A very good question......

Greetings, amici.

Last week we managed to keep the Guardianistas quiet. Not sure if that is good news. No doubt they were pre-occupied with helping immigrants to this country obtain benefits or fighting to maximise the amount we taxpayers re-distribute to others through so called ‘progressive taxation’. Why is regressive taxation such a bad thing?

Last week Cicero was asked a very good question. It was so good that Cicero was stopped in his tracks and took a few more days to ponder and develop a meaningful response. Hence the reason we are a day or two late. Hopefully the delay will be worth it as you will be the first to hear Cicero’s latest theorem.
And the question............

First a bit of background.

Cicero has recently collaborated with and indeed presented on a new report dedicated to building brands from the inside out. In essence it is Cicero’s belief that Marketing Grands and Petits Fromages over emphasise brand building with consumers and pay little attention to ensuring that the people who deliver the brand and customer experience day in and day out understand and are fully aligned with the brand and its promise. This is wrong. If we do not pay sufficient heed to this important aspect of the brand we are just applying lipstick to the pig.

And in response to this Cicero was asked ‘how do you measure internal brand awareness?’ ’ Great question. Let me get back to you on that one.’

And so after a wee ponder, we now have an answer. And you are going to hear it first. And as with much else the solution is probably quite simple and straightforward. But it is an important issue if we remember that what gets measured gets done.

Clearly the most logical way to measure internal brand awareness is through some kind of survey and the most obvious way to do this would be to tag some interesting questions onto a Staff Attitude Survey, or SAS, which is quite appropriate really given that in this area those who dare will well and truly win.

But it is not enough just to measure Awareness. We must also measure Belief and Credibility. And there we have it-the ABC model of internal branding. , a new model at the heart of internal branding. As already said you have heard it here first. It is worth coming back to see what we are saying and discussing here.

Our people must not just be Aware of what the brand stands for and what it means for how they might do business but they also must Believe in the brand, its values and its promise. And critically too the brand must be seen as being at the very heart of the way the business operates. This is what makes the brand truly Credible in the eyes of our people.

So what questions should we ask our people to understand our ABC score? Here are five for starters:
• How well do you understand the brand idea?
• Do you know what this means for how you do your job?
• Do you believe in the values of this business?
• Do you share these values?
• Do you think we put these values at the heart of the way we do business?

What do you think?

And as was said a few paragraphs back the answer is quite straightforward and simple. It is almost as easy as ABC. Now all that needs to happen is for businesses and more specifically Marketing Grand Fromages to take the issue of internal branding a tad more seriously. But that is a whole different ball game. At least we now know how to track progress.

Is it only me............but who cares?

Well the Royal Wedding preparations are starting to run through the gears and our glamour-loving-forelock-tugging-royalty-fawning-glitz-sycophantic media too are cranking up the gears to full speed. The Arab world is in full scale revolt, petrol prices inexorably rising and Brits trapped in the sand pit of North Africa screaming at the Two Caesars to get them out of here, even though they went of their own free will into one of the most unstable regions on the planet to earn well above the going rate.

But while all this going on our Golden Royal Couple stepped into the limelight. Firstly in North Wales and then in St Andrews where love’s young dream first met. Bless.

In North Wales, as reported on the BBC, and let no one here say that the BBC is dumbing down and going down the star struck route, a young woman, 28, ‘sang the Welsh national anthem, as well as a hymn in Welsh’.

Shock. Horror. Someone has sung the Welsh National Anthem in Welsh. Is there any other way to sing the Welsh National Anthem? Tens of thousands sung it in Welsh at recent rugby matches. Did we hold the front page for that?

And we are also told that the same young lady ‘wore a cream tailored coat, with brown collar and had her hair swept up into a pony tail and fastened with a black feathered fascinator’ while the young man accompanying her ‘wore a dark suit and winter coat, buttoned up against the wind.’ Go down the Tube every day and you will see loads and loads of men wearing dark suits and winter coats though admittedly fascinators, which look like road kill, are a wee bit rarer on the Tube these days.

Now it might only be me but who cares what someone is singing and in what language or what he or she is wearing? That is not news. The BBC is supposed to be the international standard for journalism. If this is the case worldwide journalism is sinking fast. It is time to remember the Lord Harmsworth dictum that "when a dog bites a man, that is not news, because it happens so often. But if a man bites a dog, that is news."

Woman singing the Welsh National Anthem is not news but trivia. As is man wears darks suit. It is time for journalists to be journalists and not trivialists.

Have a great week.

Sis felix. Et sis fortunatus.