What is marketing? When most of us hear this word, we immediately relate it to the marketer's role of marketing a product, service or brand to the potential or the existing customers. What about marketing to your internal customers - your own employees within the organization? Employees are the advocates for your brand. They can create a brand or even kill an existing brand. Most companies spend very little time on internal branding as well as internal marketing.If time, money and attention is been given on the internal marketing and branding, the employees would be in a better position to communicate to the customer what the brand is all about.It's really hard to find and retain an employee who
is your brand champion. Being a brand advocate or
a brand champion of your company goes beyond being
courteous to the first customer in the morning. It's
all about being fanatic about the brand; otherwise
it's just a job. But for most of the employees it
is just a job and most of them are ready to give up
the current job for a 5% increase in salary and that's
where the whole problem lies.
Selling
the brand internally is more important than selling
the brand externally. As the employees understand
the promises made by the brand, they serve the customers
in a better way. An employee who believes in and values
the brand will work harder and better. The important
aspect is that when the employees are brand champions,
they generate a brand differentiation from that of
the competitors for your customers. This is something
hard for your competitors to replicate. All the other
P's of marketing, namely product, price, place and
promotion, can be easily replicated except for the
newly added fifth P—the personality of the people
within the organization. |
