Internal Branding

Too many discussions on branding focus on projecting a brand to external audiences. To the extent that branding gets considered as being synonymous with advertising. I disagree. I think the place a branding exercise starts from is within the organisation. It is only when an organisation is in total internal agreement on the subject of “who we are and how we behave” that it is actually equipped to deliver a consistent branding message to the external world. One of the most effective ways to make this happen is to conduct role-playing exercises on how the folks within the organisation would like to be treated by the suppliers they do business with. At some level each one of us a buyer of goods and services, and we have no difficulty in differentiating between who gives us great service and who doesn’t. Human beings have a wonderful characteristic. We all know what we like and what we don’t. Stands to reason that if an experience doesn’t appeal to us, it wouldn’t appeal to our customers either. It isn’t difficult, then, to take this into a discussion of where we could improve our service standards. This is a simple exercise, doesn’t cost anything at all, and helps bind the organisation into one that is on the same wave-length where service and quality are concerned. It works. Try us out for your next requirement of bags and see how we measure up. If we don’t exceed your highest expectations, please tell us so. We’ll listen and we’ll learn every time. And you’ll have an even more pleasing supplier. A look at www.badlani.com/bags/customers.htm will tell you that our efforts have met with some success, but we believe we have a lot more to achieve. To all the customers who’ve said kind things to us. Thank you. Your appreciation matters a lot to us; it helps to keep us striving. But, please don’t pull your punches. If we do anything at all that doesn’t please you, please tell us! We also use this to learn how to deal with the folks who we buy from. We don’t like being treated in some ways, and those guys are every bit as human as we are.