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Came across this interesting piece in the Independent reporting on the Marketing Institute’s annual conference. Marketing guru (what makes one a guru?) Martin Thomas was warning of the dangers of brands retrenching and tightening the reins on communication. He pointed out that in tough times companies become nervous about the brand message they are releasing and over-control it to the point of gagging their employees, the very people who are probably most in contact with customers and whom customers may be far more inclined to trust rather than the CEO.
He’s so right but we must also recognise that this is challenging and involves a degree of risk. So how can we make it more likely to be a success?
- Have clear, compelling and easily understood mission and values. If employees totally get what they are there for (mission) and the way in which they are supposed to achieve it (values) they’re far less likely to go off message.
- Communicate with your employees. Tell it as it is – the good and the bad. Don’t hide stuff from them. Everyone says this but so few actually carry it out. Senior managers feel the need to keep the difficult stuff hidden. They probably even feel it is their responsibility to do so and not burden staff with issues. But nobody likes it when stuff is hidden from them so why are your employees any different?
- Give employees clear guidelines for communicating with customers and other stakeholders. Again the values should really inform the style. Communication style needs to match your company values to be seen as consistent. So help staff, give them examples. Tell them what is not acceptable. Make it easy for them to look for guidance.
- Recognise that you can’t stop it so get involved. Your brand message is radiating out there all the time anyway. Not engaging in forums, social networking etc because you feel you won’t have control just isn’t valid. It’s going to happen anyway so at least be involved. At the same conference Carolan Lennon of Vodafone Ireland talked about their customer forum which is now on the website despite the fact that it meant ‘relinquishing control’ over what is said. Some of the comment on the forum isn’t very complimentary but at least Vodafone knows about it, can legitimately engage without being accused of hijacking a forum and most of all can at least try to put stuff right when it goes wrong. It allows staff to get right in there and fix things for customers and I bet they feel good about that.
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