Internal brand consistency isn’t just a corporate buzzword; it sets your company apart. Here are 5 reasons you need to get your employees on the brand wagon:
1. It Supports Brand Credibility:
When your brand’s message doesn’t align with your employees’ actions, it chips away at your credibility. Beyond the colors, logos, marketing materials, and campaigns your employees represent your brand with every interaction. Consistency in how your brand values and visuals are reflected in every interaction, even outside business hours, is priceless. Employees can be your organization’s biggest cheerleaders.
2. It Encourages Employee Engagement:
When employees have a deeper understanding of your brand and its values, they tend to feel a stronger connection with your organization. This increased connection, in turn, motivates them to support and drive your company’s goals.
3. It Enhances Clarity and Understanding:
A clear understanding of your brand reduces confusion and reinforces your organization’s values along with policies, goals, and expectations. When consistent, you’ll find it gradually comes to feel more natural among your teams.
4. It Simplifies Communication Efforts:
When employees are aligned with your brand and what it represents, you’re empowering them to communicate your brand consistently and to live the brand, so to speak. Combine that with easy access to branded templates, simple guides, and brand assets, and you’ve got yourself a recipe for some kick-ass brand ambassadors.
5. It Supports Change Management:
We know that just hearing the words “change management” tends to make the hairs on employees’ neck stand up. But a consistent, clear brand that makes employees feel connected, valued, and engaged can proactively reign in some of their worries as employees are more likely to embrace organizational changes when it aligns with a familiar brand identity.
Bonus: It’s common that you’ll have some employees who seem to be hesitant to hop on the brand wagon. That doesn’t always mean they are unwilling. Change is harder for some than others and not everyone immediately understands/embraces a brand right away. There are some, including yours truly, who have felt let down by a previous company, leadership team, or even one leader who talked the talk but failed to lead by example. Give them a chance to see that you’re the real deal. In the words of John Maxwell, “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.”
Any others you’d add to the list? I’d love to hear your thoughts over a Zoom, coffee, or email. sara@uhlsee.com
Psst….Stay tuned for my next post with tips on how to get your employees engaged in your brand.
