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1 Brands need to be backed by accountable, reachable people inside businesses (not websites, and interminable electronic answering systems). The way to customer loyalty is not necessarily the brand, but the business behind the brand. How that business acts and reacts, how it deals with relationships, how it deals with complaints and problems, and above all how it interfaces with customers and consumers is the essence of marketing. The worry is, many businesses seem to adopt a different negative strategy. In this sense, political marketing can be the ultimate example of short-term hype and glossy promises, exchanged for votes; and then post-election consumers (née voters) are forgotten until the next time! And in 2007, there are many examples of poor, inappropriate, and even Machiavellian marketing than ever before. When this is coupled with declining levels of customer satisfaction, and all the evidence pointing to a downward trend, customers and their needs need to be elevated to center stage if we re ever to stop and reverse the slide. In this challenging and engaging new book, Ian Buckingham puts these factors in stark relief, demanding the attention of senior executives, line managers, consumers and employees alike. Philip J. Kitchen Professor of Strategic Marketing Director, Research Centre for Marketing, Communications, and International Strategy, University of Hull

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3 BRAND ENGAGEMENT How Employees Make or Break Brands Ian P. Buckingham

4 Ian Buckingham 2008 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act First published 2008 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI / This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress

5 This is for Lisa, Jack, Holly and Alice

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7 CONTENTS List of Figures and Tables Acknowledgements ix x Prologue: Brand Engagement in Context 3 Act 1 Act 2 Brand Engagement, Everyman and the Death of the Hero Leader 11 November What Does Great Brand Engagement Feel Like? 12 The CEO is Dead, Long Live the ceo 15 Are We at the Tail End of Spin? 26 What Characterizes an Effective Chief Engagement Officer? 27 Summary of Key Learnings 29 5 Things to Try Today 30 Deconstructing Brand ( but we don t even brand animals any more ) 33 January Brand and Authenticity 34 Brand Anthropology 38 New Ways of Telling Old Stories 43 Leadership Engagement 44 Brands and Motivation 48 The National Perspective: Nation Branding 57 Case Study: ARM Holdings (UK Business of the Year 2006) 64 Summary of Key Learnings 79 5 Things to Try Today 79 Act 3 Through the Looking Glass 81 July What s Been Happening in the Communication Market? 83 Employment Brand 92 Engage People by Letting Them Play 99 Inside-out Communication (the Power of Partnership) 100 Behavioral Brand Creep 107 vii

8 CONTENTS Brandscape and the Brand Engagement Journey 110 Mergers and Acquisitions 112 The Quest for Balance 114 What Do Committed Employees Look Like? 124 Case Study: Zurich: Involvement-driven Employee Engagement 125 The Catalyst Event 129 Summary of Key Learnings Things to Try Today 134 Act 4 Culture as a Weapon of Mass Construction 135 December What s Culture Got to Do with It? 136 The Culture Development Process 138 Case Study: Motability: A Culture-first Approach to Change 143 The Use of Tools 153 Summary of Key Learnings Things to Try Today 160 Act 5 Bring Yourself to Work 161 April Everything Begins with a Story 164 Mythology, the Ancient Arts and Employee Engagement 166 The Story of Good Company 174 Authenticity and Engagement 176 The John Lewis Group: An Authentic Brand 179 Authenticity in Action 183 Becoming Comfortable with the Emotional Dimension 186 What s Been Happening in the Recruitment Market? 189 Retention Issues? 193 Case Study: Values-based Communication: The Story of the Yorkshire Building Society: A True Mutual 194 In Conclusion 201 Postscript 204 Bibliography 205 Index 211 viii

9 LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figures 1.1 Top 10 drivers of employee engagement 25 Tim Bulmer (2007) Brand Alignment Workshop Two organizational models compared The macro-brand hierarchy Brand anthropology The engagement filter Where the internal communication function sits Function responsible for overseeing employee engagement The brand window Employment brand model How internal communication budgets (including salaries) have changed in the past 12 months Total internal communication budget by region Total internal communication budget by industry How budget allocation is predicted to change over the next 12 months The engagement staircase What s currently keeping internal communicators awake at night? Typical components of a corporate brand The brand engagement journey The behavioral brand framework Example of a top level brandscape analysis Bernoulli s principle and communication flow The culture development cycle Brand energy investment indicator The Organizational Culture Inventory The OCI circumplex Culture profile for a public sector and a private sector company compared The Impact tool The Radar tool Cue Cardz and daruma 159 Tim Bulmer (2007) Lowry retrospective or just another day in paradise? The hero s change journey Engagement skills profile of a typical chief engagement officer The BY2W perfomance zone 177 Table 4.1 Balanced portfolio of measures 147 ix

10 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project has taken a lot of hard work. It started with a promise to myself and it s important to me to thank everyone who has made a contribution toward the fulfilment of that promise. I appreciate the influence that clients, colleagues and partners past and present have had on the development of many of the core themes and concepts. Despite the fact that many management texts may fail to acknowledge it, this type of book can be nothing other than a collaboration. It represents the evolution of thinking honed by experience and has therefore involved a significant cast of characters. Whether provocateurs, conspirators or catalysts I m sure you know who you are but I would like to single out the following people for a special mention: Caroline Hempstead; Wendy Russell; Mandy Thatcher; Phillip Kitchen; Ramesh Thomas; Tim Bulmer; Bill Parsons; Summer Fern; Anne Downey; Barbara Hannant; Phil Morley; Debby DeFranco; John Smythe; Dennis MacDonald; Emma Snyder; David Broome; Stephen Rutt and the Palgrave Macmillan team and all at Aardvark Editorial. In addition, thank you to all of the threshold guardians who gave permission for the use of the quotes and references which have helped to bring the book to life. Most importantly, I m extremely grateful for the support provided by my business partners and muses Paul and Lisa. Your encouragement and nurturing has been invaluable. The author and publishers would like to thank Robert A. Cooke and J. Clayton Lafferty, Organizational Culture Inventory, Human Synergistics International, for Figures 4.3, 4.4 and 4.5. Copyright All rights reserved. Used by permission. Human Synergistics and Organizational Culture Inventory are registered trademarks of Human Synergistics International, Plymouth, MI, U.S.A. Every effort has been made to trace all the copyright holders but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity. x