Creating Employee Passion for Brand and for Customer

Jim Parry

11/12/2014

Why is passion for brand and customer important?

‘If we don’t take care of our customers, somebody else will’

Unknown

Customers have great experience & return

Experience delivered by passionate employees

Employees operate in effective culture

Culture created by leaders living the brand

Brand grounded in people and customer

Benefits of creating Customer and Brand Passion

The Toolbox

• Vision – Where you want to be

• Values – What you stand for

• Sustainable Competitive Advantage – How you will win

• Brand Positioning – Your connection with customers

Case Study: Zappos

Zappos Core Values

Zappos Family Core Values As we grow as a company, it has become more and more important to explicitly define the core values from which we develop our culture, our brand, and our business strategies. These are the ten core values that we live by:

• Deliver WOW Through Service • Embrace and Drive Change • Create Fun and A Little Weirdness • Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded • Pursue Growth and Learning • Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication • Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit • Do More With Less • Be Passionate and Determined • Be Humble

What’s Your Organisation’s Why?’

Why

How

What Make consumer electronics

Innovation for customer

Change the status quo

Brand Positioning Determining Shared Value

Your Product or Service

• Is for: _______

• Who want to:__________

• It provides: ___________

• That offers:____________

• Allowing you to:_________

• And you believe this because:__

Target Consumer

Job/Desired Outcome

Functional benefit

Point of Differentiation

Higher order benefit/emotional

connection

Reason to believe or claim support

Brand Positioning Determining Shared Value (illustrative)

Nature Valley

• Is for: the aspirational outdoor person

• Who want to: be outside, enjoying nature

• It provides: a healthy snack

• That offers: natural nutricion without any

preservatives

• Allowing you to: connect with nature

• And you believe this because: of Nature

Valley’s long history of embracing the

outdoors and outdoor sports

Target Consumer

Job/Desired Outcome

Functional benefit

Point of Differentiation

Higher order benefit/emotional

connection

Reason to believe or claim support

Exercise

Think about your organisation’s brand or a particular product brand you work on. Consider what your shared value might be.

Engaging Employees Harnessing creativity

Everybody has a POV

- Empower them

The Value Chain – who is involved? - Build and lead creative forums - Create the cause

Story Telling - Brand/customer folklore

A Customer Mentality

• Create visible personas

– How they live and make purchase decisions

– Align activity around customer

– Meetings/Planning

– Tell the stories

Customer persona (real if poss)

Name Age/Location/Profession

What are her important needs?

Characteristics (Describe this Person)

How do we meet her needs?

How does she use our product/service?

Barriers to creating passionate employees for the brand and for the customer

• Change fatigue

• Inconsistency

• Lack of employee engagement

• Lack of clear vision and values

“Children imitate their parents, employees their managers.” ― Amit Kalantri

Achieving lasting employee passion for customer and brand

Employee Engagement

Small Changes

Consistency

• Perceived Control • Perceived Progress • Connectedness • Create belief in the

Company’s Vision or Meaning

• Avoid change fatigue

• Maintain clarity on org and individual objectives

• Use positive attributes as foundation

• Maintain momentum

• Avoid ‘boomerang effect’ i.e. when leaders stop and change focus

• Strategic driver

Exercise: Score Your Now & Where

Employee Engagement

Small Changes

Consistency

Now Where Now Where Now Where

The One Page Plan

Summary: 6 Key principles for leaders

1. Be clear on the brand vision, positioning, values, your customers and the SCA

2. Don’t be shy, be visible and accessible to both customer and staff – live the brand

3. Empower your people, access their creativity to deliver the brand promise to the customer

4. Determine gaps in the customer experience delivery and improve

5. Celebrate the importance of customer and tell the stories

6. Create visible crusades for customer

www.so-brand.com.au +61 434 607765