Since the late 1990s, consumer marketing has shifted its focus to an experience economy. Mapping the customer journey now traces various consumer experiences designed to intensify their loyalty to the brand at every point of contact they have with its products or services. But if these points of contact are sometimes employees, as the human face of a brand, why are consumer and employee experiences not more aligned? We must also look at employer branding.
In an experience economy, loyal employees who live the brand attract customers who love the brand. But what does it take to turn employees into brand ambassadors when advocacy can only be the result of engagement and trust in the workplace?
3 critical success factors
Align internal and external brands
It is important to sell the brand internally in order to enhance employer branding and help employees form a powerful emotional connection with the products and services they sell. Without this connection, employees may work toward goals that differ from those promised to the public. Furthermore, if they do not believe in the brand and feel detached, they may become resentful of the company. When people care about and believe in the brand, they are motivated to work harder and their loyalty to the company increases. Employees are inspired by a sense of common purpose and identification with the brand they represent.
By incorporating brand messages into employees’ everyday experiences, managers can ensure that their behavior leads them to think about the brand instinctively. A great example of this is the decision that Edelman client REI made to reinforce its “opt outside” brand message with its own team by closing its stores on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving in the US, considered the first official day of the Christmas shopping season. In 2015, Edelman helped REI announce that not only was it closing all its stores on the biggest shopping day of the year, giving all employees the day off to enjoy the outdoors, but that it was also encouraging everyone else to do the same in its advertising—an exemplary fusion of internal and external branding that felt completely authentic to all stakeholders.
REI also offers employees “Yay Days,” two paid days each year to “live their passion for the outdoors,” whether that means kayaking with family or volunteering to build trails in national parks.
Purposely plan intertwined experiences for employees and customers (or patients)
Just as consumer marketing creates journeys with specific outcomes in mind, the employer journey can also be mapped out to address what an employee is thinking and feeling at each stage of that journey (or even throughout their entire time as an employee of the brand). By staying focused on the human insights at each stage of these journeys, it is possible to create unique approaches in which the employee experience reinforces the customer experience.
The Northwell Health hospital system created and disseminated the Culture of C.A.R.E. (connection, awareness, respect, and empathy) throughout the organization to promote a common experience for patients and employees. By absorbing the C.A.R.E. culture, Northwell Health employees live the organization’s core values through their interactions with each other and with patients. This program motivates employees to live C.A.R.E. from the inside out. Since implementation, the Northwell Health team, starting with senior leadership, has become more focused on patient service delivery.
Similarly, Edelman recently created a shared experience for consumers and employees when PayPal launched its own CashBack MasterCard. An immersive experience was created for potential cardholders to understand the power and usefulness of the card by placing various common household items in several “convenience stores” that offer customers 2% cashback when using the card, so they can see how quickly the rewards accumulate.
The same experience was brought to PayPal’s headquarters in San Jose, California, to educate employees—especially call center team members responsible for enrolling new cardholders—to offer a deeper understanding of how easy it is to turn purchases into extraordinary rewards. This one-day activation caught the attention of all employees. They took photos of themselves at the facility, participated in travel sweepstakes, and championed the card on their own social media channels. Thousands of employees participated in the event and supported the card launch, generating excitement on social media.
Helping CHROs and CMOs row in the same direction as a team
Currently, in most organizations, employee and consumer experiences are planned and executed separately; Chief Human Resources Officers (CHROs) and Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) never join forces to share their abilities to bring the brand to the consumer. Unfortunately, human resources and marketing rarely work together with communications to synchronize internal and external brand narratives for both employees and consumers. Instead, these functions often adopt a competitive “frenzy” stance rather than reaping the benefits of examining the voice of the consumer and the voice of employee commonalities. If these teams align with internal and external brand characteristics and experience journeys, they will likely find that they gain more—both in the marketplace and in terms of human capital engagement and retention.
EDC is Edelman’s Affiliate Partner in Portugal. See the original Edelman news item here.
