By Lawrence McGlown

Using Employee Beliefs to Define the Brand

{InsIDE} OUt Positioning

PurposeGoal: Define employees’ shared picture of success.

How can your brand more favorably affect people’s lives? Look not to customers, but employees for these insights. Use these beliefs to define a limitless goal employees can support, and find new ways to achieve. Purpose, defined in this manner keeps employees motivated to innovate because everyone understands how to keep improving the organization’s affect on people’s lives.

WhyGoal: Define employees’ motivation to serve the organization’s Purpose.

Organize employees’ willingness to support the business purpose by common themes. A story about the character of the organization will blossom. some leaves can foster organization-wide alignment because employees appreciate their beliefs being marketed to their colleagues. Other leaves will be newsworthy outside of the organization because customers appreciate knowing what types of people stand behind the brands they buy.

HowGoal: Define how employees’ make the organization’s Purpose real.

Each competing organization has a unique approach. From airline flights to data management systems, customer choice is driven by how the buyer wants things done. In today’s transparent world, customers sHARE stories about how brands work. By anchoring this area of the positioning strategy with employees’ unique executional approach, customers are more likely to receive the experience promised.

Phase 1

Phase 1 clarifies how to:

• Drive organization-wide alignment.

• Market & deliver the brand truthfully.

• stay true to the organization’s core.

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CategoryGoal: Define what customers should expect from the category.

Healthy brands, like southwest, Whole Foods, and IBM boldly manage the category. By creating innovative ways for customers to benefit from the category, each brand has claimed a leadership position. Have fun flying. Be healthy. Build a smarter planet. these clear category expectations position each offer as the ideal solution. the task is to elevate the value people expect from the category.

AttributesGoal: Define how customers describe your unique value.

Like a great meal, the ingredients used to describe an offer are essential. some ingredients are nice delighters during the customer experience. Other ingredients are best used to describe the one-of-a-kind value that your brand is designed to deliver. thus the task is to appropriately use each ingredient. Place the most attractive ingredients curtain forward, and inspire employees to consistently deliver them as promised.

BenefitGoal: Define the net value customers will enjoy.

Benefit summarizes a brand’s customer value. Avoid explaining why the brand is better than its alternatives. that power belongs to customers. Instead, respect how and why people make decisions and use that knowledge to create a tangible outcome that is right for people of like minds. some people don’t want to have fun flying. But southwest has proved that many do.

Phase 2 clarifies how to:

• Own customers’ category expectations.

• Emphasize the right ingredients.

• Get to the point – memorably.

Phase 2

In this video, Lawrence McGlown discusses some of the challenges that Inside Out Positioning can solve.

the McGlown Group helps organizations translate

business strategy into messaging tools that clarify

what to do as an employee, and what to expect as a

customer. the deliverables drive alignment between

employee and customer beliefs, while pinpointing

when the customer promise is, or is not, made real –

and what to do about it.

To contact The McGlown Group, email info@themcglowngroup.com or call {317}800-8319.

Execute as Promised

Lawrence’s approach, shaping brands with beliefs shared by employees and customers, has driven growth across numerous brands. His leadership strengthens workplace culture, employee brand management competencies and the cross-functional team’s ability to market and deliver the brand truthfully.

Why is Alignment necessary?

“To keep employees, who all affect what customers experience, informed on how to execute as promised.”

Lawrence McGlownMAnAGInG DIRECtOR

About the Author

©2013 the McGlown Group

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