Corporate Ambassadors – A crucial part of the brand management strategy?

Author: Donny Lee

What makes a company successful? Its products, services or the valued customers? Now ask yourself the question, who or what makes up an organisation? Yes, the employees! So why is employee branding in many corporations still not a priority?

According to studies, Branding is essential, so that loyalty and  identification can be instilled in in customers, which in turn generate more revenue and profit for the organisation. Isn’t it a much bigger loss, if employees resign because they realise that the environment, in which they spend more than eight hours is simply unmotivating and stressful? Google, for example, understands the importance of employee branding and has already actively provided additional fringe benefits for its employees globally as part of their corporate culture. What about Small & Medium Enterprises who are already fighting with big corporations for highly qualified professionals? The lean hierarchy and closeness to the CEO helps, but as the company grows, more needs to be done, especially when a company operates globally. Recruiting and retaining highly qualified professionals from a pool of worldwide experts seems to be an ongoing challenging task.

Branding seeks to provide an additional value for its products, so that customers feel that they belong. As with HR Marketing, the management team must also strive to cultivate a culture to enhance employee loyalty, so that a second family can be truly established. Building a global “we” brand starts from having a stable internal corporate culture and a set of clear values. With this asset CEOs can create better strategies for the organisation, knowing that they have support from their employees.

As a middle management manager, I feel strongly that employees are the true drivers and ambassadors for a corporation. What do you think? How can we as managers 2.0 contribute more to build a stronger global brand from the inside?