Some people see brands only in terms of image, colour and form.

But those who know brands, know the magic and power great brands command. The magic to influence and persuade. The power to win attention, and most importantly, to engage.

In terms of engagement, brands must be most real and effective to internal audiences – to employees, and stakeholders such as franchise staff, call centre operators, suppliers and intermediaries.

Full belief in the essence and values of the brand internally is imperative. They must experience its promise everyday. Without it, performance will fall and engagement will suffer.

But beyond belief, staffers and internal stakeholders must get to know and understand the brand as it matters to outsiders. Because it is how they engage, interact, and transact with customer’s, that delivers the brand experience. That wins appreciation and brand loyalty.

At Canyon we have developed programs big and small to assist our clients’ staff deliver brand promise and experience.

TRUENERGY

‘Brighter Energy’

TRUenergy is Australia’s third largest energy retailer and generator. In order to compete and grow in a rapidly changing sector, TRUenergy engaged CANYON to reposition and refresh the TRUenergy brand.

A critical part of this repositioning was the Brand Engagement phase in which 1,100 TRUenergy staff in 8 locations nationally played a major part in the planning, implementation and delivery of the new brand promise – Brighter Energy.

Situation:
• Upheaval and change in the Australian energy market
• Brand rejuvenation to stay relevant in a changing market – a new brand promise to engage an indifferent consumer
• Diverse employee groups, each needed to understand their role in delivering the new brand promise

Process: – the Integral Brand Engagement approach

• Worked with Senior Executive team to develop the Guiding Behaviours matrix – aligning company values and brand attributes and developing desired behaviours
• Designed a range of workshops that ensured that staff and leaders developed the right attitudes and behaviours at an individual level, hence developing the appropriate culture to deliver the brand promise
• Introduced staff to the new brand attributes and guiding behaviours and worked through what these meant for each part of the business
• Brighter Energy program was a three month program consisting of half, one and two day workshops, reaching 1100 staff across Victoria, South Australia and NSW.
• Outcomes from the workshops included actions at an individual, team and organisational level, that were followed up through manager conversations right through the business and included incorporating the agreed behaviours into each individual performance management evaluation.

Outcome:
1 Engaged all employees with the company’s direction and challenges as a whole rather than by division
2 Enabled the company to clearly link the customer promise with employee behaviour. A matrix detailed successful behaviours and company values enabling measurement of both.
3 One look, one feel and one set of behaviours – a total alignment
4 A leadership model that drove employee engagement and performance.
5 A brand platform that was relied on for future acquisitions and growth in NSW and QLD.

HODGES

Engaging the staff of this dynamic sales based organisation with the new brand had to be done prior to their peak selling season. Fortunately, being a Melbourne based organisation, we were able to gather all staff together at the Fairfax Centre for a brand launch.

All staff were treated to cocktails and canapés prior to a presentation from the Directors about the future direction of the business, the new brand and the role the staff will play in delivering the new brand promise. All staff were then presented with a show bag of branded items including their personal business cards.

DIRECTORY CONCEPTS

When we started with Directory Concepts they had trouble articulating what they did. The outcome of the Brand Strategy phase was ‘Enterprise One’ – bringing the enterprise to the individual. This exciting breakthrough provided a springboard for all future communications.

With offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane it was important that all 80+ staff in the organisation were aligned with the new brand almost concurrently.

Working closely with the CEO we developed a road show presentation detailing the new Brand Charter and what it meant for each employee. An internal Brand Book was developed and presented to individuals personally by the CEO at the completion of each office presentation.

NATIONAL CAN INDUSTRIES

From its origins as a specialist manufacturer of cans NCI expanded its product offer to include plastic packaging about 5 years ago. NCI is now the only manufacturer in Australia who supplies both metal and plastic packaging solutions to its customers. Over the past few years NCI had been unable to capitalise on this unique position and in fact had found that it was working against them in some cases. Our Brand Strategy phase enabled us to help NCI turn this conundrum into a positive sales message for its customers.

The next step was to quickly disseminate this critical message to all parts of the organisation. A series of workshops were held across Australia from Executive level to the Sales team to the factory floor covering their 800 staff. We worked closely with the CEO and COO to develop the content for these workshops and to put together tailored presentations for each group.

An internal Brand Book was produced and delivered to all employees. In addition, the Sales team were presented with a new comprehensive sales kit detailing the company’s offer across both metal and plastic packaging and the associated benefits to its customers.