The 3 Pillars of Brand Engagement

Branding has 3 pillars, that if they don't match, if they don't reflect the same brand experience then the brand that you are trying to create, will not succeed.

• The leadership write, speak and decide on the brand values. At this stage the brand is a vision, the brand is a goal. The brand is not active.
• The employees experience the brand values through the actions, the words of the leadership and management team. The employees need to match the words written with the words spoken, they need to match the words spoken day to day, with the words aspired to on the brand statements. If they match then the employees will feel inspired and work on delivering those brand experiences to the customers. If they don't match, then confusion, unease and a lack of employee engagement occurs. The customers will experience this confused feeling.
• The customers read the adverts, hear the adverts, feel inspired to try your brand. They then talk and write about their experiences. If their experiences don't match then the frustration will come out and perceived brand values will take hold.

Strong brands work hard on making sure that the words on the marketing documents, match the experience inside the organization for the employee, and externally for the customer. Understanding the employees link from the internal to external brand.

Biggest mistake is often the resource, the effort, the funding goes into stage 1. Without the same brand investment in stages 2 and 3, that employee engagement and consumer engagement with the brand will not occur.