The primary reason for clients to quit a brand is not price (9%) or quality (14%) but rather the “attitude of indifference of an employee” (68%), according to a survey of 2,400 clients by IBM. This is why Internal Branding, “aligning employee commitment with the brand promise of the organisation”, was found to be the key challenge amongst 700 global CEO’s in a recent brand leadership survey.

Say Dr Nikolaus Eberl and Herman Schoonbee, the authors of “Internal Branding: The IziCwe Code”: “Twelve years of research at corporate organisations in South Africa with more than 200 employees has shown employee commitment to average between reluctant compliance – just doing enough to stay out of trouble – and apathy. This is why the cost of non-commitment is the highest hidden cost in any organisation – averaging between 15 and 25 percent of sales revenue, not the 3 to 7 percent many believe it to be!”

Continues Dr Nikolaus: “This is how your Brand Image is created: only partly by what YOU say (‘Making the Promise’), but more importantly by what THEY experience (‘Delivering the Promise’). No matter how much you spend on advertising and marketing, ultimately your brand image will depend on the level of commitment experienced from your employees in delivering the brand promise. This is why many leading US coprorations allocate more than 50% of their marketing budget to internal branding - the new dimension of brand leadership.”

Quotes Herman Schoonbee from ‘Internal Branding’: “Retaining clients over time requires not only that they have a positive experience with the brand, but also that they can identify with the brand character – being the people in the company and the degree to which they can be trusted to deliver the brand promise.”

Based on twelve years of research, ‘Internal Branding: The IziCwe Code’ (Foreword by Reuel Khoza, Academy Press 2005) is about internal branding strategies from Emperor Shaka, aimed at engaging the emotional drivers of employee commitment (coined EmotiVators™ by the authors) and building total commitment to delivering the brand promise.

‘The IziCwe Code’ was recently critically reviewed by President Thabo Mbeki in his Letter from the President on “The New South Africa: A Season of Hope”. Using “the analytical tools contained in The IziCwe Code”, the President issued the challenge to government leaders to “generate the kind of commitment that will ensure that …our government at all levels … can be trusted to honour the brand promise!”

Dr Nikolaus and co-author Herman Schoonbee recently presented The IziCwe Code at the Global Leaders Summit in Johannesburg, in conjunction with global thought leaders Tom Peters, Michael Porter, Rudy Giuliani and Carly Fiorina.

####