People BrandingEmployees as brand amabassadors

Vortrag im Rahmen des Best Brands CollegeVortrag im Rahmen des Best Brands CollegeLMU München, Februar 2007

Dr. Nina SpechtServiceLust GmbHServiceLust GmbH

servicelust.cominfo@servicelust.com

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1993 1996 1998 2000 2003

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Stan, hairstylist and a bit crazy

Nina, tourist and a bit uptight

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¦ What is your profession?

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¦ What was the hair style you liked best in your life?

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¦ … do you trust me?

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Agenda

Behavioral BrandingBehavioral Branding

People BrandingCustomersCustomers

Brand Experience

Interaction Experience

ManagementAppearance Branding

Management

Innovative Research Methods

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... employee-driven

High-touch incidents

... interactive

...episodical memory

... personal

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Product/Service

Interaction Experience

BrandRelationship

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For the customer the employee is the service, the brand, and the company.

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It‘s one thing to promise a brand experienceand quite another thing to prove it.

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Expected Service

C

Perceived Service

Customer Gap

Customer

Interaction ExperienceProof Communications to

Company

p

G 3

Gap 4

Promise

-driven service designs and

Gap 3

standards

C ti

Gap 2Gap 1

Company perceptions of consumer expectations

a.f. Zeithaml/Parasuraman/Berry 199915

Brand ExperienceInteraction Experience

Behavioral Appearance Branding Branding

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Behavioral Branding

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B h i l B di i d fi dBehavioral Branding is defined as any type of verbal or non verbal behavior that directly or indirectly determines brand experience and brand equitybrand experience and brand equity. Tomczak, Herrmann, Brexendorf and Kernstock 2005

i f ll t l t k h ld i llexperience of all external stakeholders, especially customers, by showing brand adequate employee behavior. I d i th iti b d i d thIn so doing the positive brand experience and the explicitly and implicitly communicated brand promise strengthen the brand image.

// /http://www.markenlexikon.com/glossar_b.html

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What managers think…

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Empirical FindingsQuestioning: n=167 Marketing Managers of Swiss and German CompaniesQuestioning: n=167 Marketing Managers of Swiss and German Companies Industries: Consumer Goods (20.7%), Services (40.8%), Industrial Goods (20.7%), Other Industries (17.8%)

Drivers of Brand Performance 100 %

31.5 %

63.5 %

FP 5 %

Drivers of Behavioral Branding Quality 100 %

Informal Control

Functional Performance 38.8%

33.6 %Informal Control

17.8 %Employee Empowerment

Mass M di

Henkel/Tomczak/Wentzel 20006Formal Control 20

What customers experience…

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F d t l E f Att ib tiTendency of individuals when

i i d j d i h b h i f hperceiving and judging the behavior of others to ignore external causes (e.g. environment, IT) and to attribute behavior to internal causes,

a.f. Jones/Davis 1965; Miller et al. 1981; Miller et al. 1990

and to attribute behavior to internal causes, that is perceived effort and abilities of a person.

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Attributional Process of the Customer

Specht 2006; Weiner 1985, 1986

Companies’ successCompanies success

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Innovative Research Methods

Collage Techniques

Written/photo/video

Experiments

Story Telling

Bran

d

Critical Incident

Technique

Written/photo/video

ExperimentsMystery Shopping

Serv

ices

Customer Odyssey

Cust

omer

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Empirical Findings

Video experiment: n=400 students p

Drivers for Customer Satisfaction with the Interaction ExperienceR²=0,669

ß-value

0,458

0,509

Employee Ability

Employee Effort

Outcome 0,278

• technical knowledge/competence biliti

• effort itself • endeavor

t i t b h i

Critical Incident survey: n=130 service customers, free choice of service type and positive or negative experience

Specht 2006 25

Appearance Branding

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5th Avenue, New York

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Represents the brandCreates a fun and engaging environment by upholding Abercrombie vision and setting the example of

enthusiasm, integrity, commitment, and passion for the Abercrombie brand and culture.

Adheres to and upholds staff to Abercrombie

id li i l d l f d tguidelines in personal appearance, and rules of conduct.http://www.abercrombie.com/anf/hr/jobs/careers.html

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Bad News #1

“There is nothing we can do against our addiction to well formed subjects and objectsThere is nothing we can do against our addiction to well-formed subjects and objects. That has been proven by brain research.

WHAT HAPPENS IF AN ATTRACTIVE PERSON LOOKS AT US?

In an ancient part of our brain – the emotional center – systems power up and fire off messengers that make us feel good. On the other hand we get in a bad mood if an unattractive person looks at us If she averts her eyes the bad mood disappearsunattractive person looks at us. If she averts her eyes the bad mood disappears.

This might be the reason why it is easy for attractive people to sell a product or close a deal. But even a handsome electrical engineer can be valuable for a company. If he can’t convince by his skills at least he raises the work climate.”

FTD, 11.09.2003

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Bad News #2

WHAT IS BEAUTIFUL IS GOOD: We attribute all kinds of good characteristics to attractive people.

ThThe consequence:Customers attribute higher effort and higher abilities to attractive employees and this leads to higher satisfaction/loyalty.

Perceived Appearance Perceived Behavior Psychological Consequences

Effort

pp

Attractiveness e.g. Satisfaction with the

y g q

+

+

+

+Abilities

Attractiveness Interaction Experience

Dion/Berscheid/Walster 1972Fichtel 2006

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Good News

The impact of perceived attractiveness on customer satisfaction depends on the objective quality of employee behavior: The power of attractiveness is maximized in case of high quality employee behavior.

#1

p g q y p yIn case of low quality employee behavior, attractiveness is not relevant.Video experiment: n=200 students

Attractiveness is intra-personally variable – not only ‚god given‘ beauty counts.#2Photo/Video experiment: n=600/200 students

Perception of attractiveness is subjective and context dependent –if you are a grocer, you do not need highly attractive models as employees.

#3

Photo/Video experiment: n=600/200 students

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From LOW TOUCH to HIGH TOUCH Branding People Branding as a neglected Field of Brand Managementp g g g

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Status Quo in Management: gWhat about People Branding in your Company?

Do you believe that your employees represent your brand in the points f i t ti ?of interaction?

2. Do you think that your customers recognize brand specific behavior y y g pand appearance at all? And if so - what would be brand specific behavior and appearance for your brand?

3. How much attention, time and money do you invest so far in analyzing, optimizing and managing “high touch” people branding?y g, p g g g g p p g

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