Seth Godin: The front line is the brand
In Seth Godin’s latest book, Linchpin, he describes Krulak’s Law:
The closer you get to the front, the more power you have over the brand.
Krulak refers to General Charles Krulak, a general who theorized that with the new era of cell phone cameras and online social networks, the field soldiers would have more impact on how the military is perceived than anyone. This is an important insight in a war where part of the mission is winning over hearts and minds. One soldier who act biligerantly towards a local can permenantly damage a brand.
The same is true with your business. Someone who woke up on the wrong side of the bed can have far reaching impacts in your brand. That could be a You Tube video highlighting your poor cleanliness. Someone could upload a photo to Facebook of one of your servers yelling at another customer. Someone could tweet about how one of your customer service representatives giggled when they described their problem. We h
But this problem is also an opportunity. With great front line people servicing customers, you brand can be enjoyed by customers and can grow and spread. Someone can share on Facebook a great experience with a phone centre agent that tirelessly worked to solve their problem. Someone can send a picture of the beautiful meal they were just served. Someone can write a 5 star review on Yelp based on the friendly staff of your bakery.
How to get there is to hire the right people and get them excited about your brand and about doing their very best they can for their customers. We are going to be doing a set of posts on Internal Branding, but if you are looking for guidance on this Zappos is the model.
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By Colin Finkle. Colin Finkle is an award winning industrial designer who works with large multinational brands everyday designing retail displays for FX Displays in Toronto, Canada. He is the principle designer at Firebrand Creative. He also writes for AMD’s FireUser.com blog.
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