Who’s translating your brand’s story?

How front line associates hold the key to a more authentic brand

Many companies work hard to craft a brand story that’s designed to bring in new customers. They invest millions in sales, marketing and other means of telling their story to get people in the door. But, if they don’t keep all of their associates in the loop, the experience inside those doors can be quite different.

How much time and energy do you spend making sure your front line associates understand and can talk about your brand in a way that’s consistent with the story you use to attract new customers?

In many cases, after-the-sale staff like customer service reps are the hardest working people you have. But, if they don’t know what brand story you’re telling, how in the world can they be consistent with it?

There are great examples on both sides of this common situation.

Brands who do this well — think Zappos, Chipotle — are great at communicating their story to all front line people, whether they are working in customer service or taking orders at the counter.

Zappos does a great job of pushing information out from the brand, through associates and eventually to customers. And, in many cases, it has nothing to do with shoes. The Zappos Family Library is how the company shares preferred readings, free of charge, to associates to help them learn and grow.

It’s a great way to instill the culture and show associates — rather than just telling them — the company is committed to learning and development, a core value for the brand. The library has been so popular that the company is now offering it to customers, too.

At Chipotle, they’ve learned that the best associates are home grown, just like the food they serve. Over time and through some growing pains, the brand figured out that promoting from within helps to keep the culture consistent from location to location and also helps associates stay motivated (and with the company longer).

If you’ve done business with either of these companies recently, you know the experience is very consistent, regardless of whether you’re online, on the phone or in a restaurant anywhere across the country.

Unfortunately, there are brands that aren’t as consistent with their brand story, and many of them are no longer around. No surprise. For example, Circuit City struggled to define its brand among a sea of electronics retailers and was never big enough to compete solely on price. Perhaps its biggest mistake was a double whammy.

Rather than investing in its experienced workforce, they chose to fire a large portion of the company’s long-tenured staff, replacing them with cheaper, less experienced hourly workers who were compensated whether they sold something or not. That’s whammy #1. And where do they think those experienced salespeople went? Yep, to the competition. Whammy # 2.

Another brand that’s no longer with us, Radio Shack, made a different kind of miscalculation. The Shack never really decided who their target consumer would be. Could it be the DIY electronics guy? The home PC buyer? The young mobile phone buyer? The gamer? The online catalog shopper?

Unfortunately, the answer for all of these was a resounding no. Without a target persona, the company didn’t know what problem to solve and lost focus. And, quite naturally, Radio Shack’s associates could never find a rhythm, not knowing who the folks at corporate were trying to pull through the doors this month. Ironically, as associates would ask prospects if they could help them, they must have been wondering the same thing themselves.

Of course, each brand must find its own way. I’m not suggesting every brand do things exactly like Zappos or Chipotle, but any brand that wants to be as successful should look for ways to include its front line associates if they want to continue to deliver an authentic brand experience to customers.

Customer retention is critical and can’t be solved by pouring more money into sales and marketing. Your associates are the way the brand gets delivered everyday. Make sure they know what you stand for and empower them to deliver on that experience.

I would argue it’s the best investment you can make in your brand.

Change management and marketing: aren’t they really the same thing?

I’ve recently taken a new view of marketing – thanks to a new job outside of it.

Last March, I took a new role at my current employer focused on helping our associates manage change, mainly using a change management process called ADKAR.

If you’re not familiar, ADKAR was developed by Jeff Hiatt in 2003 to help manage the people side of change. It’s actually an acronym that stands for the phases a person goes through as they deal with change.

First, people must be Aware of the need for change. Then, they need to have a Desire to change. Next, they must have the Knowledge needed to make the change and the Ability to implement these new skills and behaviors. Finally, there needs to be Reinforcement to sustain the change.

The ADKAR methodology can be used to help people through a change like adapting a new system or process, and many organizations use ADKAR for this today.

But I also see a link to the behavior changes brands are trying to create with customers and prospects. Think about it – isn’t this what you would like your future customers to do:

Awareness:               People know why they need to change (and choose you)

Desire:                       They have a desire to choose you

Knowledge:               They understand why they should choose you

Ability:                       They have the ability to choose you

Reinforcement:         They can choose to stay with you (or continue to choose you)

So, yeah, change management is marketing, in a way. Not in every way, of course, but there are helpful similarities. So, what can you do with this information? Plenty:

1.     Take a look at your marketing today. Are you helping customers and prospects become aware of the need for choosing you? Perhaps a deeper, more important question: do consumers feel a need to choose you? This can be at the category level (here’s why you need a car) or at the brand level (here’s why you need a Buick). Your brand’s maturity will dictate this.

2.     This is where it can get fun, but also challenging. Do people want to choose you? Give them a reason! People always have other choices for what you do/provide, so how do you stand out and convince people to choose you? This is what us old-time ad guys used to call a USP or unique selling proposition. Today, we usually call this your reason for being or your differentiator. Call it what you want, but make sure your target audience knows it.

3.     Have you given people the information they need to be able to choose you? You may have the best smelling, longest burning candle in the world but, if people don’t know why it’s good for them, it just doesn’t matter. Don’t just get the word out, tell your story.

4.     Can people choose you if they want to? This includes important marketing elements like distribution (Can I find you? Are you where I expect you to be?) and pricing (Can I afford you or justify your cost for the value you provide?)

5.     How can you make sure people continue to choose you? This includes after-the-sale service and other retention efforts that don’t always get the same attention that acquisition efforts do. They should.

The next time you’re asked for a marketing strategy that delivers, consider thinking about your challenge as a change management strategy and use the structure and power of ADKAR.