Tag: leadership

As a follow up to my recent post on Internal Marketing vs. Internal Branding, here’s another difference-turned-similarity between the two concepts.

Internal Marketing requires an ongoing effort for the care & feeding of customers and employees.  Most people think of applying Internal Branding, however, only when they’re launching a new brand or revitalizing an old one.

But …

According to marketing & branding consultant Debra Semans, this suggests a limited view of Internal Branding:

“Too often,” she says, “companies just do internal branding when they launch a new or changed brand and then assume everyone gets it.  But people forget, new people come on board [who weren’t exposed to the previous internal branding efforts], and then you get brand creep.  The ideal is that it becomes part of the way they do business, their culture … you have to maintain it in order to maintain delivery of the brand promise to the marketplace.”

So Debra recommends Internal Branding be included in an organization’s ongoing training program as a “refresher course” as well as part of new employee orientation.

Makes sense to me … Internal Branding, like Internal Marketing, is not just a use-it-only-when-needed tool.

I’ve gotten a lot of questions lately about the difference between internal marketing and internal branding. Some folks use the terms interchangeably, but there are a number of differences beyond semantics … or so I thought until I began to clarify what these concepts mean, how they’re different, and where they overlap.

I asked my colleague Debra Semans, an Atlanta-based marketing & branding consultant, to help me with this. Debra has extensive experience with internal branding.

Exploring the Two Concepts

I define internal marketing as “the application of marketing inside an organization to instill customer-focused values.” It bridges marketing with HR (Human Resources) to attract, motivate, and retain employees, with an emphasis on getting employee commitment to marketing and organizational goals. Think of it as an umbrella concept encompassing any & all activities, events, internal public relations, etc., that reinforce the importance of customers AND the employees who take care of them.

According to Debra, internal branding is “the process of aligning day-to-day activities, business processes, job designs, and recognition & rewards with the brand identity to drive business results.” It is part of a focused brand strategy that helps employees understand and integrate brand value(s) in their respective roles to ensure they can effectively deliver on the brand promise.

Where Internal Marketing & Internal Branding Overlap

• Both approaches recognize employees ARE the brand. As a result, both are focused on engaging employees.
• Both are part of organizational and marketing strategy to strengthen competitive advantage.
• Both involve leadership – i.e., neither can be effective without management commitment.

Where They Differ

• Internal Marketing is based on the self-reinforcing relationship between employee- and customer satisfaction (“take care of the employees & they’ll take care of the customers”), whereas Internal Branding is based on making the brand part of the organization’s operations (“getting employees focused on delivering the brand promise”).
• Unless Internal Marketing and Internal Branding are part of an organization’s culture from Day 1, their trigger points vary. The application of Internal Marketing may be in response to problems with employee- and/or customer satisfaction or turnover, whereas organizations may turn to Internal Branding when launching a new brand or revitalizing an existing one.
• Internal Marketing focuses on organizational culture and values, whereas Internal Branding focuses primarily on brand values that are aligned and consistent with organizational values. [Hmmm … maybe this belongs with the “Overlap” list above?]

Regarding this last bullet point – as Debra describes Internal Branding’s scope: “From understanding the piece parts of the brand so that they can use it as a guide or standard for their day-to-day decision making, to communicating about the brand in ongoing internal communications vehicles, to building brand-based rewards into compensation models, Internal Branding is geared to making the Brand part of the organization’s operations – and yes, culture.”  [OK, the two concepts are similar in this context in that they both impact organizational culture.]

The Bottom Line

So the differences between Internal Marketing and Internal Branding aren’t as clear cut as I thought. Some of their tactical executions may vary, but the desired outcome is the same: engaging employees for marketing and organizational success.

As Debra says of her work and mine: “Internal branding and internal marketing aren’t all that different. Maybe the only difference is that I’ve been riding the brand wagon and you’ve been on the customer service train.”

What Do You Think?

And now, dear readers, tell me what you think of all this. Semantics aside, what do Internal Marketing and Internal Branding mean to you?  I’d love your input.

To Learn More …

For anyone who wants to learn more about either or both topics, come see Debra and me at the American Marketing Association’s Marketing Workshop this spring in Austin, TX.  On March 13, 2006, I’ll be presenting my session on Internal Marketing (“Marketing from the Inside Out: Engaging Employees for Strategic Advantage”), and Debra will be doing her session on Internal Branding (“Living the Brand – the Dimensions of Internal Branding”) on March 15, 2006.

As a follow up to my last post on connecting with employees, here is how you can convey the message that your employees are part of something meaningful.

You need to be able to answer these questions:

• What is your organization’s mission and purpose?
• How can employees contribute to fulfilling the mission?
• And how can they be made to feel part of something special?

If you need a model for this, just ask the people who work in nonprofit organizations.  They’re usually passionate about what they do, and it’s not for the money (especially since nonprofits don’t usually pay much.)  Most likely they are there for the mission.

Like nonprofits, some for-profits are able to effectively address these questions.  Otherwise, corporate America would have a lot of vacancies to fill!

So mission-fit and values are critical parts of the “big picture” in helping employees understand how & where they can find meaning in an organization (regardless of whether it’s in a nonprofit or for-profit).

More to come in my next post …

Have you noticed the emotion quotient is big these days?  In marketing circles you hear lots of talk about getting consumers to “love” your brand … making an emotional connection with customers … and creating “passionate” brand evangelists, etc. (Can you feel the love?)

This is all well & good, as long as you start FIRST with your employees – because if they don’t feel valued, neither will your customers.  And you can’t buy employee engagement with just a paycheck.

As Stan Slapp so aptly put it: “Don’t try to use money as a means to emotionally connect with your employees … Bribery won’t do it.”

So, what will? To connect with employees, you need to create:

• a sense of common purpose
• a sense of belonging, and
• a sense of being part of something special.

How? By constantly communicating and demonstrating that your employees are part of something meaningful.

To be continued …

[Note: I found Stan’s quote in the proceedings from the 2003 Compete through Service symposium hosted by Arizona State University’s Center for Services Leadership.  The proceedings from the 2003 and other symposiums are available from Avnet, Inc.]