Website design By BotEap.comWhat is the brand?

Website design By BotEap.comThe term “brand” is often misused to describe a company’s reputation, mission statement, or core competencies. Rather, your brand is the unique value proposition you offer your customers. Used to promote the value generated by your IT functions, an effective brand campaign can help shape user perceptions of your department, your services, and any important initiatives you undertake.

Website design By BotEap.comAction plan

Website design By BotEap.comBrand building has traditionally been a marketing initiative. However, many of the same concepts that apply when marketing your company’s products or services externally also apply when promoting your IT department internally. Use the following branding tips to help communicate the value of your department to the rest of the organization:

Website design By BotEap.com1. Start with the alignment. Aligning IT initiatives with strategic business goals is a stepping stone to effective branding of your department. If it’s not aligned, no matter how you turn it, business users will be able to see through your “pretty package”.

Website design By BotEap.com2. Assign a brand manager. It doesn’t have to be a formal position, but you do need a value-oriented, sociable person within your department (this could be you) to monitor the perception of IT within the company and develop strategies to promote the value of IT.

Website design By BotEap.com3. Identify your target audience. Understanding your audiences, their concerns, and their wants can greatly improve your branding efforts. Take some time to survey users and identify the differences between how the business sees IT and how IT sees itself. What is the perceived value of IT within the organization (ie its current brand image)?

Website design By BotEap.com4. Define a value proposition. Describe the value you create for the organization and decide what perceptions and images you would like to change. If you don’t work to build a strong brand (and implement practices that support it), employees within the company may develop their own less than favorable views of what IT is all about. At worst, you risk being seen as an expensive product or a necessary evil rather than a strategic differentiator.

Website design By BotEap.com5. Measure your success. Use IT metrics to track and highlight the value of IT. Success measures can include satisfaction surveys, productivity metrics, reduced downtime, improved help desk efficiency, or quantitative analysis ratios such as ROI, TCO, payback, etc. Track those metrics that help improve your image. For example, if IT is viewed as a cost center, use ROI and economic value added metrics to illustrate how IT has contributed to the bottom line.

Website design By BotEap.com6. Communicate at the executive level. Actively promote IT successes to business leaders. Use executive committee meetings as a forum to promote the value of IT and convey benefits in terms of achieving specific business goals. Focus on what’s important to executives and craft a presentation that relates to their needs.

Website design By BotEap.com7. Use brand campaigns for major project launches. Its users are constantly bombarded by vendor campaigns on the Internet and in trade publications. These campaigns often set unrealistic expectations and make idealistic promises. Manage your own expectations and help facilitate change management by integrating brand management into your own projects. For example, if you are going to launch a large ERP project, wrap it in a branding and communication campaign. Without getting too technical, describe the work IT is doing to help improve processes, and then announce the benefits to users.

Website design By BotEap.com8. Deliver. This is the key to the continued success of your brand image. If you are positioning your department or certain projects in a certain light, then be prepared to keep your promises. If you don’t, you will undermine your credibility. If you are involved in activities that do not create value, be strong enough to admit your failures and identify new ways you can advance your company’s goals.

Website design By BotEap.com9. Give free samples. In the IT world, this means pilot projects involving end users. In the same way that marketers use free samples to entice skeptical customers, IT departments can use pilot projects to help communicate the benefits of a new investment and help build a positive image for the project.

Website design By BotEap.com10. Treat your employees well. IT staff members are the ambassadors of their department within the company.

Website design By BotEap.comIf they are dissatisfied, they are more likely to complain to their co-workers and work against the positive image you are trying to convey. Complaining employees are also less likely to provide internal users with friendly customer service and helpful support.

Website design By BotEap.comIn summary

Website design By BotEap.comBeing the best at what you do is often not enough. In many cases, you also need to communicate the value you create. Promote and brand your IT department internally so others within the organization are aware of the value your team creates.