Menu

Episode #23 | Talkable is Cultural

.

The Talkable Brand video series continues…

Episode #23 | Talkable is Cultural

In this episode, you’ll learn people, more than products, programs, and services, will create a talkable brand.


BONUS | Talkable is Cultural | script

Products alone will not create a talkable brand. Programs alone will not create a talkable brand. Services alone will not create a talkable brand. It’s people who create talkable brands.

The people piece includes consumers and more importantly, company employees.

Competitors can replicate products, programs, and services, but they cannot replicate the people your company has delivering its products, programs, and services.

JC Penney is in the midst of a transformation to rekindle its legendary roots as an iconic American retailer. It’s new CEO, Ron Johnson, has outlined a transformation agenda, which includes: a new logo, new pricing strategy, new store design, new merchandise, and new advertising approach.

All this newness is to give customers reasons to fall in love with JC Penney.

Let’s hope Johnson’s transformation agenda also includes reasons for employees to fall in love with JC Penney (again).

It’s one thing to redesign the store, and quite another to redesign a company’s culture. For JC Penny to become a relevant and talkable brand again, Johnson will need to redesign more than the stores. He will also need to redesign the JC Penney company culture.

Too many businesses view company culture, as it relates to employee relations, as a job solely for human resources—they see employees as tools. But employees—happy, rewarded employees—can work wonders for a company’s word of mouth marketing efforts.

There is no better spokesperson for a company, product, and brand than someone who is happy with his job and respected by his employer and co-workers.

The best internal culture a company could hope for is one where the employees are so loyal they spread word of mouth about the company and its products with fierce passion. One where employees go way beyond being minions to being missionaries.

Turning minions into missionaries can only happen if the employees truly believe in the company.

The company with missionary employees is one where the workforce is there because it wants to be, not because it needs to be. These employees talk about the quality of the company itself, the values the company endorses, and the way in which their lives are enhanced because of the company.

Employee passion cannot be manufactured and it will not survive if it is artificial. It must be organic. The one advantage a business will always have over its competitors—the advantage any company can have if it hires and inspires the right people—is the passion of their employees.

A happy employee will, in turn, make customers happy.

When customers are happy, they, in turn, will tell their friends and friends of friends about businesses that made them so happy.

Company culture matters for word of mouth marketing to happen all day every day. It’s people, more than products, services and programs that create truly talkable brands.


BACKGROUND INFO:
The Talkable Brand video series will help you to strategically think about ways to make your brand, your business worthy of word of mouth. Every Tuesday on the Brand Autopsy blog a new episode will premiere giving you knowledge and a nudge. Knowledge being interesting information. The nudge being compelling motivation to make the information happen. The result, I hope, is helping you make brands more talkable.

EPISODE ARCHIVE:

#01 | Achievable
#02 | Believable
#03 | Bankable
#04 | Original
#05 | Practical
#06 | Paradoxical
#07 | Artful
#08 | Skillful
#09 | Informational
#10 | Comical
#11 | Loveable
#12 | Functional
#13 | Social
#14 | Emotional
#15 | Conversational
#16 | Relatable
#17 | Invisible
#18 | Visual
#19 | Conversable
#20 | Conditional
#21 | Measurable
#22 | Scalable