hearing the buzz about Angelina being preggers, but not much about Brad's efforts to rebuild NOLA. In this country of political and economic turmoil surrounded by a world riddled by war, terrorism, ethnic cleansing, poverty, famine and disease, might people just be sick of Hollywood – www.TMZ.com – and turning their backs to all of it ? I repeat, viewership of the 80th Oscar Awards ceremony was 14% lower than the least watched Oscar show ever aired. Now, could that be a loud statement coming from once-loyal , now disenfranchised customers who are turning their backs to the Brand saying ... "enough already"?

Think about it, and feel free to comment. I’d be interested to hear everybody’s take on this. Please, be diplomatic, though. I’m going out on a limb here !


Stay tuned for Installment 6. It's all about creating your very own Super-employee INvironment.

Installment 5 - The Seventh IN of Internal Branding.

#7 – INthusiasm: Southwest Airlines Delivers the Seven IN’s all IN One

Why has Southwest Airlines been so successful and profitable over the past couple of decades when the legacy carriers have gone belly-up or bankrupt? Simply, it’s because their employees LUV the company and so do their loyal customers. Ironically, LUV is the ticker for Southwest on the stock exchange. You do not have to look past one of its founders – and probably one of the most influential people in the aviation industry since Juan Trippe of the now defunct Pan Am – to see why. The Southwest brand is engendered in Herb Kelleher who was its funny, charismatic, hard working, chain smoking, brilliantly shrewd and passionately competitive former CEO. Herb IS the seven INs – all in one. He would encourage employees to take initiative and figure out more innovative, smarter, better ways to move people at 35,000 feet; to get involved with the airline and the communities it serves, and feel included as part of a cult-like family of loyal employees. He invested in state-of-the-art equipment so Southwest continues to run like a well oiled, money-making machine today – as legacy carriers bleed cash and low-cost upstarts flounder. Thanksgiving tradition dictated that Herb would load baggage along side the ramp personnel over the busiest holiday weekend of the year. Herb’s enthusiasm is infectuous and is Southwest, and Southwest is Herb. And, you see Herb in the faces, and experience Herb at every touchpoint at which the 32,000 Southwest employees interface with their fiercely loyal customers who willingly exchange advance seat assignments and movies for a cheap ticket, bag of peanuts, and an efficient flight experience delivered by well trained, loyal employees who LUV their airline.

Along with 16 original employees, Herb recently celebrated the airlines 35th anniversary. When asked why he stayed so long, he responded … ”because of the sheer joy and invigoration of being with our wonderful People, trying to enhance their fun, job security and lives as a whole while also helping to democratize the skies by bringing the ‘Freedom to Fly’ to the American people. When I first started working at Southwest, only ‘rich people’ flew. Today, thanks to our beloved folks, everybody flies.”

Installment 4 - The INs Go On ...

Before continuing my discussion of The 7 INs of InternalBranding, allow me to comment on Super Bowl XLII and my previous post on the New England Patriots. While I would normally observe a New England squad where the initial *i* was not in the spelling of *team*, one has to wonder if the initial *i* crept into the picture on that now famous Sunday in Arizona. I felt we were watching a Pat's teim that day. On the other hand, we also watched a team led by a guy named Eli ... or would that be Elae? Congratulations to the underdog NY Giants team. Truly, it was a history-making day in the world of football.

#4 – INnovate: ‘Out of the Box’ Thinking Defines A Brand

When Steven Job’s Apple Computers launched the revolutionary Macintosh, and ran its infamous ‘Lemmings’ TV commercial on the Super Bowl, it was also creating a cult among computer users that still exists today. While Apple only owns a small share of the market, its faithful customer base is fiercely loyal and combative about the superiority of the product. Underpinning this fierce consumer loyalty is a dedicated workforce at Apple that has always embraced innovation as its Brand mantra. Call it the David and Goliath story of personal computers. Apple’s ‘David’ still revels in tweaking the Microsoft ‘Goliath’ – whether it is in product innovation or taking potshots in advertising. Jobs created an employee environment that pivots around, and rewards employees for innovation.

Boston Beer, maker of Samuel Adams Beer, has been an innovator in INternalMarketing since its inception, and has grown in leaps and bounds as a result. One way Boston Beer encourages its employees to be innovative is through its training programs. It makes training experiential and fun. Training isn’t about showing employees how, rather it’s about having them create a new Brand Experience by creating new home brews. Boston Beer has innovatively developed a ‘Training – Reward – Morale Boosting’ program in the form of a home brew contest that encourages its employees to think about being innovative – and be rewarded for doing so.

#5 – INitiative: When Employees Take Matters Into Their Own Hands Everybody Benefits

A friend recounted about how impressive it was to walk into his room at the Ritz Carlton in Boston to find a huge bouquet of flowers had been placed in the room. He’s not that big on flowers, but his wife is. He had ordered a huge arrangement for his arrival at the Ritz in San Juan six months prior. An employee at the Boston Ritz – who reviews the Core Values of the Brand with co-workers daily and carries a Brand Ambassador card in his uniform – saw this in his customer profile and took it upon himself to order the flowers for his wife who, incidentally, was not accompanying him on the trip. But imagine my friend’s surprise and delight that this employee had taken the initiative that wins consumer loyalty – no small benefit to the Ritz in a fiercely competitive luxury hotel category.

While we are on the subject of hotels, I had stayed in a Hampton Inn several years ago and was not overly impressed by its bargain feel and atmosphere. Since then, the chain started to view things differently. The product and properties were upgraded, brand messaging – INternaland external – refreshed and made entertaining. Recently, I had another opportunity to stay in a Hampton Inn because somebody else had booked me there. Well, what a pleasant surprise. Who would have expected to see a delightful poster of a wide-eyed man grinning back at me from the inside of the elevator door urging me to “Smile” – which did make me smile. However, the thing that really struck
me was the message that greeted me on the hotel’s front door – ‘100% Satisfaction’. What I would learn is that every single employee in the hotel – maids, maintenance people, the breakfast buffet server and the front desk staff – was empowered to take the initiative to comp my room for that night if I was not happy with my stay. What I also found out later was for every $1 Hampton Inns spends on the ‘100% Hampton’ guarantee, they get back $7 in repeat business. Talk about benefiting from employees taking initiative.

#6 – INtegrity­: It’s All About Doing the Right Thing

In November of 1998, 3,500 employees of Federal Express stormed FedEx’s headquarters with picket signs and an indisputable passion for their cause. They would not tolerate the thought that their only unionized work group – the pilots – would dare to contemplate striking the company during the heaviest overnight delivery season of the year, Christmas.

Their wrath and signs were not targeted at the company, rather the pilots union that would dare compromise the Brand Promise upon which the FedEx business model was founded, and the Brand Experience they had worked so diligently to make ‘the norm’ over the years. They wanted the pilots to know that they were 100% behind the company’s position, so FedEx launched a major INternalMarketing initiative to leverage the support of the general employee population against the pending strike. Using posters, buttons, banners, bumper stickers, T-shirts, an Intranet site and the company’s FXTV digital broadcast network, they waged their case against the strike and finally prevailed when the pilots returned to the bargaining table and negotiated a settlement with the company. Even more remarkable was the company’s stock soared during the negotiations, INternalservice measures increased, and the company retained its position in Fortune Magazine’s ‘Top 100 To Work For’ list. When all was said and done, such drastic and dramatic efforts of these employees could be attributed to one particular value they all embraced – integrity. After all, the Christmas presents had to be there by December 25th. That was the promise the employees had made year after year. No pilots union was going to compromise the integrity of all the other FedEx employees in living their promise and delivering the experience loyal customers had learned to expect.

Now stayed tuned for # 7. It's the "keeper".

Installment 3 - Continuing with the 7 IN's of Internal Branding

#2 - INclude: Make Them Part Of Creating The Vision

When Angie Mock spun off Flagstone Hospitality Management – with 3,000 employees and 50 locations – the first thing she did was to don a maid’s uniform and join her housekeepers in scrubbing toilets and making beds. She moved on to the front desk and kitchens until she understood, first hand, how each employee did their job. Then she surveyed the employees to find out what kind of a company THEY wanted to work for. From these experiences and input, she was able to structure a company where employee inclusion helped shape the Core Values of the Brand they would deliver to their guests going forward. She launched the INternalBranding program in a big way, and reinforced a newly defined vision and culture that had been shaped through employee inclusion.

#3 - INvolve: INvolved Employees Vest In Their Company

Levi Strauss is a company with strong Core Values that are embraced by its employees, and has a long history of social responsibility as well. It goes to great efforts to ensure that people in the organization understand how to relate to each other across departmental boundaries. It demonstrates to employees how each of their roles contributes to Levi’s overall success – and implicit in the message – their own success. And they carry that further to the outside world by demonstrating how their Core Values benefit the communities in which the employees work through their involvement in social causes and initiatives. Involving employees in bettering lives – whether theirs inside and for others outside of the work environment – creates a “vested” mentality and drives loyalty, outstanding performance and reputation. In a post 9/11 world, consumers willingly gravitate towards companies and employees that demonstrate they get involved.

Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin empire, has always been a quintessential entrepreneur, daredevil, risk taker, a living example of his brands’ core values and culture, and the ultimate INternalMarketer. Why? Because at virtually every turn of the corner, you will observe Sir Richard involving his employees – regardless of the strategic business unit – in promoting that culture as a point of differentiation. Virgin employees are the walking and breathing ambassadors of the Virgin culture, whether hosting passengers at 35,000 feet on a Virgin aircraft, sponsoring round-the-world solo aircraft journeys or hot air balloon voyages, or selling CDs at the Virgin Megastore. In each of them is a reflection of Sir Richard’s lust for life, and passion for doing things right and doing the right thing. Who could imagine such a successful empire built around the concept of a Virgin. That is, outside of the Vatican.

On the New England Patriots and Creating a Super-employee Environment

Quoting excerpts from The Harbus – the independent weekly newsletter of Harvard’s School of Business – on January 22, 2008.

Building a Champion: The Kraft's Construct a Dynasty and Model Franchise

Robert Kraft runs the Patriots like all of his other businesses. He said. "I figure out what I can't do, and find good people that I can trust."

It is truly impressive to observe how much the Krafts attribute their success of their team to finding good-character players who are loyal, rather than just signing the big name superstars.

Now, that’s INvesting. .

Installment 2 - The Seven INs of INternalBranding

Well, here goes. I promised you more. This is the first of the 7 INs. 6 more to go. Don't be surprised if I pepper in some brilliant insights I've picked up on the web about account planning, keeping employees happy, or just the general state of the world.

#1 - INvest: It Pays Back In Spades

Ensuring that you invest adequately in your employees, and they are included in how your company operates and delivers its goods or services to market is one surefire way to keep from getting trumped.

What would you imagine is the largest component of Singapore Airlines’ total operating expense. Fuel? 747s? Wrong ! It’s training. The company invests hundreds of millions of dollars a year on its employees in some of the most vigorous and comprehensive training programs in the airline industry. This sends a message that the company is investing in its employees to be part of one the highest performing operations in its category. It provides them with the skills to do their jobs with pride and efficiency while also positioning them for advancement. What’s the payback for Singapore? It has one of the most loyal passenger followings in the world who fly one of the most technologically advanced and profitable airlines on the globe. Engendered in the symbolism of the “Singapore Girl”, Singapore gets back in spades what it invests in its people.