Internal Brand Metrics: The Other Half of Total Brand Performance
By W. Thomas Nelson, Lodestar Marketing Corporation
Marketing executives have traditionally placed the bulk of their time and attention on brand performance in the marketplace — external brand performance. Which they should. Yet ignoring the fact that much of a company's total brand performance takes place inside the organization — in the hearts and minds of its employees — can leave significant brand performance gaps and gaping holes in the customer's total brand experience.
Consider these three key forms of internal brand performance.
- Employee brand engagement. The eventual success of any corporate brand strategy is determined in large part by the ability — and willingness — of employees to deliver on that brand's promise to customers, prospective customers, and other key stakeholder audiences.
- Internal brand culture. Employees can't do the job alone — an effective internal corporate brand culture that supports and nurtures them in their efforts to "live the brand" is required.
- The employer brand. Corporate reputation among employees and prospective employees — the employer brand — is an essential factor in any company's ability to attract and retain the "right" employees for enterprise success.
Notwithstanding the clear strategic importance of these forms of brand performance, they have received scant managerial attention in far too many companies — even from the brand teams! Formal performance measurement systems have been the exception, not the rule, as has the use of internal brand performance metrics in companywide brand dashboards.
Some of this inattention is attributable to a misguided belief that elements of internal brand performance are simply too ethereal to be effectively measured, much less managed. A parallel mistaken notion that employee performance and organizational culture issues are somehow beyond the purview of brand and marketing organizations has also played a role. And, until quite recently, a lack of effective and readily available measurement, diagnostic, and deployment tools added to the problem.
But this is now changing. In spite of the barriers — real and imagined — marketing executives are increasingly concluding that internal brand matters are simply too important in terms of managing total corporate brand performance to be ignored. New and increasingly sophisticated measurement and management tools, including state-of-the-art brand performance dashboards, are also making a big difference.
Developing Internal Brand Performance Metrics
Another development has been the discovery in a growing number of companies that internal brand performance constructs like employee brand engagement or the employer brand can actually be broken down into identifiable, measurable, and manageable elements, even though they might initially appear abstract.
Another development has been the discovery in a growing number of companies that internal brand performance constructs like employee brand engagement or the employer brand can actually be broken down into identifiable, measurable, and manageable elements, even though they might initially appear abstract.
Here is a brief overview of how such a process can work for the three forms of internal brand performance mentioned earlier.
Employee Brand Engagement
A hierarchy of effects can help companies initially think about "employees living the brand." The hierarchy contains both cognitive and behavioral elements, with each element building on the preceding ones in a more or less linear fashion.
A hierarchy of effects can help companies initially think about "employees living the brand." The hierarchy contains both cognitive and behavioral elements, with each element building on the preceding ones in a more or less linear fashion.
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Employee brand engagement starts with awareness — employees have to first know that a corporate brand strategy even exists. Beyond that they have to understand the strategy, see it as being personally relevant and believable, and ultimately become committed to personally "live the brand."
A critical mid-step toward employee brand engagement lies in identifying specific brand-supporting behaviors that employees can take up. Left to their own devices, employees can struggle here, so managerial intervention is essential. (In one recent company survey, over 80% of employees told us they were committed to "living the brand," but only 34% said they had a clear understanding of exactly which behaviors they should adopt.)
Finally, it is one thing to know how to "live the brand" and quite another to actually live it on a day-to-day basis. And so, the pinnacle of the hierarchy addresses initial and longer-term employee behavioral take-up.
Importantly, the progression of a workforce through the hierarchy toward greater brand engagement can be measured by periodically asking employees how they feel about a series of statements like the examples in figures 1 and 2 below.
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Internal Brand Culture
As noted earlier, employees need help in becoming more engaged with the brand, and the company must provide that help by creating a supporting internal brand culture. But what does such a culture look like and how can its performance in nurturing employees be measured? To the left is a set of brand culture "markers" to be used as an initial diagnostic tool and as the basis for a performance measurement process.
As noted earlier, employees need help in becoming more engaged with the brand, and the company must provide that help by creating a supporting internal brand culture. But what does such a culture look like and how can its performance in nurturing employees be measured? To the left is a set of brand culture "markers" to be used as an initial diagnostic tool and as the basis for a performance measurement process.
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At a minimum, management can use the "markers" as a checklist to evaluate a company's internal brand culture. Better, ask employees how the culture is performing through an ongoing measurement process, using items such as the examples in figures 3 and 4.
The Employer Brand
Measuring the performance of the employer branding in attracting and retaining the "right" employees for enterprise success can be approached in several ways. A global professional services company now systematically surveys younger prospective employees while they are still seniors or in the second year of an MBA program to understand what their career decision-making processes are, which companies are in their consideration sets, and how the employer brands of those companies are performing in both absolute and comparative terms.
Measuring the performance of the employer branding in attracting and retaining the "right" employees for enterprise success can be approached in several ways. A global professional services company now systematically surveys younger prospective employees while they are still seniors or in the second year of an MBA program to understand what their career decision-making processes are, which companies are in their consideration sets, and how the employer brands of those companies are performing in both absolute and comparative terms.
A specialty chemical company is currently installing a multidimensional employer brand-assessment process. New employees are given an entry interview to assess their career decision-making process and perceptions of the corporate brand. At the 90-day mark, newly hired employees receive a short e-mail survey that assesses the extent to which the company has initially delivered on its brand promise. Departing employees are given an exit interview that, in part, addresses employer brand issues. Finally, brand-related questions have now been included in the company's employee satisfaction survey process (one-twelfth of the employee population surveyed monthly). Causal modeling of the resulting data identifies the "contribution" employer brand performance makes in targeted employee outcomes — retention, satisfaction, commitment and engagement, and loyalty — and places the focus on the key attributes correlated with success.
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Internal Performance Metrics for the Corporate Brand Performance Dashboard
The measurement of internal brand performance can be quite nuanced and detailed. But for companywide brand dashboard purposes, only a few composite or indexed metrics are required. As a starting point, consider these four:
The measurement of internal brand performance can be quite nuanced and detailed. But for companywide brand dashboard purposes, only a few composite or indexed metrics are required. As a starting point, consider these four:
- Employee brand literacy — the extent to which employees know how to the "live the brand"
- Employee brand engagement — the extent to which employees are living the brand
- Internal brand culture
- Employer brand performance
Balanced with the brand performance amongst prospects, customers, and other key constituents, these internal brand metrics will help uncover and subsequently keep the focus on how the brand really drives the bottom line.
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W. Thomas Nelson, Jr. is President/CEO of Lodestar Marketing Corporation, a company that specializes in marketing and brand performance measurement and ROI assessment.
