Turn employees into brand ambassadors.

• Author: Jacobs, Rick
• Position: Feature

The best way to differentiate your bank is through your people. Converting your workers into enthusiastic brand advocates gives you a competitive edge and upgrades customer service. Here are suggestions for making it happen.

Bank employees are potential walking, talking advocates for your brand. Yet, the majority of financial institutions spend little time, attention or money on internal marketing and branding. Many don't even teach employees what the brand means.

In the financial services industry today you need a scorecard to keep up with the number of players and their positions. Your insurance agent can sell you investment products. Your stock broker can offer deposit products. When you go to buy a new home, the homebuilder might offer to provide the mortgage, and you never have to leave the model home to go to the bank! So, how do you expect your customers to select your products and services over your competitor's? The answer: a strong brand identity sustained by its people.

With thousands of financial services companies out there, it is hard to stand out. Whether you are a large or small bank, having a powerful brand is essential to having a successful and profitable business. Energizing the internal force behind the brand is the secret to getting and keeping your customers' attention and loyalty.

Aligning the brand on the inside is more important in many ways than marketing the brand on the outside. Employees are critical to brand differentiation. Your core business is replicable by competitors; the only thing not reproducible is the people who make up the organization's personality and, therefore, create the competitive advantage.

When employees are brand advocates, they create brand differentiation. Companies should embrace internal branding for many other reasons: It leads to increased company loyalty and job longevity; it enables employees to better serve customers because they understand the brand promise; it encourages employees who believe in the brand to work harder, and better. Employees should--and can be--your most valuable brand champions.

Brand promise and organizational success

Let's imagine that you've developed the perfect brand for a clearly defined target market. You've identified and exploited the drivers of customer choice within that market. You've invested heavily in advertising and promotion to position that brand in the marketplace. You've designed the perfect customer experience to deliver on the brand...