Branding starts at the top and lives at the bottom.

What does that mean?

It means that a CEO or senior management might develop and launch a new “brand promise” initiative (the main thing that the company stands for), but it’s the salespeople and customer service people, the employees on the the front line of the organization, who are the ones that ultimately will deliver on that promise.

One of the keys to ensuring a successful launch of a new brand initiative is to make sure that the people who are on front lines of your customer interaction are involved early on with the process. Their input will ensure that you are not making a promise to your customers that you can’t deliver consistently. And, it being part of the process will give your salespeople and customer service people a sense of ownership with the brand promise and will more likely deliver your company’s promise with “on-brand behavior.”