Branding for the Public Sector: Creating, Building and Managing Brands People Will Value

Chapter 8 Brand Engagement

One of the most important breakthroughs in implementing brand strategy in recent years is the attention given not just to the external customer, but to the internal customer; in other words, employees. Unless employees really understand what the brand stands for, how important it is, and how they can contribute to its success, the implementation of the brand will be limited. Buy-in and commitment from employees is critical. Often this is referred to as building a strong brand culture.

Brand engagement is essential to ensure that the customer experience is managed well and goes one step further than internal communications about the brand, by training and involving everyone in the organization to both understand and get involved with the brand. This means letting employees know how they can contribute to the development of the brand in their everyday working lives and thus involves both training and the creation of brand action plans that have to be carried out at all levels of the organization. Also involved in the brand engagement process is the analysis of brand touchpoints (where the brand comes into contact with customers) and how effective the organization is in managing the customer experience via these touchpoints.

Brand engagement is intended not just for internal employees, but for partners, communities and other stakeholders. However, it should be noted that unless the brand is well understood internally and employees align themselves in ...