The Brand University

3 principles of the Brand University

The first principle of the Brand University is that the company is genuinely dedicated to being client centric. Much lip service is paid to being client focused; however, many companies trip up under the sales pressure, overblown egos as well as a lack of means. To put the customer truly at the centre, a company needs to have the customer’s interests at heart. In order even to have access to those interests, the brand necessarily must gain the trust of that customer. As coined by Alex Mangossian, brands need to be less concerned with building their [internal] database and more concerned with building their fan base, through a relationship founded on trust. With that trust comes the opportunities to learn together, to collaborate and share invaluable data. Given the ability for consumers to circumvent or even to twist standard corporate communications, brands must learn to get involved with the customer in ways that are credible and, in short, more human. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) must be converted from a mechanical one-way conversation into social relationship building.

The second principle of the Brand University is that the strength of the brand resides in the human element.   Employees up and down the age scale are increasingly seeking—above just straight compensation—greater meaning from their place of employment. It is well known that employee satisfaction can come from learning, providing instruction for purposes increased effectiveness and a degree of motivation. However, greater fulfilment can come from working in an ongoing learning environment. Well beyond one-time, off-site trainings, a learning environment implies more a shared state of mind. And, the coincidence is that companies need also to convert themselves into learning organizations in order better to capture the history and knowledge that resides in its human bank. A Learning Organisation is one in which the internal team is committed to a constructive and systemic approach of sharing and learning in the pursuit of a positive economic result. Importantly, the entire organisation must be involved and, fundamentally, the ‘corporate’ strategy, if not culture, must involve and encourage experimentation, learning and the “right to err”. As said by Pedler et al,

“[t]he Learning Company is a vision of what might be possible. It is not brought about simply by training individuals; it can only happen as a result of learning at the whole organization level. A Learning Company is an organization that facilitates the learning of all its members and continuously transforms itself.”

The third principle, in line with the generally accepted definition of the Learning Organisation, is that the Brand University must become a project-wide undertaking, not limited to the sales force or the other branches directly in touch with the end customer. Not only does the CEO need to be the brand’s biggest and best spokesperson, all departments need to be aligned behind the same values and messages.

We believe that the Brand University concept, that seeks to propagate the brand’s values and systems throughout the brand and all the subsidiaries, starting with the sales branch, is the most comprehensive and organic process, adapted to the modern challenge of multinational brands. The undertaking of a true Brand University for a major brand is as yet unprecedented on an international stage. While there are many corporate universities in existence, they tend to focus on competence acquisition or sales training. The Brand University, as the basis of a vibrant learning organization, remains untested in the field in its fullest measure. And for companies with a portfolio of brands to manage, the further challenge is creating an all-encompassing company-wide sales university without compromising or effacing the differences resident in each of the brands.