Internal Branding

One of the first things Kevin did when he decided to start Bridgeview was design the company's logo. After he had perfected it, he printed it out on stickers and then put the stickers on everything. Seriously, we have pens with Bridgeview stickers on it. Our printer has a Bridgeview sticker on it, our wire cutting machine has a sticker on it, our inspection log has a sticker on it...shoot, he almost put a sticker on the cat! Is Kevin just a sticker crazy nut? No! Well...maybe...but the point is that Kevin put our logo on everything for one specific purpose. To constantly remind us of who we are! 

Internal branding is such an important part of creating a company culture.  The motivational speaker Simon Sinek says, "Customers will never love a company until the employees love it first." This makes complete sense. Have you ever been to a grocery store and the cashier was slowly dragging items over the bar code scanner as if the items weighed 10 pounds each? Sometimes you can just tell when someone doesn't want to be at work and that bored, noncommittal attitude doesn't really help excite people about the store they're shopping at or the product they're buying. Internal branding helps to encourage a sense of belonging to a team and when a person is on a team, they feel like what they do matters.

Can something as simple as sticker create a feeling of love for the company you work for? Sure! When Kevin puts his stickers around the workroom he's saying proudly, "I bought this. My hard work allowed me to purchase this necessary piece of equipment and I'm proud of that." When I see the stickers I feel a sense of pride for the hard work our family is doing to build our company.  When my kids see the stickers they know that this company belongs to us and they can feel happy to be a part of it.

Does this mean you should put stickers on on everything in your work space? No, but what can you do to encourage internal branding? Maybe all of your employees wear hats with your logo on it. Maybe you put a cool decal on your work van. Maybe the only pens allowed at your company are pens with your name on it. Maybe you just put the sticker on the darn cat... Whatever you do, remember that you're creating a sense on belonging, a sense of pride, and you're inviting others to be on your team. Go team!