Creating The Right Marketing Formulas: Branding From The Inside Out

Principal and Creative Director

Catalyst Advertising

As marketers we should understand the incredible value of branding from the inside out. It’s a necessity to get the internal stakeholders involved and behind the plan — at all levels of the organization. I’ve seen first-hand how employees can offer unique insights, relevant experiences and ideas never considered in the brand development process. And just as powerful is to see their excitement for the opportunity to be involved with branding their company — something typically held close by the marketing folks. Without the internal brand evangelists you lose on so many fronts. And the end result is likely a failed customer experience — under delivering on expectations and confusing with misaligned communication. Consider the daily touchpoints your internal team has with the outside World. The potential is incredible if you have their buy-in.

There’s many ingredients that are factored in with the internal process. It’s easy to gather a bunch of people at the urging of the company president to participate in weekly meetings for several months. The challenge is sustaining the interest and commitment long after the meetings end.

Recently a BBQ chain called Smokey Bones has given their employees a second job as a Web host. An employee that meets certain criteria is selected from each of their 68 locations. In addition to their regular work duties they’re posting content and building relationships on a local franchise Web site. They also engage with customers on a corresponding Facebook and MySpace page. It’s not uncommon for these “local” sites to have 5,000-10,000 followers.

The corporate office trains the brand hosts and monitors the local site’s content to make sure it’s within the parameters of their handbook.

A recent Advertising Age article about Smokey Bones strategy shared that the the chain is adding 2,200 followers each month and their overall Web traffic is up 50%. They’ve also significantly increased their email database paving the way for email marketing strategies down the road.

There’s no doubt that this strategy is working well based on the various metrics reported by the company. What’s even more exciting is the potential to strengthen the internal buy-ins from employees outside the departmental walls of marketing.

We can all relate to seeing posters in the hallways that share company values and goals. I’m guilty of putting them up in elevators and bathroom stalls, too. But these messages can be easily forgotten unless there’s ongoing internal communication and excitement among the employees. Social media offers huge adoption rates and a vehicle that your employees are likely using daily. It has become the new “newsletter” or sign to share your mission. And the empowerment opportunities in this new digital age will likely be a gold mine for your employees that want to get more involved with their brand and customers.

It will be interesting to see if Smokey Bones is able to move online engagement to brick and mortar sales. I do know one thing . . . all this talk about BBQ is making me hungry. I wonder if they have a location near me?