1.
EMPLOYEES
COME FIRST
(NOT CUSTOMERS)
HOW EXPERIENCE
BRANDS ALIGN THEIR
PEOPLE AND ACHIEVE
BETTER OUTCOMES

2.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION: 3
NEW WORDS FOR THE UNTAPPED
MARKETING OPPORTUNITY OF ALL TIME
WHY EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT 5
PROGRAMS RARELY WORK
BRAND TO EVERYONE 7
EMPLOYEE ALIGNMENT: 9
A COOL WAY TO MAKE MORE MONEY
LESS YAMMERING, MORE HAMMERING 11
DON’T ASK ME, I JUST WORK HERE 13
WHY BRANDS THAT ACE SHOPPER 15
MARKETING WILL BE HUMAN
(NOT DIGITAL)
IN PRAISE OF STORYTELLING 17
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3.
INTRODUCTION:
NEW WORDS FOR THE
UNTAPPED MARKETING
OPPORTUNITY OF
ALL TIME
Liz Bigham
We live in a marketing world of explosive own those physical brand spaces where retail and other staff
change: new channels, newly empowered interact with customers.
consumers and a new commitment by brands But isn’t it all one brand? And isn’t it all dependent on creating
to re-write old rules. a distinctive and great experience—with employees at the core?
So why is it so much still hasn’t changed about how brands We think so. It’s time for new words to describe employee
engage their own employees? engagement—words that speak to a new approach to the field.
Instead of employee engagement, how about Brand Experience
Aligning employees behind brand and business goals is the most
Alignment?
fundamental thing that companies can do to improve their brand
experience. This human element of brand-building is arguably the Brand
great untapped marketing opportunity of our time. What’s at stake is your brand. Customers don’t vow revenge
on Debbie in customer service—they take it out on your brand.
Yet most companies struggle.
Brand is what you do, how you behave and interact; it’s a
One reason may be fragmentation of ownership in client verb, not a noun.
organizations. Inspiring employees around mission, vision and
Experience
culture is often owned by Internal Communications, Corporate
What really matters is the experience. If you strive to create
Communications or Human Resources. Meanwhile, capital “m”
positive and differentiating experiences for your staff and for
Marketing and Brand Management types own defining and
your customers and consumers, your brand will gain an edge.
communicating the brand’s values and stories to customers and
consumers. And yet a third group of corporate decision-makers
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4.
Alignment
Where it starts is alignment. Align your staff so that they
understand and believe in what the brand stands for and can
relay that to customers and consumers. Align your organization
so that your people (and agencies) are working together.
Words matter. It may well be that a rose by any other name would
smell as sweet—but we don’t think there are many organizations
that can afford to risk confusion among their staff or their customers
about what they stand for and what their experience is.
To be a successful people-driven brand in the 21st century, your
thinking about brand and your thinking about people need to be
perfectly aligned.
To be a leading experience brand of the 21st century, you have to
ban talk of “internal communications,” you have to move beyond
language like “building a strong employment brand,” and you
need to accept that mere “employee engagement” is not enough.
It’s time for Brand Experience Alignment.
Liz Bigham is
SVP, Director
of Marketing
and lives in
Brooklyn.
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5.
WHY EMPLOYEE
ENGAGEMENT
PROGRAMS RARELY
WORK
Britt Bulla
Almost every organization holds their
employees up as a core, precious asset.
Especially now, as the economy rumbles back
to life and the job market becomes more
active and fluid, companies will be doing
more to retain their best performers and find
the next generation of talent.
Employee engagement programs are often at the center of those
retention and attraction activities. Nearly every company has some
kind of initiative designed to connect with, inspire and motivate
employees – they’re used as an important form of non-monetary
compensation and are often the key channel for companies to
keep abreast of employee mood and concerns. They’re held up
as silver bullets to differentiate one company from another when
winning the “war on talent” is top of mind for executives.
The problem is that they usually don’t make the difference that
they are intended to make.
Four reasons why employee engagement programs often fail
(and by implication, how to do better):
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6.
#1: Corporate messaging campaigns are often mistaken of sharing that are at least as useful and natural as the ones in
for engagement programs. use already, they can’t expect to have a seat at the table of frank
discourse.
They’re often used as just another channel for corporate
communications, with the vast majority of information flowing #4: They’re not helpful in the moment.
one way from HR out to the masses. It’s one more email or web
At the end of the day, engagement isn’t about simple conversation.
portal post, more information to read and digest that adds to
It has to be about dialogue or interaction to lead to a useful
the workload, with no real opportunity for dialogue. Instead of
outcome: motivation, productivity, happiness. Usually, engagement
creating an opportunity for companies to engage, we get more
programs cast their utility in macro terms, like overall health and
clutter at best and more frustration and work at worst.
wellness, work-life balance and professional development and
#2: Engagement programs are often misaligned or in progression. These areas are vital, of course, but they’re usually
conflict with the external brand purpose and messaging. driven from a grand corporate level down to the masses.
Lots of effort goes into making sure that the external branding and In the course of an employee’s day, help can take the form of simple
messaging aligns with the corporation’s strategic goals and business things that make the work experience better. Engagement programs
ambition. Internal engagement loses effectiveness when internal often miss the opportunity to empower managers in the middle–those
audiences are either not aligned, or have objectives that are at closest to the people who need engaging with–to take simple, low-
cross-purposes with the messages that are going out to customers. cost, high-perception value actions that can make a difference: for
example, a late-night snack for long hours at the office... a night out
By way of example, Citi’s “Citi never sleeps” tagline may have at a restaurant for a team member who went above and beyond on
been compelling to customers but many employees participating a project… an invitation to completely unplug for a weekend or an
in discussion board conversations visible to the public interpreted offered comp day after meeting a grueling deadline.
that message as “We’re going to work you to the bone.”
Gestures like this take the onus of engagement away from human
#3: Companies try to control the topics in which resources and corporate communications departments, give
employees engage—ignoring the conversations that managers more tools to engage and inspire, and ultimately provide
employees are already having. employees with a richer, more useful and appreciative experience.
Social connectivity has blended the lines between work and
personal life, and employees are sharing and conversing about
issues relevant to work in forums like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr,
YouTube and more traditional online discussion boards. That’s Britt Bulla is
VP, Director
where real issues (and yes, dirty laundry) have a habit of surfacing. of Strategy,
Companies can’t expect to control the agenda of true person-to- based in
person engagement, because employees have access to forums Jack Morton’s
that they already see as effective and genuine, and have already New York office.
self-identified the issues that are most pressing. When engagement
programs don’t incorporate these issues and don’t offer channels
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7.
BRAND TO EVERYONE
Ben Taylor
People often talk about “B to C” (business
to consumer) versus “B to B” (business to
business) marketing. We’re passionate
believers in something different: “B to E,” or
brand to everyone.
Significant brand equity resides at home with employees. Leveraging
this equity requires so much more than just communicating the
company vision, values and mission—the passive “employee
best practices” box that most companies tick without thinking.
Organizations that inspire and activate their staff base to live their
brand are more successful—by “live” we mean that they actively
deliver the brand promise to customers and fully understand and
embrace the brand’s personality, voice and culture.
Of course the value of employees living the brand is particularly
important to service-led organizations: The Ritz-Carlton Hotel
Company is a famous example. There’s no cookie cutter to
what the Ritz-Carlton experience looks like: décor, guests
and lobby designs around the world are diverse. But there’s
absolute congruity in what the brand experience feels like: utter
consistency in the service and culture of staff—and that’s a big
reason guests have allegiance to The Ritz-Carlton brand. It took
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8.
extensive training, communication, meetings, the famous daily
line-ups, and indoctrination in what The Ritz-Carlton brand means
(e.g., a wallet-sized “credo card” that constantly reminds staff of
what the brand stands for). As a consequence, Ritz-Carlton has
one of the most loyal and motivated workforces any organization
could wish for. They create sales and save money (staff attrition is
minimal compared to many of its competitors).
But it’s not just service brands that gain by aligning employees.
Product-based organizations benefit when their employees are
evangelists of the brand: in a digital world, everyone potentially
has a voice directly to customers and consumers. Beyond sales,
the value to an organization of having a happy and engaged
employee community and a great brand culture and personality
is priceless. We have helped leading product-based companies
develop employee engagement strategies specifically with this in mind.
One in particular applies a similar planning approach to staff
brand alignment as it does its significant customer advertising
program. On an annual basis we help map out a communications
portfolio that combines digital communications, brand experiences
(segmented to the different employee stakeholder groups), awards,
and incentives. The result is an evolving program that allows the
company to develop its products through feedback to management,
and critically to measure how aligned its workforce is to its brand,
how better informed they are to do their work and how motivated
they are to do a better job (and stay with the organization).
By “everyone” we mean all the people who have an impact on or
a stake in your business—and that includes employees, not as an
after-thought but as an integral and prioritized audience.
Ben Taylor is
President
of Asia-Pacific
and lives in
Beijing. /8

9.
EMPLOYEE ALIGNMENT:
A COOL WAY TO MAKE
MORE MONEY
Steve Mooney
Zappos says that culture is more important
than technology.
JetBlue says it hires comedians rather than train employees to be funny.
When Google learned that the middle managers who created
compelling internal culture outperformed those with greater
technical expertise, it undertook a comprehensive study to
uncover performance drivers.
What do these front-running companies know that we don’t?
For starters, all three are focused on creating dynamic internal
brand experiences that match their external brand promises. They
are passionately focused on their internal brand—and they “get”
that aligning their employees is way to be more profitable.
Indeed, Towers Watson has shown (through research it has been
gathering for over a decade) that companies with “exponential”
levels of employee engagement outperform those with low levels
of engagement in clear financial terms, delivering operating
margin that is three times higher.
Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, is dogged in his focus on culture
as a strategic weapon—with financial impact:
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10.
“…By promoting the perks of a highly social company where
workers get free sodas and popcorn, decorate their cubicles, are
invited to share their ideas and can climb the career ladder from
inside, Zappos is able to pay below market salaries for its more
senior workers. ‘We want them to work for us for reasons other
than money,’ Mr. Hsieh said …The company rejects qualified
applicants who don’t buy into the corporate philosophy…Mr.
Hsieh’s success has been built in part on his ability to anatomize
the way people crave connections with others, and turn those
insights into a business plan.” (Source: The New York Times)
All three of these companies market to their employees as they
market to their most important customers. After all, aren’t employees
as important as customers? Would you ever consider sending a
single unformatted email to your most coveted customers informing
them of a new product or service—and then expect a return? So
why do so many executives do just that? Applying the most basic
of marketing processes to your people will result in superior results.
Segment your audience, profile them and then be creative with
communication and culture initiatives.
Using a closely related strategy, JetBlue focuses on recruitment
and onboarding to drive brand inside the company. At what rate
are your employees turning over? At 15% attrition, a company
replaces its entire staff in seven years, and half in three-and-a-half
years. Hire for culture; you can train for skills.
And remember: Zappos plays up the perks and saves a ton on
the salary line. In fact, they claim that it’s harder to get a job at
Zappos than it is to get into Harvard.
Cool!
Steve Mooney is
SVP, Managing
Director
of Jack’s
Boston office. /10

11.
LESS YAMMERING,
MORE HAMMERING:
EMPLOYEE
ALIGNMENT IS
ABOUT DOING,
NOT TALKING
Tom Michael
Have you noticed how cynical many
people are about “employee engagement”
programs? On the face of it, they have
ample reason.
There’s the money problem: it’s hard to fund one-time, all-
out efforts to “engage” employees. There’s the fragmentation
problem: “the employee team” (as distinct from “the customer
team”) might brainstorm programs that will engage employees
around some factors that should transcend—like the brand, or
its values, or a great new product. Then there’s the “is that it?”
factor: the blitz of internal marketing and messaging, posters
and signs, maybe a celebration moment or a beer bash… all
of which immediately fade into the background as life returns
to normal.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Your employee engagement
doesn’t have to be expensive, episodic and isolated.
“Good” employee engagement is led by doing, not talking, and
it’s integral to the culture and behavior of the organization. Brands
that do a great job of employee engagement bake it into their very
essence. It’s not a program or a goal; it’s simply how they operate.
Here’s a very tangible example. Google provides employees a /11

12.
unique culinary experience. It didn’t just happen: Sergey Brin and There will always be a place for the large employee programs.
Larry Page interviewed 25 candidates before selecting Charlie But the big opportunity for the rest of us is to find ways to extend
Ayers as Head Chef. Setting aside the possibility they were only what we’re already doing to employees—to turn well-funded
after the samples, they devoted the time to selecting the right chef customer programs into employee engagement opportunities as
so they’d ensure employees would be well fed, feel well taken care well. The experiences created feed on themselves–employees
of, and devote their energy to innovation and advancement. This experience the brand and the message, become better brand
small example is repeated often at Google: the head of HR went ambassadors themselves, and improve the experience through
through 14 interviews before he was hired. This is a company their participation.
that takes its time to hire the right people for key jobs (and yes,
Head Chef apparently is critical).
An even better approach to employee engagement—and one we’re
seeing more of—doesn’t focus on employees in isolation but views
Tom Michael is
employees as integral and integrated in the customer conversation.
VP, Senior Strategist,
These programs break down the traditional silos of marketing and currently residing
the internal organization, using a program intended for customers to in Texas.
also engage employees, or using the technology built for customers
to empower and engage employees.
A great example is Dell’s EmployeeStorm, their online community for
employees to ask questions and brainstorm about virtually anything,
from café menus to product innovations and business strategy.
It was born not from HR or a desire to improve the employee culture,
but from a consumer-facing program: IdeaStorm. Four months after
launching the customer-facing community, Dell launched the same
concept internally.
Another example is a health care organization that was launching
a customer-facing website to drive engagement, spark conversation
and get people to think about the organization in a new way. They
launched the program with their employees first, to give them a chance
to experience the organization’s new voice, and to participate in the
conversation. So when the program went live to consumers, it was
already a thriving community of dialogue, discussion and debate.
And the employees themselves had an opportunity to embrace and
experience the essence of the new brand.
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13.
DON’T ASK ME,
I JUST WORK HERE
Tim Leighton
In the UK, Mary Portas—a popular retail
guru dubbed “Mary Queen of Shops”
(thanks to her expertise, not her credit
card bill)—recently presented a primetime
television series focusing on how leading
retailers are letting their customers down
with bad in-store experiences.
You might be surprised that anyone would bother to make a TV
series about this. After all, the UK is surely a byword for bad
customer service. It’s all part of the olde worlde charm, right?
Wrong. In an age of demanding consumers and failing brands,
the need to create compelling and rewarding retail experiences
has come into sharp focus. Even here in the UK.
During the “Secret Shopper” series we saw a number of stores
that were failing to provide anything close to a good customer
experience, from cell phones to estate agents (AKA realtors) to
fashion. And it seemed pretty clear that one factor, above all
else, always determined the outcome.
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14.
Employee alignment. So here’s the inescapable truth folks: In an experience economy,
like it or not, your employees hold nearly all the chips.
One example—a fashion chain store—was particularly memorable
and surprising. You've probably been somewhere just like it at And that’s not just in retail. It’s just as true in utilities, healthcare,
some point in your life and witnessed for yourself the unenviable travel or manufacturing. Frontline or not frontline, these people
formula of disinterested staff, frustrated customers and poor sales. ARE your brand; their every action and interaction can add value
to or, indeed, destroy your brand.
Well, it turned out that the training these particular employees
got was a scrappy sheet of copier paper stuck to the back of the Your employees are your brand equity.
staff washroom door. It contained a less than inspiring blend of
customer service platitudes and tips on how to deal with shoplifters. But you might just have to let them know.
Perhaps this was not going to help them live the brand. And set them free.
But then Mary worked her magic. She devised an inspiring vision Thanks Mary.
of how the in-store experience could be transformed and, central
to the concept were... you guessed it... the staff themselves.
And, boy, did they respond. Tim Leighton is
VP, Creative
They weren't given a rule book. They weren't even briefed on a Strategy Director,
based in
set of carefully tuned brand values, pillars or pyramids. They were
Jack Morton’s
inspired and empowered to become part of a vision they cared London office.
about; something exciting and transformative.
Their once sullen faces lit up. They got involved. Their passion and
enthusiasm became infectious and, yes, sales went up.
We've seen it time and time again with our own clients, like when
we helped one of the world’s great automotive brands redesign the
experience customers have when they visit the dealership, armed
with the simple insight—that the dealership experience should
match the quality of the cars themselves. And it’s not limited to
our clients’ own employees: we’ve helped mobile device makers
engage their retail partners’ staff to convey excitement about the
brand’s products (not always easy when that brand isn’t even
their employer, but essential to both brands’ success).
/14

15.
WHY BRANDS
THAT ACE SHOPPER
MARKETING WILL BE
HUMAN
(NOT DIGITAL)
Matt Jones
So the smart, technology-enabled, reality-
augmented era of digital automation is
upon us. And CEOs everywhere can breathe
a long sigh of relief. Because the performance
of their brands no longer relies on an
endless and expensive search for talent.
Instead, it will now be driven by servers
and clouds, apps and algorithms, user
interfaces and voice recognition software.
Or so they wished.
In fact, success is as reliant as it ever was on people—only
more so. The best-known paradox of our age is that despite
living in a hyper-connected age, the most influential medium
for brand-building is word of mouth (case in point, The Thank
You Economy). We’re living in a marketing-saturated, product-
commoditized world where experiences are the only reliable way
to cut through and differentiate (see The Experience Economy).
And the power of “Thank You + Experience” means that brands
that deliver differentiated experiences will be rewarded more
than at any time in history.
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16.
Now surely there are great experiences that don’t rely on great Because in a world where everything else is the same (and
people? Yes—to a point. Google’s genius lies in its algorithms. anything different is copied, rapidly) it’s your people’s behavior
Amazon’s in its user experience and logistics. And Netflix’s in its that makes the difference. Brands have been saying it for years,
pricing and ease of use. Their people are essential, but they’re but now it’s time to do it. So what was employee and customer
behind the scenes—the brand experience doesn’t overtly rely on service training now needs to become brand behavior alignment.
how employees interact with customers. In short, no more service; now the focus must be experience.
But these brands are the exception. For every Google, there are
ten consumer electronics brands whose products are sold and
serviced by (at best) their employees or (at worst) some else’s. For
every Netflix, there are ten service providers whose customers Matt Jones is
seek out support from real people. And for every Amazon, there Global SVP,
Strategy &
are a hundred retailers, banks, airlines, and hotel groups whose Creative,
customer service is delivered by uniformed (and often uninformed) based in Sydney.
people, not by failproof digital platforms.
In the past, the people behind these brands have gotten their fair
share of focus. But now they need to receive their unfair share.
Because the front line is where shopping decisions are made,
where sales are closed, where experiences are delivered, and
where brands are built.
The front line is where shoppers, overwhelmed by advertising
and empowered by reviews and word of mouth, make their
final decisions about a new phone or a new TV. And traditional
shopper marketing tactics, focused on point of purchase displays
and punchy retail promotions, are not enough. Instead, the new
shopper marketing needs to be focused on the alignment of the
retail representative around the brand and product story. All the
more so if that representative works for a third-party retail group
selling multiple competitor brands. In short, no more sales; now
the focus must be experience.
The front line is also where owners return for support, for upgrades,
and for rewards for their loyalty. It’s where occasional buyers
become brand loyalists (or not). And it’s where the behavior and
decisions of the people who represent your brand are shaping the
future right now.
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17.
IN PRAISE OF
STORYTELLING
Helen Graney
It’s easy to be overly cerebral and intel-
lectual when discussing the subject of
employee alignment. After all, it’s a serious
business with big potential impact (positive
or negative) on the brand and the business.
But let’s never underestimate the power of emotion, especially
when it comes to brands and building a strong internal brand
with employees.
Let’s be honest: one of the pitfalls of what used to be called
“internal communications” has always been the potential to
inspire not understanding and belief but cynicism and dismissal.
That’s especially true of messages delivered via one-way, top-
down, executive to the masses media—emails, memos, one-way
webcasts and the like.
Storytelling—both as a genre and as a medium of employee
engagement—helps brands avoid the potential pitfall of
communications-induced skepticism and distrust. Storytelling
can humanize messages and make them meaningful on a
personal scale—adding authenticity and relevance that mean
the messages are more likely to be heard and acted on.
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18.
What do we mean by storytelling? First-person narrative.
Personifying a process through a colleague’s or customer’s
experience. Giving employees the means to share stories and
personal observations. Opening up channels and platforms—
from internal blogs to physical environments—where staff can
bring strategy and culture to life. Stories that connect people with
people on an emotional level, humanizing business concepts and
helping to shape behavior.
Storytelling that works has the potential to build understanding and
evangelism inside an organization in a way no CEO email is likely
to do. And in this digital age, it can spread like wildfire online.
A delightful recent discovery was a YouTube video featuring an
employee in the service department of American brand RedWings
Shoes—which captured more brilliantly than any corporate
mission statement ever could what the brand truly stands for.
Of course the opposite can also happen: negative stories can
also spread like wildfire online. So it’s all the more critical for
brands to work hard to create the channels and the inspiration for
employees to tell positive stories to each other and to customers
and consumers.
It will pay dividends for your brand.
Helen Graney is
SVP, Managing
Director
of Australia.
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19.
WHY EMPLOYEE
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
ENGAGEMENT
CONTACT LIZ BIGHAM AT LIZ_BIGHAM@JACKMORTON.COM
PROGRAMS DON’T
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @JACKMORTON
VISIT US ONLINE AT JACKMORTON.COM
WORK
READ OUR BLOG AT BLOG.JACKMORTON.COM
Britt Bulla
Almost every organization holds their employees
up as a core, precious asset. Especially now, as
the economy rumbles back to life, the job market
becomes more active and fluid, companies will be
doing more to retain their best performers and find
the next generation of talent.
Almost every organization holds their employees up as a core,
precious asset. Especially now, as the economy rumbles back to
life, the job market becomes more active and fluid, companies
will be doing more to retain their best performers and find the
next generation of WORLDWIDE is a global brand experience
JACK MORTON talent.
agency. We create experiences that strengthen relationships
Employee engagement programs are often at the center of
between brands and the people who matter most to them—
those retention and attraction activities. Nearly every company
thereby helping our clients become talked-about experience
has some kind of initiative designed to connect with, inspire
brands. Rated among the top marketing services agencies
and motivate employees – they’re used as an important form
worldwide, we integrate live and online experiences, digital
of non-monetary compensation and often the key channel for
and social media and branded 3D environments that engage
companies to keep abreast of employee mood and concerns.
and inspire consumers, business partners and employees. Our
They’re held up as silver bullets to differentiate one company
staff work across the US, Europe and Asia-Pacific as part of
from another
an ideas-led agency culture.
© Jack Morton Worldwide 2011
/19