Singing the same tune pays off

How do you feel when your dealings with a company do not measure up to the promises they make?

When, despite being bombarded with slick advertising and marketing materials which scream how caring the company staff are, how they go the extra mile, you're actually more likely to be greeted with apathy or hostility when you go to get your vacuum cleaner fixed or your insurance claim processed?

Chances are, you would feel aggrieved that all the money being spent on the latest masterpiece from Saatchi & Saatchi was not instead being ploughed into a better class of customer service rep.

And for the company, it is likely that a confused branding campaign which promises, but cannot deliver, will eventually see customers slip away to the competition - or at least to a company not viewed as having a left hand totally out of sync with its right.

Smaller companies are not excused from the need for a consistent brand marketing image, either. Both large and small marketing campaigns create a brand identity that should be upheld in the minds of customers, marketing specialists say.

Professor David Aaker from the University of California at Berkeley says in one of his many branding tomes that while a company's brand is the primary source of its competitive advantage, "too often, the brand message to customers is weak, confused [and] irrelevant."

He says a primary goal of a business should be to establish a brand vision or identity that is greater than a set of attributes that can be easily imitated. A brand vision of this sort can be built within the company's people, culture, programmes and values, making it much harder to copy and giving it further differentiation from competitors.

New Zealand companies are slowly catching on to the idea that human resources and marketing are not mutually exclusive disciplines. One local duo trying to corner the market in creating a unique brand voice by co-opting staff are Jill Brinsdon and Damian D'Cruz of Radiation.

The pair have combined advertising and marketing nous with a knowledge of organisations and culture to advise companies on how to bridge the void that often exists between an external ad campaign and the messages its staff carry into their relationships with clients.

"We're not talking about the fundamentals of customer service such as response times or answering a phone within three rings," says Mr D'Cruz, "but something more metaphysical. It's about being true to your vision, targets and essence, something that should run right through the organisation, right from the top.

"And it's not something you can just tell people to do. You have to walk it, live it and be it."

Mr D'Cruz says he sees plenty of examples of branding campaigns that do not fit in with the experiences of either staff or customers, destroying brand equity.

In some cases, he says, a new ad campaign would hit the media before the staff were even aware the company had taken a new marketing tack.

"What a company should do is make sure the people facing the customers are completely knowledgeable about its brand values and why they are important. In that way, the experience of every customer who interacts with the company reinforces that particular brand."

The lesson is the same regardless of the size of the company, he says. If simplicity is a company value or branding message, for example, everyone from the boss down should be doing his or her bit to make dealing with the company simple.

It seems like simple common sense, but "common sense is not always common practice," says Mr D'Cruz, quoting Einstein.

The Radiation duo have a host of remedies to cement branding in a business, from improving internal communications to training initiatives, to even architectural recommendations "if that's what it takes."

One company Mr D'Cruz says has got its customer service reflecting its branding message is ASB Bank. His experience of the bank's customer service people - who seem always to be offering him something new, he says - is consistent with recent satisfaction surveys across the retail banking sector which show ASB's dissatisfaction rating is lowest at just 6 per cent.

Its branding - "One Step Ahead" - was developed to reflect a sense of progressiveness, says group human resources and marketing general manager Barbara Chapman. She says that while staff aren't specifically trained to understand the phrase "One Step Ahead," they are expected both to "excel in customer service" and innovate, "giving us our progressiveness proposition."

"It is vital that staff understand the branding in order to deliver on it - and they do," she says.

The brand is "unique to us [and] certainly very difficult, if not impossible, for our competitors to copy. We have also ensured our staff are engaged in and can deliver on the brand direction."

The "innovative and service" brand platform that dovetailed into the "One Step Ahead" communications strategy was actually devised in consultation with staff, says Ms Chapman. The company monitors how that ethic is implemented, using methods such as mystery shopping.

Another company rated highly by its customers is AMI Insurance, which runs an ad in which a boyfriend, by accident, almost jumps starkers into the shower with his prospective mother-in-law.

The company's highest-profile campaign used the "Party at Kelly Browne's" message, which was designed to communicate that the firm is likeable and understands that "things happen," says AMI chief executive John Balmforth.

And his 480 staff who interact with clients understand that, he says. "It's our view that your best [brand] advocates are your own people. Our strategy is that customers are at the middle of our business, and our staff are trained to understand that strategic direction, and our [campaigns] convey that to the public."