Brand From the Inside
Book

Brand From the Inside

Eight Essentials to Emotionally Connect Your Employees to Your Business

Libby Sartain and Mark Schumann
Jossey-Bass, 2006

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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Applicable
  • Well Structured
  • For Beginners

Recommendation

This branding manual has a slight twist: aim your branding efforts at your employees as well as at your customers. Simple enough. Authors Libby Sartain and Mark Schumann have boiled employer branding down to eight essentials. Generally, they focus on their core concept with a positive orientation toward employees, although mostly helpful, their lists, checklists and lists within lists do get repetitive. Maybe all those lists are intended to help the staff in human resources, where the authors place much of the responsibility for internal branding. getAbstract recommends this book to branding and internal marketing newcomers who want a rundown of the basics, and to human resource professionals who may need to learn about marketing to harness the impact of internal branding.

Summary

From the Inside Out

Traditionally, branding efforts have focused on customers, but if you want to deliver exceptional service, your branding program should really begin with your employees. When employees feel an emotional connection with a company, they deliver exceptionally good service, which your customers will recognize and appreciate.

Your employer branding campaign should include eight essential activities.

"Essential #1 - Discover"

Although you may not realize it, every business has a brand. How customers view your brand determines whether they like, trust and buy your products. If your brand breaks its promises, your customers may turn away. Conversely, when a brand delivers excellent service or quality, that can have a positive "halo effect" on your entire product line. Brands can accelerate sales and customer acceptance.

The best brands generate emotions that overpower common sense. For example, why do people pay a few dollars for a cup of coffee at Starbucks when they could brew it at home for pennies or buy it elsewhere for a buck? Millions pick up pricey lattes every day, but the individual decision to grab a high end cup of coffee...

About the Authors

Libby Sartain is senior vice president of human resources at a major Internet company. For more than 25 years, Mark Schumann was the global communications practice leader for a leading consulting firm.

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