In this week’s Brandweek is an article about the internal marketing Pepsi undertook prior to launching its latest campaign.  The piece reported thatPepsi’s “Rally Day” efforts included things like 20-foot tall billboards in the parking lot greeting employees featuring images from the campaign — and an enormous refresh symbol flag unfurled from the headquarters’ roof.  Apparently one of the marketing managers at Pepsi coined the term “Invertising” to refer to the targeting of employees with a branding campaign before it goes public.

The article also recounted similar approaches by Coke, Kellogg, and others.  Comments from observers in the industry included, “Companies that are high performing and do well in terms of long-term profitability are more inclined to have programs that make sure employees are aware of the brand promise.”

Speaking to your employee base in a brand campaign is smart and important — but it’s only a piece of what’s required.  If companies only treat their employees as a target audience for a marketing campaign, the brand effort will still fall flat.

Instead of just exposing employees to the brand platform and getting them excited about it, companies need to ensure the brand is fully operationalized by all employees.  What’s needed is full brand engagement, alignment, and integration.  Here’s what I mean:

Brand Engagement — As with externally-targeted marketing, internal one-way communication is limited in its effectiveness.  It’s one thing to hear or see a message — it’s another to internalize, personalize, and process it.  Employees need to be engaged on three levels:

• heads — employees must be knowledgeable about what the brand stands for and how it is positioned, what the elements and objectives of the new campaign are, the rationale behind the strategy, etc.
• hearts — they must be inspired by the brand and motivated to change what they do and how they do it in order to operationalize the brand — while excitement and hype are important, today’s naturally-skeptical employees may need more than just a “feel good” effort to be motivated
• hands and feet — they should be equipped with and empowered by tools to use to interpret and reinforce the brand appropriately

Only when employees are full engaged with the brand will they align their behaviors and decision-making with it.

Brand Alignment — Most internal efforts are geared toward employees at lower levels on the org chart and/or sales/servicepeople on the “frontlines” with customers.  It’s equally if not more important to ensure those in leadership positions share the same understanding of and engagement with the brand.

You can’t assume the executive committee — or middle managers or regional heads — share one common vision and decision-making criteria.  Any internally-focused brand effort must facilitate alignment throughout the organization at all levels.  Posters and parties may work for some groups of employees — worksessions and personal meetings are probably needed for others.

Other stakeholders must also be engaged and aligned.  Brand stakeholders are people or groups that have an investment, share, or interest in your brand — e.g., business partners, agencies, investors/shareholders, etc.  These people a critical role in how your brand is experienced and delivered, so they should not be overlooked.

Brand Integration — This last point speaks to the fundamental role of a brand within a company.  Companies that leverage their brands to achieve phenomenal growth and market stature take their brands beyond marketing.  They use their brand an operational tool to drive what their company delivers to its customers and how it does it.

As such, their internally-targeted brand efforts are focused on integrating the brand into everything everyone does — using the brand to generate shared insights about new growth opportunities, make better planning decisions, and improve execution throughout their organization.  While such efforts might be kicked-off with a special day at headquarters or an awareness campaign, they don’t stop there.   True brand integration requires constant attention and could truly be considered a daily project.

So, I say kudos to companies like Pepsico which are investing in employee-targeted brand efforts — but I also encourage them to make what they’re doing about more than awareness and information.  The objective should be full brand engagement, alignment, and integration.

(One final note about “invertising” — Companies may try to use one campaign to reach internal and external audiences. While this approach sometimes works (think IBM’s e-business effort), most of the time it doesn’t. The same strategy, medium and message that motivate employees do not necessarily motivate customers — and vice versa.  Last year, Ad Age published an article of mine that explains how companies should consider different ways to engage different audiences.)

There’s been a lot of discussion about Pepsi’s new campaign – most of it negative — so I wanted to offer a different point of view.

Before I get to my POV, let me try to summarize why I think most people have a problem with the campaign.  Critics say the effort is commercializing the positive movement Obama has created, and its use of a graphic that looks remarkably similar to visuals from the Obama campaign and the words “Yes We Can” which are taken directly from Obama are crass rip-offs.  I think people find the campaign particularly offensive because it’s from a cola company, and to try to relate what little a soft drink can do to the perceived huge potential of Obama’s presidency is reaching too far.  (If I’ve failed to accurately capture the campaign criticism, please let me know — I really do want to understand it.)

Here’s my challenge to the criticism.

If I understand Pepsi’s objectives correctly, they are trying to facilitate people’s involvement in Obama’s movement to change (improve) the nation.  This doesn’t seem to be different from any other social responsibility effort we’ve seen from other companies — companies try to associate their brands with the positive, complementary attributes of an organization or cause by supporting it.  The run campaigns to increase its exposure and (hopefully) generate increased consumer participation.  It just so happens Pepsi is doing this with the President’s agenda — and while I don’t mean to suggest that a new administration is the same as a non-profit, I can see why brands would want to promote Obama’s values and goals.

It would be another thing if Pepsi were trying to subversively encroach on Obama’s campaign or make some sort of subliminal connection to the President’s message of change — instead they’re being upfront and clear about their intentions — which, I find, um, refreshing.

It would also be too much if Pepsi were claiming that the brand is doing what Obama is trying to do — but they’re clearly not.  The campaign simply promotes the sharing of ideas and positive spirit toward a common goal of “refreshing the nation.”

i also find the Pepsi effort more substantive than, say, Ikea’s decorate-the-oval-office campaign — that seems like the equivalent of putting a celebrity in an ad just to generate some buzz.

You can read another perspective on why “nothing wrong with spreading the joy of cola” by Bob Garfield, Ad Age‘s resident critic  — you can read his POV here.

P.S.  Just a reminder — my FREE webinar, “Get Your Brand Ducks in a Row: How To Achieve Brand Alignment with a Brand Toolbox” is this Thursday, January 29th 9:00-9:30am PT / 12:00-12:30noon ET — read more about this learning opportunity here — and please register at www.deniseleeyohn.com/webinar .

I recently posted about how I see 2009 as a great time for brand-building.  I declared, “Rather than fretting over limited marketing budgets and skyrocketing media costs, brand leaders should seize this opportunity to focus their efforts internally and work on getting their brand in the driver’s seat of their organization.”

I’ve decided to put my money where my mouth is and offer a FREE webinar to to jump start you on the road to a stronger brand.  Here’s the info:

“Get Your Brand Ducks in a Row: How To Achieve Brand Alignment with a Brand Toolbox”
Thursday, January 29th
9:00-9:30am PT / 12:00-12:30noon ET
register at www.deniseleeyohn.com/webinar

Effective brand execution is dependent upon brand alignment among all stakeholders.  Employees, agencies, channel partners, company leaders, etc. must share one common understanding of what your brand stands for and how to interpret and reinforce it in their daily actions and decision-making.  A brand toolbox is a rich, interactive comprehensive resource that facilitates brand alignment.  More information about the webinar can be found here.

The audio portion of this session will be recorded. If you can’t attend the session, register for it and you’ll receive the link to the MP3 file.

Please help spread the word about this learning opportunity.

Hope you can join us!

Before we quickly toss aside 2008 with the carelessness due a former lover, I thought it might be enlightening to look back on the predictions that were made at this time last year — you know, those lists of trends that were predicted to shape the marketing experience in 2008.  For my final post of the year, let’s look into whether any of them ended up being right.  From the multitude of predictions that were made last December, I’ve decided to focus on the top 10 “Trends to Watch in 2008” written by Bob Liodice, President and CEO of the ANA, and published in Ad Age magazine.

Let’s have a look, shall we?

1.  MARKETERS HIT A ROUGH PATCH
“With caution flags waving, marketers will keep expectations and spending plans modest.”

on target?  I’d say so!  According to TNS Media Intelligence, overall ad spending dropped 1.7%  for the first nine months of 2008, with a 2% drop in the third quarter alone, despite heavy Olympics and political advertising.  And those declines are likely to only increase when Q4 is factored into the full year recap.  In fact, instead of “a rough patch,” one could say we’ve been on extended bumpy ride.

2.  INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY RULE
“Marketers won’t run away from traditional media — but will leverage technology and new media to accentuate message delivery to consumers and customers.”

on target?  maybe — it’s true, consumers are using social networking sites more than ever, but advertising spending has not kept pace. Despite new social network ad formats launched in 2008, eMarketer has revised its projections for US social network ad spending. It now estimates advertisers will spend $1.2 billion on social networks this year, down from the previous projection of $1.4 billion made in May.

Kraft CEO Irene Rosenfeld is even quoted as saying, “As we continue to look for opportunities for a mass message, TV is one of the cheapest vehicles around.”  So even though marketers may want to be innovative, the almighty dollar is what rules.

3.  GET SERIOUS ABOUT ACCOUNTABILITY
“Recognizing the critical importance of accountability, companies will appoint a czar — the chief accountability officer — to lead a disciplined, internally consistent approach to marketing measurements, metrics and productivity.”

on target?  that would be a ‘no’ — as much as increased accountability may be needed, companies don’t seem to be doing much about it.  According to a recent study by the Conference Board, more than 1/3 of companies report making no efforts to measure marketing return on investment.  Among the remaining companies, which had implemented programs, none have yet achieved their goals in measuring ROI. Only 1/4 report making “good” progress.  Yikes!  While the actual appointment of a Chief Accountability Officer might be an ANA pipe dream, we should be making more progress toward increased marketing accountability.

4.  DIGITAL, DIGITAL, DIGITAL (AND PORTABLE TOO)
“As Steve Ballmer proclaimed at the 2007 ANA Annual Conference, all media ultimately will be created and delivered digitally…The challenge: Are marketers skilled enough to take advantage of this rapidly changing landscape?”

on target?  yes and no — yes, because between the 10,000+ iPhone apps and the credit the deployment of digital media has been given in Barack Obama’s presidential win (see next item below), it’s hard to argue the impact digital had on our lives in 2008; but no, because it doesn’t seem like most marketers have the skills necessary to take advantage of digital media’s full potential.  According to a survey by consultancy Citigate Dewe Rogerson, 40.4% of marketing professionals believe they lack the in-house skills to introduce digital marketing strategies (while CDR’s study was based on marketers UK and Ireland, I’m guessing the findings for the US would be similar).

5.  THE ‘BRAND SWARM’
“Marketers will move decidedly in the direction of DDB CEO Chuck Brymer’s “swarm theory” — the notion that people and their opinions coalesce to form critical forces that massively influence marketplace ideas and concepts.”

on target?  two words for you: Barack Obama

6.  GETTING COMPENSATION RIGHT (PLEASE)

“Compensation models will evolve in 2008. Agencies and clients will work together to create mutually fair value- and incentive-based approaches.”

on target?  not at all — in fact, there’s so little evidence of this having happened in 2008, I couldn’t even find enough material on this subject to make something up.  I did, however, find articles dating back to 1998 stating predictions of imminent changes in agency compensation models.  Perhaps instead of calling “getting compensation right” as a prediction, we should think of it as a New Year’s resolution — we all know what happens to those.

7.  NEUROLOGICAL MARKET RESEARCH
“Going beyond traditional focus groups and consumer surveys, market research will embrace scientific approaches that literally tap consumers’ brains to learn how they neurologically respond to commercial messages and make brand choices.”

on target?  not yet — BRANDWEEK magazine’s coverage of the new fMRI technology in their 08.25.08 issue does more justice to this topic than I can do here, but the Readers’ Digest version is:

-  “technology has finally caught up to the aspirations [to see inside the working mind of a consumer] and made it all possible-or at least possible to begin”

-  “all it needs are companies willing to support [it]”

8.  EMERGENCE OF THE ‘RENAISSANCE MARKETER’
“A new breed of marketing professional is emerging — individuals with a holistic view of the world and extraordinary observational powers. These “renaissance marketers” will be part humanist, part psychologist, part anthropologist and part technologist.”

on target?  no — although we saw some unlikely selections for Chief Marketing Officer appointments this year (recent case in point:  Jill Beraud, former CMO for Victoria’s Secret, named as PepsiCo’s CMO), I’m not seeing a dramatic shift in the experience base of CMOs.  And that’s too bad — C.K. Prahalad, University of Michigan professor and authority of management, explains it best.  With today’s need for innovation, he says, it’s the “unique person you want to look at, not necessarily whether he had this or that experience at P&G.”

9.  PRIVACY, PRIVACY, PRIVACY
“In 2008, marketers will become increasingly sensitive to privacy issues…This tug of war between consumer privacy and information access will require marketers to work hard to explain and justify the lifestyle benefits of highly individualized, personalized commercial communications.”

on target?   not really — Yahoo! was the biggest mover in this area, announcing just this month they will start making user data anonymous within 90 days, and will destroy all personally-identifiable data within six months, with some exceptions for fraud, security or legal obligations.  And earlier this year  Microsoft was pushing for regulation of the data that online companies collect for marketing purposes. But we really haven’t seen a wholesale push to more or new privacy practices.

ANA may have needed to include this in the years’ predictions to be politically-correct — but the truth is, there really hasn’t been lot of change in marketers’ approach to privacy nor do I expect will there be.  We may not want to admit it, but the benefits of behavioral targeting and personalized marketing are strong enough to outweigh any substantitive change — and we’ve only scratched the surface of what’s possible.

10.  THE POWER OF STRATEGIC ALIGNMENT
“Strategic alignment is one of the most important roles of the chief marketing officer, and In 2008 more CMOs will ensure organizations are strategically aligned.”

on target?  definitely not — according to a study by the ANA, 64% of Chief Marketing Officers and brand managers say their brands do not influence decisions made at their companies (I’ve previously posted on this sad fact).   And in research that I conducted along with one of my partners, Coogan Partners, senior marketers from a range of companies named the lack of alignment between innovation and brand strategy as one of the top impediments to implementing brand strategy.

So CMOs need to work more on alignment.  But there’s hope — I’m hoping for a silver lining in the pressure the tough economy is putting on marketing budgets — perhaps 2009 will be the year marketers actually focus their efforts internally and realize how much more impact they can have through internal brand alignment and integration.

So there you have it — out of the 10 trends predicted, my take is:

• 2 were on target
• 3 kinda were, maybe, if you wanted to be generous
• 5 definitely not

Hmmm…it looks like some crystal balls may need a tune-up.  Let’s hope the powers that be have a better grip on what’s in store for 2009.

And with that, I’m signing off for the year.  Thanks for your readership of brand as business bites this year – I’ve enjoyed feeding our brains together.  See you in January!

Just a heads up I’ll be speaking in the Sales and Marketing Management‘s Virtual Trade Show webcast this Thursday, 10.02.08 at 2:00PT/5:00ET, on “Aligning Your Remote Salesforce.”  My main point will be that integrating and aligning salespeople with the company’s brand is an effective solution to the struggle of motivating, training, and coaching remote salespeople.  I’ll explain why salespeople serve as a critical brand touchpoint and how important it is to engage salespeople with the brand – and I’ll introduce several tools that companies can use to achieve brand integration and alignment.  Approximately 1,000 people are expected to participate in the trade show — registration is free.