Dr. Ahmed Taher, Graduate Director, Journalism and Mass Communication

One of the well-known facts in marketing is that human behavior is driven by perception, not driven by reality.  Consumers buy the brands that they believe are best. Other options, in reality, may be of equal or better quality, but the perception still drives behavior. In light of this, marketers can be seen as ‘perception managers’. They cannot always change realities, so they attempt to change perceptions. Marketers recommend to consumers to buy certain brands, certain varieties, or specific bundles, and also buy from certain outlets and pay in a certain way. To the extent that the consumers perceive the recommendations as beneficial, they will follow them.

But HR managers are also perception managers. They manage the perception of top management about HR issues, such as the importance of employee benefits and satisfaction. They manage the perception of managers about their subordinates and company policies. They manage the perceptions of employees about the company and top management. In reality, many of those issues are worse or better than they are perceived. But perception is what drives behavior at the end of the day.

What is a Brand?

A brand is a promise that is consistently delivered to the point where customers come to expect it, believe in it, and tell others about it.  To most business, the brand is the most valuable single asset it has. To consumers it is a short-cut for purchase decisions, albeit at an additional cost.   They will pay more to avoid mistakes and assure their families more wholesome, higher quality or better value products. A brand is also a differentiator both physically and perceptually and therefore it commands a premium.

The brand has many other roles; to identify the maker, simplify product handling, offer legal protection, signify quality, create barriers to entry, serve as a competitive advantage, and secure price premium.   Strong brands also improve the perception of product performance, make it less vulnerable to competition and crises, reduce price sensitivity, stimulate greater trade cooperation and consumer loyalty, and generate brand extension opportunities and licensing opportunities. 

To ensure the consistency of the brand, which is critical to its raison d’être, brand managers develop the brand contract. This document details the brand promise to the consumers and potential customers. It is also used to communicate the brand meaning to communication agencies and

customer contact employees.   But the critical question is:   Who will deliver consistently? Our people.

The HR functions

I am not an HR person, but I looked up HR professionals’ functions. The long list included compensation, salary and benefits surveys, job evaluation, job descriptions, employee relations, disciplinary processes, incident investigations, complaint/grievance procedures, labor-management relations, employee services, educational assistance, employee service awards, and many others.

Every single one of the HR functions should be practiced with the brand contract in mind. For example, the brand contract of a fashion retailing chain designates five promises to its shoppers: sincere advice, relevant fashion, guaranteed quality, good value, and outstanding service. How would these five promises be delivered? HR holds power to deliver the brand and the potential to raise it above its rivals. 

From the very start, all new employees, particularly customer contact employees, should be recruited with the five promises in mind. They should be selected to have a natural tendency to deliver “sincere advice and outstanding service”. They should be trained on the meaning of “relevant fashion” and how to deliver it. The “good value” promise should be explained and engrained into the pricing policy, but the customer must be able to feel it too. Part of this “good value” is the service delivered by our people, but they also have to show the customers how the products they get are also a good value.

Moreover, the compensation should also reflect, albeit partially, the effort the customer contact employees expended to deliver on the five promises. The performance appraisal is another area where the five promises could be pronounced. After all, it is all about managing perceptions, internally and externally.

Last thoughts

Both Marketing (Branding) and HR thrive on understanding people. Both use perceptions, motivations, needs, and priorities to manage behavior. Both have roots in psychology and sociology. Both are an art as well as a science. Both were the last to be automated due to their fuzzy nature and difficulty standardizing.   Both are key to attaining a sustainable competitive advantage.