As we know all too often those who are responsible for brand development think in terms of advertising and marketing. They are trained to focus on creating an external campaign that targets an audience or two. They are caught in systems that prevent them from connecting with internal stakeholders and are expected to generate a quick return on investment.
Despite the planet's economic hardships, the days of thinking and acting like that are over. Brand is about people and organization. Those are terms and concepts that should be synonymous with brand. Branding is the process of aligning our internal culture with our external reputation. Our employees who are charged with delivering on our brand promise must be valued first, our customers second.
If we do not develop a culture to support our brand and provide systems by which our internal and external stakeholders (reminder, these are your brand champions) can connect and demonstrate passion for our brand, then we might as well go back to the days of Don Draper and the other Mad Men of the 20th century. By the way, I wish that show would get back on the air soon. I am in need of more advertising fodder!




