Employees: Untapped brand ambassadors

This approach is not limited to the folk in their marketing and human resources departments - it reaches into the organisation. It is an approach that looks to tap into staff and to deploy them as part of the marketing efforts. They have understood that, correctly deployed, the employee becomes an ambassador.

They adopt a collaborative approach across the functional disciplines of the organisation - ensuring a culture of inclusiveness and involvement.

Who drives this?

A very good question and probably the one thing that leads to a break down in any of the efforts that companies make in this direction.

In short, the marketing department must drive any marketing effort as staff are, simply put, another target audience. This does not mean that HR can't have a say. After all, they need to set the policies and procedures.

The collaboration between these two departments will define the success of the internal brand ambassador campaign. It will require a respect from each division for the other division's key operational requirements and goals. It will however require some flexibility from each side.

Biggest marketing assets

It is fair to say that, properly included and activated, one of the single biggest marketing assets a brand will have, is its own staff.

We all hear the stories of the companies that have the staff rank their own companies as the best company to work for. We see the images of plush pause areas, free food and flexible dress codes. We can all name these companies.

In marketing we call this 'brand retention' and we pay our marketing agencies fortunes to achieve this. Makes you think doesn't it?