Branding Your Relationships
Your Brand is Your Promise, So Keep it.
By Tim Pedersen - FFP Online ( article- 1 of 3) 2,3

Today, we know your company brand is widely understood to be a combination of the logo and creative graphics representing its visual identity, embodying your company message - what it is known for and the promise it makes to customers. The value this “package” brings to sales and marketing cannot be underestimated. Advertising budgets are considered well-spent and justified when your brand message reaches your the customers and elicits sought-after responses. But, there are two very important elements which must be considered when discussing airline branding and the crucial effect it has on the bottom line; internal branding and the affect it has on partnering.

The first, internal branding, takes the brand discussion from the too often external and superficial conversation, i.e., design and identity, to that of the internal discussion, i.e., what do the employees believe that the company really stands for, and how does it deliver on the brand promise. Brand religion. In order for a company to be truly successful and develop a strength and loyalty of its brand, every single employee must also understand the brand, become a catalyst for it and deliver upon it. It must become intrinsic throughout the company, with the ability to make employees believe that the brand itself is something that changes consumer behavior.

Unfortunately though there is a disconnect, especially within larger organizations when individuals feel there is little contribution they can make to alter the perception of the company’s brand. But this could not be farther from the truth – each employee does indeed have the ability and opportunity to extend the brand value every day - Jet Blue is a shining example of this practice put into reality. In a study with Jet Blue (Tim Leberecht, 2004), when asked to describe the airline’s brand, a crew member stuck with the official company slogan: “Bringing humanity back into the airline industry.” Jet Blue is an airline that has “extraordinary friendly and efficient service”, and of course this type of widespread feeling throughout the company and employees will greatly impact the customer experience in very positive ways.

So how does a company create such an atmosphere? It definitely comes from a corporate culture that embraces every employee as an ambassador of the company, a PR agent so to speak. It’s a well known fact that employee satisfaction leads to customer satisfaction and at Jet Blue, this process starts immediately upon hiring and is carried all the way through to daily email updates to employees and corporate communications, empowering them with information before the general public. Organizational change is never an easy task, but it starts with communication and a conversation to enable everyone within the company to understand the brand and the company’s raison d’être.

Secondly, how does internal branding affect your organization’s ability to create partnerships, alliances and co-branding opportunities? Very simply, the stronger your brand, the stronger is your position in negotiating any of these opportunities. And from what we have seen, a strong brand permeates throughout an entire company from the front-desk up. The relative strength of your brand will not only get you to the table, but it also determines the seat you will be sitting in throughout the negotiations. A stronger brand is also able to buffer a crisis far better than a weaker one and if a partnership does not work out, your customers are usually far more forgiving based on the loyalty they have developed towards your brand. As brands become more and more customer-centric, they want to have a say in where the company is headed. Steve Mathwig, Director Loyalty Marketing for Midwest Airlines, uses customer surveys to determine new partnership relationships. Not only is that a very clever marketing strategy to involve and listen to customers, but it ensures a higher rate of success for partnerships if customers are already supporting the relationship. Loyal customers will be the first to question the purpose of a relationship if it doesn’t feel like the right fit.

With these two areas covered, a company can bring a strong presence to the bargaining table in partnering and co-branding situations. In our next segment we will discuss a checklist for these ventures. To conduct an internal brand audit within your own organization, contact us for a list of questions that will reveal if you are branding your relationships or just going through the motions.