The corporate brand and "they" vs. "we"

Bank marketing managers now have one more thing to pay attention to – language. Do your tellers see themselves as somehow separate or divided from the bank’s management? If so, this will cause cracks in what might otherwise be a seamless brand image.

Corporate branding is a discipline of the small and of the quiet. What I mean is that we as marketers have made an art form out of considering the seemingly insignificant and mundane. Why? Because these are the touch points that can be heightened and made more brand-relevant in order to really surprise and engage with audiences. (Just think of the last really cool guerilla marketing idea you experienced.) And so naturally, if you’re like me and you spend all your weekdays working at this, it’s often times hard to turn off the sensitivity button–as my last two grocery stores visits suggest.

Let’s start with my visit to Zupan’s and the question that was posed to the cashier from the woman standing in line next to me. Noticing the construction around what used to be the bakery, the woman asks, “So what are you guys doing there?” The cashier responds with an insightful, “I’m not sure what they’re doing, but I think they decided to move the deli over to the bakery.”

Hmmm. Interesting.

Strangely enough, the same sort of thing happened at Whole Foods, when I asked why this particular location decided to stop offering cooking classes. The cashier says something to the effect of, “I guess they thought people weren’t attending them very well.”

“They,” not “we”? Are you serious? Please believe paying attention to this lingual nuance matters. Unconsciously creating an “us versus them” mentality between management and front-line employees in the customers’ minds detracts from the perception that your company is one cohesive brand in which all employees are on the same page, acting and speaking as one voice. So do your best to watch your language in front of customers. That one cohesive message leads to one solid brand impression.