June 21, 2018
35 | How to influence behaviour to strengthen your brand
Why you’ve got to listen to this episode:
Brands focus on the positive side of an organization or place. On what attracts us to that place and what drives and inspires us. But a brand is only the sum of the parts. A brand is the result of the actions and behaviours of everyone who forms part of that brand.
You can’t build a brand on key messages alone, or nice advertising campaigns or a beautiful website. How your staff, citizens or anyone who represents the brand acts and makes others feel is probably the most impactful part of your brand.
Anyone can create compelling messages and beautiful ads but when you have a client with a particular need or issue, when your product arrives damaged or late, how you act and how you make others feel is crucial for your brand. Those are the moments that define you as either a remarkable brand or a brand not worthy of our time and money.
The big question and one of the biggest challenges every brand faces is just how to instil the right behaviours, the right set of values to live by when one of your staff is faced with a difficult problem. And we all know and have heard of times when this doesn’t happen.
Who can benefit from listening in:
You can have a great brand platform but if your staff, however small, doesn’t know what it means to live by your brand values, you’re at risk. It can be very difficult to know how to live by those brand values. What to do differently from your everyday job role and responsibility to help bring the brand to life.
If you’re not helping guide that conversation, provide examples and encourage the right behaviours you won’t likely get them.
In this episode, Laura Tailleur from Make Something Edmonton tells how the City of Edmonton has been encouraging its citizens to do more of the things they value. More of the actions that make them love their city and what makes Edmonton such a unique and special place.
Learn from Make Something Edmonton on the tactics and strategies they used and how you can implement similar ones in your own organizations.
Key takeaways from this episode:
- A brand is judged, rewarded or punished by the actions, and behaviours of those who represent it.
- You have to engage your staff or citizens to bring your brand to life. You won’t do it with slogans or nice campaigns alone.
- You have to inspire and equip your staff or citizens, so they know how they can help build your brand.
- The difficult moments are the moments that define you as a brand. If your staff doesn’t know what set of values to uphold and what decisions to make your brand is at risk.
Links to resources mentioned in this episode
a branded world is a member of the Alberta Podcast Network powered by ATB
Episode supplement
The supplement for this episode includes:
- A digital version of a beautifully created book called Make Something Edmonton Brand Ambassador. This was the document created to engage brand ambassadors, community or business leaders or other influential Edmontonians, who already do or could promote Edmonton as a place to live or work. It is a guide on how to help promote Edmonton and it includes the backstory of how Edmonton arrived at its brand, what the brand platform is as well as examples of how Edmontonians live by their brand values. It also includes practical guides and examples of key messages, proper logo usage, as well as some blank pages for ambassadors to fill out with their own stories and experiences of what it means to be an Edmontonian.
- A photograph of one of Edmonton’s Statements of Encouragement, which helped express the brand’s characteristics through inspiring statements of encouragement which also serve as calls to action to do things that intrinsically Edmontonian. Click here to see.
Thanks for listening
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