Internal Brand Activation
One of the oldest and truest sayings about professional services firms asserts that the only real assets you have ride down in the elevators every night – COVID-19 notwithstanding. The people, in other words, are everything. Nowhere is this more valid than in internal brand activation, which is one of our specialties at Knox Design Strategy.
When internal brand activation is in place, employees are your brand’s ambassadors and its voice, especially when you are a professional services firm. The employees’ network becomes the firm’s network – that’s the payoff of effective internal brand activation. By enhancing the engagement of people who are already invested in your brand, you’re enhancing the impact they have on everyone they are connected to.
We emphasize inclusivity, esepcially in the era of COVID-19, where the people representing your brand are likely working from home.
For any brand to have a strong presence in the market, it has to be actively taken up as part of a company’s culture. Your brand should become part of your organization’s day-to-day operating system, an essential part of the bigger process of brand strategy. Our internal brand activation work for you will do precisely this.
When you partner with us, as outsiders with deep internal brand activation experience, we bring an invaluable fresh perspective and establish an environment that is outside the usual boundaries of your established management channels. Employees feel invited and excited to participate. We place particular emphasis on inclusivity, especially in the era of COVID-19, now that the people representing your brand to the world are likely working from home. Even if you haven’t met them in person, their buy-in is essential. We know how to recognize and leverage that.
We develop internal marketing campaigns that bring the brand activation message to the entire organization in a sustained, creative and effective way. Especially in professional services firms with dispersed employees, the in-house audience is the only target that counts when it comes to the task of igniting firmwide interest and aligning teams around the brand promise. We speak to the people who speak for your brand – expertly, creatively and with maximum impact.
On a more practical level, our internal brand activation programs apply the many lessons we’ve learned along the way. One is to give employees a simple and memorable brand story. When lots of stakeholders are involved in developing the story, it’s easy to make it too complicated. We don’t. Our messaging is straightforward and meaningful, which means it’s retained and effective.
At Knox Design Strategy, we know the importance of long-term strategy and of a diversified internal brand activation approach. A brand is not a static equation. It’s a living, breathing, growing and evolving thing. We build activation programs that live, breathe and adapt, too. Which is why they’re so effective.
Internal workshops and campaigns that feature actual team members in internal campaigns have a real effect on internal employee perceptions and culture.
For Shearman & Sterling, one part of the firm’s brand extension was activating the alumni portal.
Our Internal Brand Activation services include:
Internal Brand Audit
to better understand how employees view the company
Communication Strategies
to strategize internal/external communications plans
Internal Marketing
to maximize employee engagement and increase value
Investment in Employees
to connect your employees to your mission and values
Community Engagement
to create dialogues and connections with communities
Corporate Narrative
to refine your brand story so it resonates with employees
