Internal vs External Brand

Internal vs external brand… what is the difference?

Every year, companies of all sizes across the world invest money and resources in external branding efforts, as they should. The objectives may vary between companies from creating brand awareness, developing connections, getting loyal customers and much more.

What about the internal brand? For me an internal brand is as, if not more, important then your external brand. Your internal brand should co-exist with your external brand however, the internal brand should have a separate mission: to build a culture that engages employees and motivates them to deliver and work towards that promise. This culture becomes the product of each individual working for your company. Your employees have to fall in love and believe in it and in return they all work towards the same goal.

A Healthy Brand cultivates a company culture where employees live and breathe the brand to bring it to life for their customers.

An interesting article I came across recently according from Forbes, “Fewer than 50 percent of employees believe in their company’s brand idea, and even less are actually equipped to deliver on it.”

What does this mean for you? It doesn’t matter how strong your external brand presence is if fewer then half of your staff aren’t engaged. This means that your employees are not hearing it, don’t understand it and can’t related to it therefore, don’t expect them to be delivering on it.

One size doesn’t fit all. Remember that you have 2 separate audiences, an internal and external one which also means 2 distinct messages. One should not be doing the work for the other one however, this is often misunderstood for many reasons. Aligning your external brand with your internal brand is making a choice to fulfill your companies promise and propelling your business forward.

We are going through this exact scenario here at You.i TV. When I started 3 years ago, I was employee #30 of this small Ottawa startup and we are now well over 150. My first piece of work when I joined You.i TV was to rebrand it, give it a new look and tone of voice that would propel it to the top of the industry. Not an easy task but I believe we’ve achieved it.

The culture and goals are ever evolving and everyone works their ass’s off, promotes the brand, goes the extra mile, works as if this company was their own, but why? I think that the internal brand and culture, all though not perfect, are clear to understand and help drive everyone towards the same goal. Everyone has done an amazing job of sharing goals, objectives, setting a clear path for us to understand. It’s been fun “playing with the brand” and see it evolve over time and moulded into a game changer where everyone lives and breaths it. People, departments and structures have been added but to this growing company but I still believe the internal brand has not lost it’s touch.

I’m really looking forward to seeing this evolve!