Brand positioning is typically viewed as something designed to help a company's marketing, advertising, public relations and other groups communicate with consumers. What is often overlooked is that it is equally or even more important to employees.

Well-versed, brand-educated employees can be incredible ambassadors who perform a crucial role in delivering the brand's promise:

• When employees walk and talk the brand using brand-specific language, they communicate the “brand” and share their support for the brand’s benefits within and outside the organization.
• Their advocacy for the brand increases morale and productivity by reinforcing their value in a strong company with which they want to be identified.
  

Communicating the brand to the marketplace is fundamental, a given. Internal brand communication, although less universal, offers employees and company leaders the power to be far more effective at furthering the brand's impact and reach. Not all organizations understand the importance, but highly successful iconic brands usually reside in companies that do – Doritos, Pepsi, Virgin Media, Coca-Cola, Marlboro, DHL, Nordstrom, Nabisco and Apple, to name a few.

Many companies recognize the need for developing and selling their brand internally when undergoing large-scale, shape-shifting change. The following common scenarios call for a major brand campaign to employees:

• A company has acquired new businesses and needs to integrate and streamline them.
  
• A company has added products and new brands to its offerings and now must resell itself to the marketplace.
  
• An organization expanding into new distribution channels needs to communicate immediately to distributors, brokers and the sales force.
  
• A company that is growing rapidly risks losing the character and specialness of the original, organically-grown brand.

Just as inaccurate or false brand messaging can alienate target consumers, internal communication that is artificial can have devastating implications for the company. A successful business understands its employees' issues and knows it must communicate brand benefits internally in meaningful ways to different employee groups.

A solid brand positioning has the following attributes:

• It is developed in the vernacular of consumers.
  
• It is founded in the emotional and functional benefits of the product or service.
  
• It mirrors the values of the highly-involved core brand users.
  
• It incorporates category gold standards – attributes and perceived benefits that the brand now owns or aspires to own in the future.
  
• It represents the fundamental truth of the brand – its core value and the "category ideal" of target consumers.

Often brand positioning is developed into a brand platform and then a strategic brief. These both serve to provide structure, definition and executional guidelines for brand communication. They aid marketing employees in their strategic management of the brand's business, and guide agency partners in the development of creative materials.

Even though the brand platform is typically designed for external marketing, an organization's internalization of the brand platform is essential for long-term success of the company.