Brands these days are not just about packaging but about people. And no more so than within retail. These were the wise words from Rita Clifton, Chair of Interbrand at a breakfast seminar on Wednesday 30th September, hosted by Hays. Branding from the Inside out brought together retail, marketing and HR professionals to hear branding and retail experts discuss the people side of brand and how brand relates to HR practices.
Rita asserted how vital it is that Brand strategy goes hand in hand with business strategy to lead both HR and marketing strategy. Brands that are clear, consistent in their approach, and supported by leadership are the most successful, a practice supported by some of the leading retails including Amazon, Zara and Apple.
Siobhan Brown, Head of Sales at Hotel Chocolat qualified this by explaining how the three core values of Originality, Authenticity and Ethics are exhibited not only through their product with a high level of innovation, creativity, quality products, and their own cocoa plantation, but also through their people processes. Through a company wide People Development Group, recruitment and training has been reviewed in line with the core values, including the inclusion of values as part of the appraisal process.
Samantha Robson, former Head of HR at De Beers took a similar approach in discussing the creation of a new brand, Forevermark, which is part of De Beers. HR practices including the recruitment of new staff, integration of existing employees, and the attraction techniques, all took into consideration the essence of the new Forevermark brand values of inspiration, integrity and selectivity.
In addition to the retail speakers, Bonnie Stevens, Director of Talent Management and Attraction Marketing at Santander demonstrated the similar issues retail banks and retailers must face when it comes to employee attraction and engagement with brand. At a time when financial services institutions are suffering from trust issues directly related to their employees, the Santander brand is growing in the UK, strengthened by this summer’s Formula 1 sponsorship, featuring Lewis Hamilton. Already an aspirational brand in Spanish speaking countries, Bonnie explained the challenges for the global brand in the UK, of combining three individual and recognized brands- Abbey, Alliance & Leicester, and Bradford & Bingley. Santander’s phased approach to change includes advertising, uniforms, websites but importantly an employee engagement programme with the corporate statement ‘Santander is you’, designed to unite employees in a consistent approach.
Clare Kemsley, Managing Director of Hays Retail chaired the event and concluded that for an organisation to be truly successful , HR must engage with the brand value and ensure they direct each aspect or a company’s practices. With 68% of customer defections occurring because of staff indifference, brand is certainly not something retailers can afford to ignore.