Brand is usually seen as the domain of marketing, however a broader understanding of how people impact upon brand has a number of important ramifications for HR, writes Deborah Howcroft
Brand is usually seen as the domain of marketing, however a broader understanding of how people impact upon brand has a number of important ramifications for HR, writes Deborah Howcroft
Think about how many times companies try to sell you their products or services throughout the day. If you’re on a bus there’s advertising both inside and out. If you’re in the privacy of your car you can’t get through five minutes of radio without an ad of some description. Or if you’re reading the newspaper you’re deluged by companies trying to grab your attention to buy their product over anybody else’s.
Customers often complain how cluttered and confusing the market is. No matter where you look, from a consumer’s perspective there’s a real issue of sameness in the market. Hence the challenge for organisations is one of differentiation – how do they make their brand stand out over everybody else’s?
So, why is it important? If you think about it, what brands do you buy and why? Why do you pay three, four or five-times the price for one brand over another? Sure, it may be better quality, but is it really worth five-times the price? What happens if you can’t get the brand you always buy – or worse still, it’s discontinued!
The behaviour that consumers exhibit around brands is all about the emotions they feel when they interact with that brand, how it makes them feel and what it says about them. This is not a niche market –it encompasses everything from toothpaste and clothes, to mobile phones to sporting teams. For a classic example, think Ferrari!
If differentiation is the key in the market, what does this mean for HR? Brand is the domain of marketing, and marketing is about customers. So what do HR have to do with it? Very simply, everything!
A brand is only created by the people inside an organisation, and not just the marketers. Every person within the organisation impacts the brand whether they are answering a phone in the call centre, determining the ROI on pricing structures in finance, talking to customers about your products and services or standing around at a BBQ on the weekend and telling their friends about who they work for and how they feel about them.
No matter whether it’s a product or service driven environment, the people in your organisation have the opportunity to really differentiate your company. Products, services, technology and distribution footprints can all be copied, but the people and the culture you create in your organisation can’t be copied. How your organisation behaves as a whole will distinguish you from all the others in the consumer land of sameness. No other group has more ability to impact and influence all of the people across the organisation like HR does.
How? Simply through culture. Have you ever started working for an organisation which had a really strong brand in the market that clearly stood for something? The brand might have come across as fun, quality, care, security or freedom, but upon joining the organisation you find that inside it feels nothing like what the brand says outside.
At best this is surprising to discover, at worst it’s like a disease. When the internal culture, people practices and the way an organisation operates internally isn’t aligned with the brand promise that an organisation is making to its customers, then a very real risk exists. Why? Because when you treat, interact and respond to the people in your organisation one way and then you ask them to behave in another when they are doing things that impact the customer, then your organisation is sure to have a split personality that creates confusion both for your people and for the customer.
So what is the real role of HR going forward? To truly be a valued part of an organisation, HR must focus both internally and externally to align culture and brand. People practices and traditional HR activities are important and undoubtedly contribute to the success of any organisation, however the impact of that contribution can be increased significantly by thinking about the role of HR and organisational culture in delivering to the customer.
The key then for HR professionals and teams is to understand your brand, what it promises to your customers and how they want to feel when they interact with you. Be clear on what that means for your organisation internally, and define this through being explicit about your values and behaviours that will define the internal culture.
And don’t just involve HR people – involve the whole business. HR might lead the process, but culture is owned by the business. Remember, your culture is the promise that you make to your organisation makes to your people. Having achieved and understood this, don’t keep it in HR – shout it from the rooftops and make sure every person in your business understands, believes in and is prepared to behave in a way that will bring the brand promise to life both internally and externally. Then follow through, review all of your people practices to ensure they support the culture, develop your leaders to live the culture in everything that they do. If they can’t or won’t live the culture then your organisation will never deliver it’s promise to it’s people or it’s customers.
And finally and most importantly, as the HR team shift their perspective to outside the business and truly understand business from the customer’s perspective, understand that everything you do impacts on your brand and that your organisation only does things through your people. They are your key differentiator and when you are clear and support them by defining and living your culture they will bring it to life.
Deborah Howcroft is director Brand & People for Vodafone. Email: [email protected]
