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Internal Branding Increases Profits and Brand Success.

February 14, 2024

Have you ever wondered what role your employees play in your brand’s success? We have the answer: A Whole Lot. Every successful brand starts with motivated and inspired employees.

No other brand success embodies this philosophy more than Delta Air Lines. On January 12, 2024 Delta reported industry-record annual 2023 profits of $4.5 billion – a profit stated after each of its 90,000 employees receives a split of $1.4 billion earmarked for profit sharing in a check worth approximately one extra month’s worth of salary on Valentine’s Day.

Delta’s internal branding program has been a key to this success – as defined by ‘Rules of the Road’ – its Brand Handbook. Going way back to 2007,It was no easy journey for Delta after its merger with Northwest. By early 2011, cultures were still clashing, customer satisfaction metrics had plummeted, key facilities were tattered, and service fragmented. At that time, Delta’s then CEO, Richard Anderson, directed the company to revisit the core brand values Delta’s founder, C.E. Woolman, introduced in 1928 during the airline’s infancy. Today – with over billions of dollars invested in technology improvements, facility rebuilding, and customer service training for all its client-facing staff – the results continue to be stellar – even after the steep recovery required coming out the pandemic.

In 2023, Delta won prestigious awards as a business and place to work. It has earned recognition from organizations such as: Glassdoor – as one of the best places to work, Forbes, Skytrax, The Points Guy, Fast Company, Fortune Magazine, Cirium, Wall Street Journal, and Wallethub – for its financial prowess and company~employee relations.

Can an internal branding program benefit your company? It’s very important to look at the internal side of the brand before going to market with a brand promise, and there are numerous considerations and steps that should be taken, for example:

Explore the company culture and health in an Executive Brand Workshop
Employee market research
Identification of core values
Development of key messages
Brand handbook development
Internal messaging systems
Internal guerilla tactics
Creating an internal Brand Champion Team
Creating employee Brand Ambassadors who deliver on the brand promise every day – day after day.

‘Digital Branding’ – Putting the Cart Before The Horse?

December 15, 2023

I’m republishing this post which I wrote several years ago beacuse it still is relevant in light of my recent experience taking a course with HubPost Academy. I conitnue to see a lot of references to ‘Digital Branding’. As a marketing fundamentalist who has remained relevant during the shifting of trends in communications, I ponder whether the juxtapositioning of those words would be more appropriately ‘Branding Digitally’. The marketing world in which now we live is made up of multiple digital messaging platforms – web, mobile, search engine, CX, e-Commerce, SEO, PPC, social media, and each appeals to a particular side and lobe of our brain. And all lead to one end game – to simultaneously create brand awareness, and to generate demand plus loyalty for products or services while maximizing the customer experience (CX).

Putting the Cart Before The Horse? I often question how we can communicate effectively in digital channels to maximize the impact of technology without having an overarching brand strategy that weaves all content and platforms together. A strategy that tells a story of brand relevance and purpose and is driven by core values. One that provides a clear articulation of how employees as brand ambassadors should live and deliver a brand promise every day – at every level in the organization from the front line to the C-Suite. Where the consumer journey has been anticipated and mapped, and the brand experience consistent at every touch- and decision-point. What technology affords us – and demands of us – is to leverage this huge opportunity to achieve consistency of underlying message in so many places at the same time. And that opportunity can only be maximized by employing a well thought, overarching brand strategy that blankets the entire corporate marketing continuum – in particular digital communications.

Some fundamentals just don’t change, although we like to think they do. They morph. Twenty years ago, marketers had the tools to deliver the brand message on perhaps a dozen platforms or so. Advertising, direct, public relations, sales, trade shows come to mind. The majority of impressions were made mostly with public/passive forms of communication. While these platforms are still important tools for demand-gen, we now have the ability to create brand awareness and create demand through hundreds of digital platforms – almost simultaneously – in a targeted and individualized way no one could have imagined.

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