09 August 2007

Don't Neglect Your Brand Ambassadors

In too many companies, the people who are supposed to "live the brand" are unrecognized, uninformed, or under-used

by William J. McEwen

Author of Married to the Brand (Gallup Press, 2005) and coauthor of the Harvard Business Review article "Inside the Mind of the Chinese Consumer"

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Gallup has found that employees often feel disconnected from the brands they're asked to represent. They also have little knowledge of -- or enthusiasm for -- what it takes to transform customer transactions into enduring relationships.

William J. McEwen, Ph.D., is Global Practice Leader for Gallup's Brand Management practice. He is the author of Married to the Brand (Gallup Press, 2005) and coauthor of the Harvard Business Review article "Inside the Mind of the Chinese Consumer."

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Reader Comments

SRodriguez Posted On 9/14/2007 9:25:05 AM

I feel like this article is long on the obvious and short on solutions. It's already well understood that the lowest-echelon employees have the most customer contact and the least sense of mission. That is not going to change unless the rewards do. Training and rah-rah initiatives are not going to ignite a fire in the belly of a minimum wage employee, who rightly sees through the malarky. Give workers incentives that they see the value in - gift cards, free food, etc. Someone making 80K a year is naturally going to be more invested in their company's brand than someone being paid as little as $6 an hour, and no amount of exhortation is going to change that. An employee who feels disposable and easily replaced will view their job in the same way.

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