Brand Equity Management as a Change Management Strategy
When you consider the essential nature of change on the improved efficiency of your operations and productivity of your people, are the brand equity building and protection aspects of the change process part of your considerations? They should. Failed projects affect companies’ strength and stability which then do not meet strategic business requirements and lose the opportunity to develop capabilities to innovate, collaborate and grow. If a change program which didn’t fully deliver caused your business not to be able to comply with regulatory requirements, not only would you incur regulatory and financial risk, dependent on your business, you would undoubtedly face reputational risks.
Brand Reputation, Employee Experience and Customer Experience
Despite this, many projects focus myopically on the cost, time and quality trifecta on very narrow terms. Research shows that many change programs actually damage business’ operations, employee relations and thereby their brand reputation in the market. The brand equity dimensions rely on the latter factors and should for part of the key performance indicators of the change management strategy. /If the impact of the project is that it limits your ability to keep your brand promise by reducing your interactions, compromising your engagements, disempowering or embittering staff or constraining your ability to deliver your full service to your clients in the promised timeframe through lost time, impact on business continuity, then it leads directly to the loss of confidence in your brand. This confidence translates to lost revenue and reputation, and therefore brand equity, and must be avoided at all costs.
Brand and People Focused Lens
The perception of failure and approach to avoiding or reducing the degree of failure on a project when considered from this perspective motivates and marshalls your forces under a slightly different banner. It can ensure better preparation and governance structure of your change project that entails roles and responsibility for aligning your brand principles to your change actions as mapped to business objectives.