Inside out: How employees build value

Abstract

Typical approaches to brand building tend to focus on marketing communications. Yet it is employees, through their understanding of a company's ideology, who truly build an image of the organisation in the minds of customers and other stakeholders. This paper uses research undertaken for the book 'Living the Brand' among such organisations as Nike, H&M, Baxter International, Patagonia, Adobe and Unicef. It argues that the focus should be more on bringing the ideology to life internally as a means of enhancing brand value. The method of evaluating performance is outlined in brief here, but will be dealt with in more detail in a subsequent paper.