behavioral branding

Brands are more than just differentiating features of products and services. They also express specific corporate values and the corporate philosophies based on them. The credibility of a brand, or of a company, is strongly linked to its behavior.

Credibility depends on behaviour

The brand identity is also a result of the commitment of the employees. After all, it is they who convey the brand identity to the outside world in every interaction with customers. Those who act as brand ambassadors ensure that their company is more successful than others - a finding that is particularly interesting for the B2B sector.

This is because customer contacts there are more intensive and more complex than in the B2C sector (business to consumer). Nevertheless, companies in the B2B brand sector find it difficult to focus on employees in the sense of behavioral branding. A 2010 study by Interbrand confirmed this. There are two main reasons for this shortcoming: Firstly, the managers of the various company divisions are not involved enough in behavioral branding. Secondly, internal target groups are insufficiently segmented and consequently only inadequately reached. My interviews with those responsible for Behavioral Branding at such renowned companies as Hilti, Geberit and Publisuisse show that there is another way. They have already gained considerable experience in the introduction and maintenance of behavioral branding in the B2B sector.

Specifics in B2B

Marketing in B2B is based on special circumstances that differ significantly from those in B2C. For example, the procurement process usually takes place via several people, who are also referred to as buying centers. Their information behaviour is more rational than that of a private buyer. In addition, they buy for a company and not for themselves. Furthermore, they take a lot of time to make a decision, they often need individual and technically complex solutions, they do not have to satisfy their own needs but those of their organization and their customers, and they often use formalized tenders to reach the suppliers in question. Companies in the B2B sector must take these specifics into account when communicating a brand essence.

Things are different in business-to-business

The path to Behavioral Branding

In order to develop a concept for behavioral branding, a whole series of analyses and fulfilled prerequisites are needed. First of all, those responsible must make a fundamental decision as to whether they want to introduce and implement a behavioral branding concept at all. This decision should be made by the top management at corporate headquarters, since behavioral branding requires many resources and must be embedded in the overall corporate strategy.

In addition, it is the task of the company management to revise or redefine the brand identity if necessary or ideally. After these considerations, it is time to analyze the initial situation. The so-called gap analysis provides further information about the existing behavioral branding. It helps to measure the maturity of an organization and to take a closer look at the sequences of the behavioral branding process.

The focus is on the following sub-areas: Considering human communication (verbal and non-verbal), strengthening employees as ambassadors, defining brand promises, building brand understanding and commitment, and aligning a multi-brand strategy with employee behavior. At the same time, these sub-areas are to be understood as analysis steps in exactly this order. For each step, criteria can be defined and measures for optimization and control can be formulated.

For example, the area "Consider human communication" includes the following criteria: What is the behavior between the workforce and customers? What is the behavior of new employees towards customers? Measures to optimize and control these criteria are: Define individual contact points, determine customer satisfaction, make observations and define guidelines for employees.

It is also valuable to analyze the external view, which includes a survey of customers and partners: What are their needs? Where are there gaps in their knowledge? How satisfied are they with the support? It is also important to record the points of contact with customers and other external stakeholders: What are the contact points? How high is the level of involvement?

Workshops for managers and employees

Brand-consistent employee behavior represents a company-wide, collective objective. It is the responsibility of top management to define the brand's vision in order to demonstrate the brand's contribution to the company's success. Global technology company Dyson, for example, has a Behavior Wheel, a model that represents Dyson's values. But it's not enough to put this information on the intranet. It needs processes that allow management to communicate and exemplify values. Ideally, the workforce should be involved in defining the values, as this is the only way to make them credible and comprehensible. The company Geberit has developed an interactive workshop with an agency. This lasts one day and has the purpose of developing the learning content in the sense of "learning by doing". This includes talks and discussions in order to take into account and build on the existing knowledge and experience of the participants in the workshop. During these teaching units, the participants discuss topics such as: "History - where does Geberit come from?", "Brands and values: Why are brands so strong?" or "What do we want and how do we want to be perceived?" It is important that the employees are aware of their

Leadership must decide

recognize their contribution to the whole. This strengthens their motivation decisively.

The role of managers

In order for the values that have been developed and communicated to bear fruit, they must be lived by the employees in a committed manner. Otherwise, behavioral branding will not work. There are a number of ways to promote and nurture employee engagement. They involve corporate culture, daily-business characteristics, and managerial traits, the latter being particularly important. A manager's personality, for example, has a decisive influence on employee behavior. However, there is no standardized, universally valid requirement profile for the perfect manager. Studies have shown that supervisors can achieve the most through authenticity. An authentic leadership style requires commitment to development in oneself - throughout one's (professional) life. Taking responsibility for personal development is the key to success. Transformational leadership, i.e. the lived example of managers - externally and internally - has a contagious effect. What superiors do not exemplify themselves, they cannot expect from their subordinates. However, transformational leadership cannot be introduced overnight. As a longer-term project, however, it is very suitable for supporting the behavioral branding process. Specifically, each member of the workforce is assessed by function and level of education to determine the extent to which a transformational leadership style can already be applied. This requires supervisors to have a mature personality with the necessary empathy and knowledge to assess each individual.

Behavioral branding is a process

What do companies know that have been consciously considering and cultivating behavioral branding in the B2B sector for some time now? The author obtained interesting insights from practice in interviews with the behavioral branding managers of Hilti, Geberit and publisuisse. The following points emerged as central:

• The Group Executive Board, or top management, must endorse and initiate the Behavioral Branding process.
• Management should ensure that sufficient manpower is available for implementation, as well as infrastructure for training staff and partners.
• Behavioral branding costs money and should be seen as an investment that will pay off in the medium term.
• People must be a good fit for a company in terms of their characteristics.
• Leaders should live the corporate culture and ensure that everyone is aware of and on board with the process.

Behavioral branding is a costly process, but it will pay off in the medium and long term.