[MUSIC] Hi, welcome back. If you remember, in the last lecture we introduced the concept of the brand engagement program. The conceptual framework around which we develop the particular form of connection between employees and the brand. We also mentioned that it consisted of three types of activities. Employee communication and training, embedding the brand throughout the organization and measuring and rewarding on brand behaviour. In this lecture you will learn the first of these activities, how to create and deliver a brand communication and training program. The best way to make employees aware of the brand engagement initiative is through internal communication. An internal campaign allows articulation of the brand role and values in a way that is relevant to the different internal stakeholders. It also presents a platform for everyone to view the brand as important in achieving the organization's success. And it helps employees to see themselves as essential in delivering the brand promise. So what is the process to define an internal communication campaign? First you need to understand your audience. You need to define your key messages. You need to define the delivery channels. And lastly, you need to define the timings of delivery of each message. Let's begin with the first step, understanding your audience. The best way to approach this step is to ask your audience. Whether it's via an internet online survey or if your organization is small enough you can do one on one interviews, or a mix of both. At minimum what you want to evaluate is, what is their understanding of the existing culture, what kind of culture do they actually want. How likely are they to participate in a brand building effort? Their understanding of what a brand is and what your brand means for them. And whom do they believe is responsible for building the brand? And which touch points they think are most important to customers. The outcome should be the emergence of at least one or more segments according to their level of engagement with the brand. With the information you collected, you should be able to define segment profiles. And identify where they are in that brand building motivation graph. As with external marketing, audience segmentation is key to set realistic objectives in the brand engagement program. It is imperative to tailor the efforts to meet the specific needs of each of the audience segments within the organization. For example, at one company the analysis yielded two employee segments. The enthusiast employees who felt that the brand was important and understood that everyone must help to deliver the brand. And the indifferent ones, those employees who think that the brand is important for the organization but they're not really interested in either defining them or participating in how it should be implemented. You need to decide what are your key program objectives for each segment. The second step is to define key messages that resonate with each segment. The messages should focus on the brand essence and values. Providing a brief explanation in consumer language. They should also show tangible examples of how each of these values translate into behavior for your employees internally and externally towards your customers and other stakeholders. Step three Is defining the channels and tools to best engage your employees. The channels to deliver the messages should be strategically deployed. We recommend using different types of media to communicate the messages. You should consider at least two variables when designing your delivery channels, complexity of delivered and impact in time. For example, simple elements which are more short term oriented we call attention grabbers, such as a wall poster or a screen saver. We can also use online devices such as Facebook, Yammer, Pintrest, or Instagram to launch either campaigns or contests. Such as asking people for example, of how brand values are already being implemented or should be implemented or simply for sharing their experiences in the program. Other attention grabbers could be company fact sheets. Another example we've used are mouse pads with the brand values. Another great attention grabber is having a conversation with a person in management who embodies the brand. In some companies we have even organized regional chat rooms with the CEO. Introductory or brand materials such as videos, webinars or in person workshops are good for delivering messages and tools that would generate a more lasting impact. Training should cover why brands are important, what your customer's are and their needs, how the brand was developed based on those customer needs, what the brand means, how employees can bring the brand to life through their personal activities and interaction Videos bring the brand to life in a way that are two dimensional presentation can't. In any case a brand training session is recommended for all employees. Because it actually calibrates the brand or branding definitions and concepts it provides tangible examples of what other organizations do that can be implied in yours. It generates ideas on how the organization can bring to life its brand and it tangibilizes the benefits of building a brand culture. Lastly, elements such as the intranet or a brand kit or the ones that despite being more complex in creating will continue the brand engagement for the long term. If you think of brand kits, we suggest to use something that employees can wear, which has the dual purpose of helping employees demonstrate pride in the company both in and outside of the office and serve as a daily reminder of the brand values they are bringing to life. For longer term, the best resource is having a dedicated Internet site that can serve as a hub for employees where they can find and share brand training materials, tools to help them implement the brand in their daily tasks, such as touch point exercises, updates on brand champions activities and other initiatives. We'll talk about brand champions in the next session. Information about brand related rewards and recognition. Visual identity tools such as letterhead and logos, et cetera, et cetera. Step four is about defining immediate plan to sequence the different messages and channels. In a way that develops momentum during the program and afterwards. Lastly, I would like to highlight a crucial element to consider when launching your brand engagement program. You need to have top management's commitment. Employees will only participate and engage if they see that the organization's leadership is committed to delivering the brand. So you might be asking yourself, who is responsible for these activities? The answer will come in the next lecture, which is about embedding the brand throughout the organization. See you soon. [MUSIC]
