"Branding 101": Does your company teach new hires about branding?
Feb
22
Written by:
2/22/2012 12:02 AM
One of the most important things about branding is that, if successful, it keeps everyone in the company on the same page. But, if you don't train your employees to know about your business and how to represent themselves accordingly, then you aren't setting your company up for future success.
Sarah Baker, who is a writer, consultant and director of marketing and communications for a national insurance company, recently discussed the importance of a "Branding 101" class for new employees in her article for MarketingProfs.com.
"Branding 101 [educating employees about your brand] is a critical component of new-hire orientation for every company," she cautions. According to Baker, there are several aspects of branding to make sure your hires are particularly experts in:
• Knowing the company name. This may sound silly, but many companies have a particular way of writing their names, such as using spacing, capitalization, accents or other characters. If you aren't careful to drill the proper spelling of the company name into every new employee, they could spell it incorrectly in emails, reports, press releases and other publications, which in turn makes your company look unprofessional.
• Elevator speeches. Everyone, no matter what department they work in, should be well versed in what your company does. By having a mission statement and set of written goals that you share with all employees, every new hire should be able to have what Baker refers to as an "elevator speech" ready when asked about their company.
• Uniformity. From your company's website to the envelopes you send out in a scheduled delivery with your Chicago courier service, you need to make sure that your company's written name and logo are used companywide. This means that new employees should know it right away and use it on their email signatures, too.
