If you don’t have an employee brand ambassador programme, it’s possible you’re missing out on a relatively inexpensive and increasingly popular marketing tool. Sharon Davis looks at the benefits of an ambassador programme and how to set one up.

Using employees as brand ambassadors to promote a business and its products isn’t new. Telkom, to name just one example, has a well-established programme encouraging employees to develop one-on-one relationships with small businesses to improve customer satisfaction and company profits. However, the idea of encouraging the right employees to become brand ambassadors has gained a new immediacy as businesses embrace the power of social media.

With the turbulence in the global financial markets and low growth in many economies, including South Africa’s, companies have tightened their marketing budgets and are diverting money away from traditional television and print advertising and focusing on creating brand ambassadors instead.

Car and truck hire company Avis Southern Africa has invested heavily in an ambassador programme. Staff members aim to live up to the company tag line “We try harder”, and are encouraged to live the company vision of exceeding customer expectations at every interface.

Putting people before cars is another Avis brand promise – one that has helped the Barloworld subsidiary win the 2011 Sunday Times Top Brands award for the best car rental company for eight consecutive years.

Organic fashion brand, Earthchild, also plans to grow its business through its employees. Jonni Katz, managing director of the Earthchild Clothing Group, explains that retailers often focus almost exclusively on their product range and the attractiveness of the store, and overlook their people – the most important touch point for any retail brand. He suggests that companies invest in employees and encourage them to be brand ambassadors to give them an edge over the competition.

Employees as brand custodians

Although logos, tag lines and marketing campaigns are important for brand success, employees are the custodians of a brand and are responsible for delivering the brand promise.

“The most critical element of a brand is to ensure that the company’s employees live the brand,” says freelance marketing consultant and trainer, Anand Krishna. “As companies realise this, they’re investing more and more resources on communicating the philosophy and essence of the brand to employees,” he explains.

In an increasingly globalised world, where product differentiation is low and social media has changed the power of influence of the individual and how we communicate, it makes sense to harness the natural enthusiasm and clout of a personal endorsement from a brand believer in one-on-one encounters and over social media platforms.

Identifying brand ambassadors

Not everyone is suited to being a brand ambassador. Forrester Research, in its brief on ‘Transforming employees into brand advocates’, suggests starting with an assessment of employee knowledge, attitudes and behaviours around the brand. This will help to refine the brand message and will potentially identify four types of employees:

• Brand resisters – either apathetic or unhappy employees, who lack understanding or belief in the brand and put their interests first.
• Brand learners – do their job to the letter, but no more. They know the brand message but don’t go out of their way to promote it.
• Brand believers – passionate about the brand and customer service, promote the brand when they’re given the chance but feel constrained by what they can do.
• Brand advocates – active word-of-mouth marketers, they live the brand at work and in their communities and help drive it.

The next step outlined in Forrester’s brief is to extend support from the CEO and the executive leadership team – leading by example to get employees on board. Jennifer Schade, president of US-based marketing company JRS Consulting, concurs: “If top leadership lives and breathes the brand, employees are much more likely to embrace it as well. It is therefore critical that an organisation’s CEO leads by example.”

Here are some tips for embarking on a successful employee ambassador programme:

Share information

“Marketing executives need to share plans, campaigns, brand insights and customer information across the organisation,” notes the best practice section of Forrester’s brief.

“Employees can't be brand advocates if they don’t understand the brand,” Schade says. “It’s important to communicate the organisation’s brand to employees – both implicitly and explicitly.” She explains that key brand messages should be reinforced in all communication, including employee newsletters and emails, and that brand resources – from brand guidelines to tools to help employees talk about the brand – should be readily available.

Involve employees

Another best practice guideline from Forrester is to treat employees as partners in maintaining the brand promise, and to incorporate elements of fun to generate brand excitement. Involve them in brand decisions and organise an employee event to celebrate the brand and its heritage, whether based on the founding of the organisation or the achievement of milestones.

Other suggestions include emphasising the impact of each employee on the brand and allowing for personal interpretation of the brand. If an employee enjoys using social media platforms and will use them responsibly, they should be allowed to give personal expression to their brand belief, within guidelines.

It’s also important to provide an enabling environment. Employees should be empowered to put the customer first. This, Forrester explains, includes providing the right tools and training to enable this and extends to managerial support for employees’ decisions based on the brand promise.

Recognise your ambassadors

Public recognition is an effective way both to express appreciation and reinforce the good work brand ambassadors do. “This encourages brand advocates to keep up the good work and also shares concrete examples to inspire others to get involved,” Schade says. Forrester recommends both small and large-scale recognition and rewards – from mentions in newsletters to annual awards with prizes awarded to the most outstanding ambassadors.

Investing in in-house brand awareness and promotion not only provides a business with a new and cost-effective word-of-mouth marketing channel – it has several other benefits. Employees will be more engaged and feel more fulfilled in their jobs. Customers will receive better attention and service. Issues and complaints will be dealt with immediately, rather than allowed to erode customer good will – and sales and profit are likely to increase too.