The value your company holds is the difference between success and sustainability. Each sale or service contract can be counted a success. However, sustainability is achieved when your brand can attain and maintain value amid setbacks. The brand you create and maintain through excellence builds equity. Let me give you an example. An asset of Achieving Excellence Consulting is the wholistic building of our clients to achieve their professional goals. A liability is the situations in life that can prevent that from happening. Our brand of truly caring for our clients, brings about equity that retains value even when those life situations cause assets of the goals to decrease. Brand equity equals brand assets minus brand liabilities.
In my current research for my dissertation, I am examining nonprofit brand equity and the value that is held within an organization among employees; the very ones that know the good, the bad and the unpublished. So, allow me for a moment to paint a picture for you. Imagine if you will an organization that cheats the system and serves reheated food instead of what they advertise as fresh. No one knows that fact except for the employees.
Although, these employees are the ones that are forward facing to the customers and delivering the evidence that speaks of the brand. Have you ever been to that restaurant that has the waitress that rolls her eyes when you order the soup of the day? Watch out! She is telling you not to order it. However, when she smiles at you and gives you excellent customer service, you can bet you will leave with not only a full belly. You will leave having had a great experience and a positive feeling toward the brand.
Research has shown that internal branding within an organization has created brand ambassadors. These employees are the greatest advertising for the organization because they have a vested interest. Cognitive dissonance is a theory that states a person will not hold two opposing thoughts. They want their thoughts and beliefs to be in harmony, so they will gravitate toward like-minded people and organizations. This is a huge component of brand value for nonprofits because employees and volunteers are often driven by their passions. This value or asset is not eliminated when negative situations happen. This provides brand equity for the organization and lends to their sustainability.
In 2021, look beyond the customers and professional partners. Take some time to look within your organization to the very people that are customer facing and ambassadors of your brand. Build your brand to them in your communication, in your training and in the professional development you offer. Make an investment in the ones that can build you sustainability and not just the ones that bring you success. Increase your brand equity as you are moving forward . . . Achieving Excellence!!
