how does an employee become a brand ambassador?
TRANSCRIPT
Brand Ambassadorship? The brand advocacy that employees display to how far they act
like people who know, love and spontaneously ‘sell’ the brand
Never underestimate the power of a strong brand
A STRONG BRAND
Increases the chances of customers choosing your product or company
Boosts customer loyalty
Offers protection against
competition
Results in higher
margins
Ensures easier access to distribution channels
Offers a platform for brand
extensions
A Strong Brand
PPRODUCT
PPRICE
PPLACE
PPROMOTION
It is relatively easy to launch countless innovations in terms of product development, pricing, promotion or distribution sites.
A Strong Brand
PPRODUCT
PPRODUCT
PPRODUCT
PPRODUCT
PPRODUCT
PPRODUCT
PPRODUCT
PPRODUCT
Provided that a company takes the time it needs and has sufficient funds, it is relatively easy to launch countless innovations in terms
of product development, pricing, promotion or distribution sites.
Funds ($)
Brand Strength
PPRODUCT
PPRICE
PPLACE
PPROMOTION
Funds ($)
BrandStrength
It is much easier and cost effective to build a strong brand if a company has an entire army of employees flying their organization’s flag, defending it
with heart and soul – those are true brand ambassadors.
Who is a brand ambassador?
The 3 Ambassador Dimensions
INTELLECTUALDIMENSION
The 3 Ambassador Dimensions
EMOTIONALDIMENSION
The 3 Ambassador Dimensions
INTELLECTUALDIMENSION
BEHAVIORALDIMENSION
The 3 Ambassador Dimensions
EMOTIONALDIMENSION
INTELLECTUALDIMENSION
The 3 Ambassador Dimensions
Brand ambassadors need to know what the brand’s values are and what they entail.
It is crucial for them to understand how these brand values are converted into tangible assets within the
organization in general, and particularly in the context of their own position.
INTELLECTUALDIMENSION
EMOTIONALDIMENSION
The 3 Ambassador Dimensions
First of all, there’s the sense of responsibility. The brand ambassadors are aware of the brand’s value and relevance, and realize
they play an important role in building the brand’s success.
Secondly, there’s the element of commitment, passion and enthusiasm. A strong emotional bond with the company’s products
and services and a deep affinity for the brand are also key characteristics of brand ambassadors.
Thirdly, these employees truly believe in the brand, and they are proud to work for their company.
BEHAVIORALDIMENSION
The 3 Ambassador Dimensions
True brand ambassadors act like evangelists, enthusiastically spreading the brand’s message, recommending it to others and trying to
convince their colleagues to follow their example.
The behavioral dimension also includes non-verbal brand-inspired behavior or behavior in line with the brand’s vision and mission.
Brand ambassadors literally bring the brand experience to life by projecting the brand image through their behavior and attitudes, or through
everything they say, do and offer in every interaction with customers.
BEHAVIORALDIMENSION
The 3 Ambassador Dimensions
Employees may also adopt a neutral attitude towards the brand they represent or, in the worst-case scenario, oppose it.
‘Brand neutral’ employees are simply not interested in their company’s brand – they do not commit to promoting it and therefore do not create added value.
Brand saboteurs go considerably further by actively opposing the brand culture. This means much more than simply ‘grumbling’ to the customers - they
even come out with spontaneous criticism of the company.
What affects the decision to
become an ambassador?
Length Matters!
Research conducted at Vlerick Business School analyzed the potential link
between employee brand ambassadorship and certain social
and demographic variables at a number of companies.
Significant differences emerged with regard to length of service.
Paradoxically, both employees who had only just been hired and senior team
members scored far more highly as brand ambassadors than the mid-range
group.Length
Matters!
LengthMatters!
A possible explanation could be that staff members who have just opted for a new
challenge are more inclined to display brand ambassador behavior as a strategy to reduce
‘cognitive dissonance’.
Cognitive dissonance occurs when someone makes a decision and then begins to wonder
whether it really was the right choice. To minimise these doubts, the person tries to
convince him or herself that the decision was the right one by behaving in all kinds of ways that highlight the positive aspects
of the choice.
In other words, in the early stages, new recruits tend to focus on the positive aspects of their job to justify their decision to work
for this particular employer.
LengthMatters!
Length Matters!
Employees who have been with the company for years boast a wealth of
in-house experience and are likely to have built up a strong bond with their
employer over the years.
They have probably reached a stage in their career where they have chosen to
remain with their employer for good, which logically translates into them
scoring higher as brand ambassadors.
LengthMatters!
Length Matters!
The problem is the mid-range group
This could be due to their ‘stuck-in-the-middle’ situation.
On the one hand, they have somewhat lost the enthusiasm they had when they first joined the company and they
are confronted more with the negative aspects of their job (or they can no longer ignore them).
On the other hand, they may be unsure whether or not they intend to remain at the company and they may not yet have the position in the company where they really feel they
are getting ‘value for money’”.
Length Matters!
What’s your favorite position?
What’s your favorite position?
The higher a person’s position within an organization, the greater the chance that they will behave like true brand ambassadors.
The reasoning behind this ties in with the arguments mentioned earlier: as people climb the company ladder, they become more and more attached to their organization.
In this case, there is also a link with the employees’ length of service, which further strengthens the effect.
What’s Your
Favorite Position?
People who work in sales and marketing are most compelled to become brand ambassadors, possibly because people in this kind of job are well aware of the personal influence they have on customers, which encourages them to act accordingly.
The greatest opportunities in terms of brand ambassadorship probably lie with front office staff (reception and service staff). Needless to say, they come into contact with all kinds of people from outside the company and, relatively speaking, they still appear to have a considerable margin for growth in terms of assuming the role of brand ambassadors.
What’s your favorite position?
What’s Your
Favorite Position?
Beauty gets attention Personality gets the heart
Personality
Staff members with a proactive
personality clearly have a greater chance
of becoming good brand ambassadors.
Personality gets the Heart
Stimulating & boosting brand
ambassadorship
If a company wants to turn its employees into real brand ambassadors, it needs to
invest in the development of a ‘love brand’ within its walls, just as it does externally.
In other words, it should not stick to internal communication via e-mail, corporate
speeches etc., but come up with convincing internal ‘advertising’/
communication campaigns, just like the ones aimed at customers.
Naturally, the approach needs to be slightly different, because by definition, employees are very involved with the company, which
is certainly not always the case for customers and prospects.
Stimulating Brand
Ambassadorship
When developing such campaigns, the focus should be identified on the basis of the three Ambassador Dimensions.
The focus may need to be more on: - The cognitive aspect: showing people what the brand’s values
are and teaching them how to identify with them in a way that makes sense to them.
- The emotional aspect: making people proud to represent the brand and encouraging them to associate it with positive feelings.
- The motivational aspect: making people aware of the possibility & responsibility to help promote the brand through their behavior (e.g. word-of-mouth marketing).
Consequently, it is important to carry out research or conduct a survey among the company’s employees first so as to identify
their needs.
Facts mean knowledge!Stimulating
Brand AmbassadorshipINTELLECTUAL EMOTIONAL BEHAVIORAL
Who leads the brand
ambassadorship program?
Internal branding should be a
responsibility shared by HR, the marketing
and the communication
department.
For practical reasons, HR could take the lead,
as long as it gets support with content
from the departments that work on the
brand’s reputation externally and is
aligned with their activities.
Aligning internal and external
activities is the key!
Leading Brand
Ambassadorship
HUMAN RESOURCES
MARKETING
COMMUNICATIONA
MB
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DO
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HIP
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4 things to remember
Leading Brand
Ambassadorship
1. Good brand ambassadors need to know what the brand’s values are and what they entail.
Four things to remember
Leading Brand
Ambassadorship
2. There are three dimensions in ambassadorship: the intellectual dimension, the
emotional dimension and the behavioral dimension.
Four things to remember
Leading Brand
Ambassadorship
3. Employees who have only just been hired and senior team members rank the highest as brand
ambassadors.
Four things to remember
Leading Brand
Ambassadorship
4. If a company wants to turn its employees into real brand ambassadors, it needs to invest in
internal ‘advertising’ & communication campaigns, just like the ones aimed at customers.
Four things to remember
How does an employee become a brand ambassador?
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