Marketers: the new stewards of culture

Jennifer Ortiz at Progress describes the huge role that marketers have to play in developing and delivering experiences that delight and inspire

 

As champions of a company brand, marketing leaders are on the front lines of every communication touchpoint. From customers, investors and channel partners, to current and prospective employees, each audience needs a clear picture of who your company is and what it stands for.

 

But 2020 took everything we knew and reimagined it permanently. In addition to driving brand recognition for the business and supporting sales efforts, in a world of remote work, elevating employee engagement became paramount. At the same time, the rallying cry for social change forced many businesses to take a stance on topics around politics, religion and social justice, something that was previously avoided in the business world. 

 

Evolving the brand

As a business evolves, so too does a brand. In 2020, Progress was growing and evolving rapidly. We needed to ensure the company brand was aligned with that evolution, but that it also remained true to what Progress has always stood for.

 

It was also critical that branding decisions not be imposed from above. After all, employee adoption would be critical to the effort’s success. If a business can’t get its own people to rally around the brand, no one externally will either.

 

From the start, our employees were deeply engaged in developing the brand promise, including the vision, mission, and values. Their input proved invaluable, and the team gained much from hearing lively employee debates about who the company was at its core. Naturally as a global company, brand discovery work included both multicultural and cross-functional perspectives. 

 

As marketers, our goal was to find the common thread uniting what on the surface appeared to be random ideas. But clear messaging patterns emerged, specifically around the company’s tight-knit, collaborative culture and focused on respecting employees as people. This “people first” message also extended to how employees engaged with customers, partners and our developer communities. The team had found our brand’s essence.

 

Because the work was inspired by employee perspectives, the refreshed brand described who Progress people already were, so Progressers immediately claimed it as their own.

 

People: The soul of a brand

Brand is more than just a logo or colour pallet or the words on a website. For a brand to gain traction, there must be action and those actions must be sustained over time. The best marketers know success requires partnering with other key leaders and business functions to ensure the brand is being reinforced across the entire company ecosystem of people, processes, goals and performance planning.

 

When developing values and engaging with employees, no one knows more about it than the people team (human resources). Marketing professionals should therefore partner with the people team during language development and afterwards to ensure key messages are infused into every facet of the employee experience - from onboarding to training and development and more. When done well, people quickly become your greatest advocates - both internally and externally.

 

Adapting to social change

The social landscape of 2020 had a major impact on branding. Job seekers have since become focused on joining an organisation they could be proud of, often taking less advantageous packages and titles to do so. That’s because people both want to feel a part of something larger and want their days to matter.

 

Companies are now expected to take stands on important social issues so their values can be evaluated. In many cases, those who choose to remain silent are taken to task publicly via social media.  

 

Inclusion and diversity were and are central to who the company is. Corporate marketers began driving vital conversations about inclusion, diversity and social justice in profound ways.

 

As chroniclers of public sentiment and social temperature, marketers quickly became indispensable allies for decision making around social policy. This informed  discussions, helping to determine which events to comment on, which causes to champion, while weighing how each decision would impact the business and its people.

 

Much was already happening, from charitable donations to local volunteerism, but 2020 propelled culture and values to the forefront like never before. Employees didn’t want to just hear platitudes from leaders, they wanted clear evidence of tangible action.

 

To set themselves apart, and to ensure that employees feel motivated and heard, companies must proactively engage in the social conversation of the day and marketers should be ever mindful that those communications land as intended.

 

This means engaging thoughtfully, always vetting language with impacted communities if possible. Employee resource groups and inclusion and diversity committees can be very helpful in this regard. The last thing companies want is for their statements intending good will to result in damaged reputations.

 

Orchestrating experiences

Marketers engage via experiences. Whether aligning on corporate strategy, driving employee engagement, being the voice of social change or all of the above, every touchpoint with every audience is about delivering the right experience.

 

Good ones leave users pleased and ready for more. Bad ones send employees and customers out the door. It is up to marketers to ensure messages are cohesive and that spokespeople communicate with one voice. That the market understands the company’s vision and that culture and values are properly communicated internally and externally. 

 

Yet, marketers must also keep heads on a swivel, surveying the competitive landscape and news cycles to respond quickly when needed. Marketers have a huge role to play in developing and delivering experiences that delight and inspire and yes, their role is ever changing. But those passionate about the profession wouldn’t have it any other way.

 

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Jennifer Ortiz is Executive Vice President of Corporate Marketing at Progress

 

Main image courtesy of iStockPhoto.com