The brand of an organization is crucial to building the trust of consumers, its external publics. What may not be as obvious to consumers is why an organization puts such high importance on communicating its brand to its own employees, the internal publics. An organization’s brand is important to both these groups for different reasons.
For consumers, the brand must mirror the organization’s identity, its mission, and purpose. Consumers want to have their wants and needs addressed as they relate to products and services, and the brand must convey this. The team behind every meaningful, honest brand relies on two-way communication between the company and its consumers to establish trust, and to receive feedback on whether the organization is meeting consumer needs and requirements, and how improvements can be made.
Internally, leaders must ensure that employees have buy-in on what the brand conveys because employees help to communicate the brand externally; they are the voice boxes of the brand outside of the company and they ultimately uphold it on behalf of the company. Employees must identify with the brand and feel a personal connection with it in order to embody it. Without this personal belief, employees are disconnected to the brand, have no personal accountability or responsibility to it. This disconnection has direct impact on the brand and on consumers’ ability to trust what it conveys.
Consumers must be given a chance to put their faith in an organization, its products or services and ultimately its brand. As facilitators of that relationship, it is equally important that company leaders and employees feel that sense of purpose and identify and embody the brand.
Author: Michael LaBella