Building your internal brand

The Brand Vision

The first step in implementing an internal brand development program is to start with a brand vision. The brand vision can be defined as the long–term strategic position of the brand in the market and in the minds of customers.

A good brand vision has three characteristics:

• inspirational – A good brand vision will motivate and inspire employees. Individual values will be aligned to the organization's values. Brand visions need to be inspirational so that the brand has room to grow and improve in the future.
• definitive – A definitive, clear, and focused long-term vision can connect with customers. It will help create an emotional affiliation to the brand, increasing brand loyalty and longevity.
• simple and easy to remember – Typically, a brand vision statement should be simple and be easy to remember. Consumers and employees should recognize it easily, remember it, and be able to quote it readily.

Developing a clear brand vision will help direct the organization effort and encourage senior management to reach consensus on long-term brand growth objectives. This avoids an over-reliance on a reactive, short-term approach. A brand vision will also guide research and development.

A good brand vision ultimately engages all stakeholders with the company's vision for the brand. Stakeholders include management, employees, and consumers. A good brand vision helps develop an emotional or rational attachment with the product or service. It helps the organization connect to its consumer via "touchpoints" such as the retail environments, advertising, word of mouth, and social media.

Creating a Brand Vision

You need to follow a number of guidelines when creating a good, sustainable brand vision. 

• involve top management – It's important for the brand to maintain synergy with the corporate strategy. This is the reason why the top management team must play a key role in the development of the vision. When the brand's vision is aligned with corporate vision, it helps ensure a sustained investment and support for the brand's continued growth.
• focus on customer needs – Brand visions should be created with the customer as the focal point. Focusing on customer needs will help organizations create visions that are practical and connect with the customer. Customers will also be able to relate to the brand vision since the vision is created with them in mind.
• involve employees – If employees are expected to "live the brand vision" in their interactions with each other, and with the customers, they must believe in the vision. Therefore, involving employees in the creation of the vision is much more likely to empower and inspire them.

The first step in creating a brand vision is to work with top management in order to answer a number of questions: 

• What's the position of the brand?
• Which stakeholder needs does it satisfy?
• What can be inspiring for the customers and the employees?
• What can support growth?
• What's clear and simple to understand for the customers and the employees?

Utilizing the Brand Vision

The brand vision gives the direction and inspires both employees and customers. It involves the brand vision to match the brand promise and the internal promise.

The brand promise is the benefit to the customer. The internal promise is the translation of the company's organization values toward its employees. 

The aim of internal brand development programs is to make employees progress from a position of awareness of the brand vision to a position where they accept and support the values. They are then in a good position to deliver the brand promise.

The brand vision is the long–term strategic position of the brand in the minds of the customers, leading to longevity in the marketplace. A good brand vision is simple and easy to remember, definitive, and inspirational to both employees and customers.

There are appropriate guidelines to follow when creating a good brand vision. It's necessary to involve both top management and engage employees to align the vision to the corporate strategy. Together they can focus on the needs of the customer.

An effective brand vision matches the brand promise with the internal promise.
Author - Vicky Sarin

Using Lean Control Tools and Maintaining Controls in Six Sigma - Visual Controls

A visual workplace is a workplace in which standardized visual communication is used in every part of the facility. Visual communication provides clear and self-explanatory clues to workers about operations, job performance, goal accomplishment, and expectations. Visual workplace management uses signs, cards, labels, color-coded markings, and other tactics to ensure workers have the right information at the right time.

In a visual workplace, employees have access to the information they need, where and when they need it. A visual workplace is made up of two main areas: visual displays and visual controls.

Visual displays impart information and data to employees in the area. Such displays make working areas user friendly by answering questions; identifying equipment, materials, and locations; describing actions and procedures; and providing safety warnings. 

Visual controls actually control or guide actions. Visual controls give management and workers a visible manifestation of what's happening at any moment, allowing for immediate feedback about the workplace's condition. 

Sharing information through visual tools helps keep operations running smoothly and safely, since the tools provide data such as process metrics, work instructions, and general workplace information. Visual factories enable anyone in the environment to accurately and efficiently assess at a glance the condition and performance of the process in a workplace.

The benefits of visual controls are that they increase employee involvement and motivation, keeps communication open, improve quality and productivity, and allow for a faster decision-making process.

Elements of a visual workplace

One visual control tool used to make problems visible is jidoka. Jidoka is defined as a device that stops a machine when a defective product is produced. It's a form of autonomation, which is an automation that has human elements. A jidoka system has machinery that automatically inspects each produced item. If a defect is detected, production is stopped and a human is notified. The jidoka system empowers workers as thinkers and gives them the right to stop the production line if necessary.

Another goal of visual controls is to help workers and management stay in direct contact with the workplace. A visual workplace has many ways to do this. Visual information systems provide employees with simple information about the performance of procedures and processes. Signs, labels, painted floor sections indicating specific areas or activities, tool boards, indicator lights, and many more strategies also visually supply information about the workplace.

Audio signals in the factory are another way to help workers maintain contact with what is going on in the workplace. Audio signals can indicate malfunctioning equipment, and sound warnings can alert people prior to the start of a machine operation or transport vehicles backing up, among other things.

Another way to help employees stay in contact with the workplace is through the use of visual production controls. These generally include the posting of daily production data, maintenance items, or quality problems for everyone to see and understand.

The third goal of visual controls is to clarify targets for improvement. Measurements track the progress toward planned goals. But if workers don't have access to the information, they can't adjust their behaviors to help reach those goals. A visual workplace excels at providing information that will help workers see where they stand in meeting their targets.

Visual performance measurement summarizes the information that keeps operators in touch with their targets. Status boards, indicators, quality control charts, and check sheets can provide the strategy and the means of conveying this type of information.

In a visual workplace, the whole workplace has visual elements such as signs, labels, and color-coded markings. The goal is for everyone to be able to know what's going on, understand the process, and see what might be out of place. Visual workplace tools help to maintain control over processes. Implementing visual workplace management makes problems visible, helps workers and management stay in direct contact with the workplace, and clarifies targets for improvement.

Manual versus IT-provided control

The goal of visual control in the Control phase of Six Sigma DMAIC is to provide teams with the control tools and techniques that are simple yet effective in maintaining the improved processes and holding the gains that the Six Sigma project delivered in the earlier stages of DMAIC. 

By establishing a Lean management system, visual controls can help enforce discipline among team members necessary in maintaining the quality and level of improved processes consistently and as a way of life. This Lean management system can be maintained by using accountability. Processes that are charted should be actioned and misses followed up with the person responsible for them. Charts should be studied on a daily basis and any hiccups that stall a project should be treated with importance. Examples of simple visual controls include hour-by-hour production tracking charts, late load logs, daily accountability boards, as well as visual control boards located in various areas of operation.

Simple visual control tools versus IT tools

While sophisticated information technology (IT) tools have their benefits – such as computational accuracy and the ability to have information available simultaneously in numerous places – simple visual control tools are favored by the Lean management system since they are seen as more beneficial. For instance, by using simple visual controls, current information can be displayed for everyone to see as it's updated on the floor. However, information updated via IT tools will only display the data last entered or when the last reporting was done and only to the people sitting in front of the screen. 

The information derived using simple visual controls is more accurate, as it's usually displayed close to the area it relates to and not lost in interpretation. However, information displayed using IT tools may not always be as accurate, because the data isn't located close to the actual area it relates to, and is dependent on human judgement and precision of data entry. 

Information displayed via simple visual controls prompt inquiry. Any questions can be asked in real time and responded to immediately at the location of the control. If the answers result in the form being modified, this too can be done immediately. In the case of information displayed via IT tools, typically the only questions that can be addressed are those already designed into the report, and any resulting changes would need to be updated by IT, which is time consuming.

Simple visual controls are less intimidating than IT tools, especially if an individual is not well-versed in technology. Additionally, simple controls allow individuals to take ownership by manually adding or updating information in their area, while IT tools often take information away from the area. 

When information is added or updated using simple visual controls, very little overhead is required because the data is updated by individuals already located in the area using inexpensive markers, highlighters, or pens. In contrast, updating information using IT tools is generally more expensive, as it requires specialized departments, software, and experts for managing and troubleshooting.

As part of visual controls, the whole workplace has visual elements such as signs, labels, and color-coded markings to ensure that the process stays on track and delivers intended results. The goal is for everyone to be able to know what's going on, understand the process, see what might be out of place, and take corrective measures, if required.

Visual control tools help to maintain control over processes. Implementing visual controls makes problems visible, helps workers and management stay in direct contact with the workplace, and clarifies targets for improvement.