Correspondence: Patrick Harris, thoughtengine Ltd, 1 Aragon Road, Kingston, Surrey KT2 5QA, UK. Tel: +44 7973 26 26 30; E-mail: patrick@thoughtengine.co.uk

¹is Founding Director of thoughtengine, a consultancy working in the areas of Brand, Strategy, Creativity and Futures. Previously, he was Director of Creaticity for Orange, managing the strategic think-tank for the visionary CEO, Hans Snook. He has also served as a non-executive director in France Telecom UK R&D. He specialises in assisting organisations to achieve strategic momentum.

Received 20 June 2007; Revised 20 June 2007; Published online 9 October 2007.

Abstract

This paper considers the importance of employees in the process of building customer experience. The paper states that internal investment is rewarded with consistent, quality customer exchanges. Emphasis is first placed on the positioning of brand management within an organisation, and its linkage to strategy. Secondly, the tools of identity and guiding principles are introduced. These tools are used to activate staff by inviting their engagement and by asking them to review the brand from a personal perspective. Identity encourages employees to interpret corporate identity and apply it to their unique situation and skill set. Guiding principles serve as a platform to nurture desired behaviours in the organisation. Together, these two tools better prepare staff to respond to customers. Brand values are presented as the currency to measure the worth of exchanges between organisations and their customers. The paper concludes by presenting a case study of the mobile operator, Orange, during the period 1994–2003.