Best Buy Employees Deliver a Strong Brand. So Can You.
Best Buy Employees Deliver a Strong Brand. So Can You.
They feature real, live “blue shirts”—employees of the consumer electronics retailer—talking about their personal experiences with customers. The employees volunteered their stories, which were subsequently caught on film by director Errol Morris for ad agency BBDO.
One spot showed an employee helping a blind man learn how to use his home-theater system. Another recreated how a store employee "saved a marriage" by mediating the buying decision with newlyweds looking for one computer, her arguing for a Mac and him a PC.
No sales pitches, no prices, not even any exclamation points! This is a strong example of a company that understands what a brand is and isn’t.
Is: The relationships built between employees and customers.
Isn’t: The latest iThing, a sale, cool logo or fancy packaging.
As companies struggle to find ways to build relationships with customers in order to grow—or simply maintain—their business in this wobbly economy, Best Buy’s Chief Marketing Officer Barry Judge realized the inspiration for his branding strategy was literally surrounding him, in the form of employees.
In the commercials, “we try to demonstrate how it’s our people (not the stuff) that make the difference,” Judge said.
The company is on to something.
The Gallup Organization has found that 80 percent of the market value of the average S&P 500 company is made up of intangible assets like brand, customer base, innovation and talent of its employees.
This is what separates one brand from its competitors, regardless of industry. No two businesses have the exact same blend of individual styles, generations and cultures spread amongst their employee population. This unique mix becomes a differentiation that can’t be duplicated, the DNA of a given brand. That differentiation can be used to strengthen the connection to customers.
Companies with “engaged workgroups”—employees who understand and believe in the brand they work for—have several advantages over those with less-aligned employees. Gallup’s research shows the “engaged” organizations grow two-and-a-half times faster, are 12 percent more profitable and 18 percent more productive (revenue per employee).
Traditional consumer marketing methods—special promotions, points-based loyalty programs—have grown old and consumers are skeptical of them. Conversely, by growing a brand through a stronger bond between employee and customer, indications are the overall business grows as well. Consumers turn toward value and brands they can trust in tough economic times, making relationships critical to every business in every situation today.
Additionally, from a cost-effectiveness standpoint, this kind of marketing strategy leverages investments a company has already made—its employees.
In its commercials, Best Buy declares: “Here are our employees, and we’re proud of them. We don’t need models or actors to help us connect with you, our customers. That’s not genuine. These are real people who can really help you. We care about them and we care about you.”
The company is personifying its brand, in the form of people who need people to succeed, who want to build relationships.
The best brands do three things well:
- Help employees understand and become aligned to their brand;
- Teach employees how to communicate the brand message effectively; and
- Empower employees to represent their brand in the marketplaces they serve.
Strong brands show us that employees have the ability to impact customers and lead them toward buying more, buying more often and buying differently. In fact, many more employees in an organization are capable of this than was traditionally assumed; it’s not just for the sales team anymore—especially in these challenging economic times.
It’s about more than customer service, which is necessary but passive and reactive. It’s about proactively earning the right to develop more insight into and deeper relationships with customers. This level of engagement is simply not possible through most marketer-to-customer methods, but comes alive when the message is delivered through employees at every possible customer encounter.
Best Buy gets that consumers may be psychologically moving back to simpler times, when the local grocer or pharmacist called them by name when they walked through the front door. They wouldn’t shop anywhere else, even if the price were a little lower. If you think younger generations can’t relate to this type of relationship-based selling, consider Facebook, where people work doggedly to build their personal brands, one relationship at a time.
Best Buy Employees Deliver a Strong Brand So Can You - To learn more about this author, visit Dan Day's Website.
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Have you seen Best Buy’s recent television commercials?
They feature real, live “blue shirts”—employees of the consumer electronics retailer—talking about their personal experiences with customers. The employees volunteered their stories, which were subsequently caught on film by director Errol Morris for ad agency BBDO.
One spot showed an employee helping a blind man learn how to use his home-theater system. Another recreated how a store employee "saved a marriage" by mediating the buying decision with newlyweds looking for one computer, her arguing for a Mac and him a PC.
No sales pitches, no prices, not even any exclamation points! This is a strong example of a company that understands what a brand is and isn’t.
Is: The relationships built between employees and customers.
Isn’t: The latest iThing, a sale, cool logo or fancy packaging.
As companies struggle to find ways to build relationships with customers in order to grow—or simply maintain—their business in this wobbly economy, Best Buy’s Chief Marketing Officer Barry Judge realized the inspiration for his branding strategy was literally surrounding him, in the form of employees.
In the commercials, “we try to demonstrate how it’s our people (not the stuff) that make the difference,” Judge said.
The company is on to something.
The Gallup Organization has found that 80 percent of the market value of the average S&P 500 company is made up of intangible assets like brand, customer base, innovation and talent of its employees.
This is what separates one brand from its competitors, regardless of industry. No two businesses have the exact same blend of individual styles, generations and cultures spread amongst their employee population. This unique mix becomes a differentiation that can’t be duplicated, the DNA of a given brand. That differentiation can be used to strengthen the connection to customers.
Companies with “engaged workgroups”—employees who understand and believe in the brand they work for—have several advantages over those with less-aligned employees. Gallup’s research shows the “engaged” organizations grow two-and-a-half times faster, are 12 percent more profitable and 18 percent more productive (revenue per employee).
Traditional consumer marketing methods—special promotions, points-based loyalty programs—have grown old and consumers are skeptical of them. Conversely, by growing a brand through a stronger bond between employee and customer, indications are the overall business grows as well. Consumers turn toward value and brands they can trust in tough economic times, making relationships critical to every business in every situation today.
Additionally, from a cost-effectiveness standpoint, this kind of marketing strategy leverages investments a company has already made—its employees.
In its commercials, Best Buy declares: “Here are our employees, and we’re proud of them. We don’t need models or actors to help us connect with you, our customers. That’s not genuine. These are real people who can really help you. We care about them and we care about you.”
The company is personifying its brand, in the form of people who need people to succeed, who want to build relationships.
The best brands do three things well:
- Help employees understand and become aligned to their brand;
- Teach employees how to communicate the brand message effectively; and
- Empower employees to represent their brand in the marketplaces they serve.
Strong brands show us that employees have the ability to impact customers and lead them toward buying more, buying more often and buying differently. In fact, many more employees in an organization are capable of this than was traditionally assumed; it’s not just for the sales team anymore—especially in these challenging economic times.
It’s about more than customer service, which is necessary but passive and reactive. It’s about proactively earning the right to develop more insight into and deeper relationships with customers. This level of engagement is simply not possible through most marketer-to-customer methods, but comes alive when the message is delivered through employees at every possible customer encounter.
Best Buy gets that consumers may be psychologically moving back to simpler times, when the local grocer or pharmacist called them by name when they walked through the front door. They wouldn’t shop anywhere else, even if the price were a little lower. If you think younger generations can’t relate to this type of relationship-based selling, consider Facebook, where people work doggedly to build their personal brands, one relationship at a time.
Best Buy Employees Deliver a Strong Brand So Can You - To learn more about this author, visit Dan Day's Website.
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Cheryl MatthynssensCheryl is a life skills coach, licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and a 20 year entrepreneur. Cheryl's dedication to achieving a life of balance led to her expanding her teaching from the simple managing of life's daily challenges to adding financial well being as well. A direct marketer with DrinkACT, she is gaining ground in the online community with her concepts of making sure business owners, entreprenuers and employees have well rounded life styles. She opened up a small affiliate site - The Balance Guide- to help others find resources for mental and emotional well being. Visit Cheryl's blog to see more of the diversity beyond business she has began offering online at www.thebalanceguide.blogspot.com - Visit Cheryl Matthynssens's Website |
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Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
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