Pride as a competitive advantage (part 2)

Pride, often accused of swelling, is a big topic, so let me dispose of a few quick items and then get to Ryan’s main point – pride as an advantage in customer-facing situations.

Pride enters organizations at several levels. Individual pride is the most basic; it means pride in one’s product, confidence in one’s opinions, and self-motivation. Individual pride provides necessary incentives for sales teams and certain managers, but on the whole it is divisive and inefficient. Teams suffer under proud, demeaning leaders – everybody has been there at least once.

Team pride takes the notion beyond the individual. Team members are not important, but the collective has an identity that buoys every single member. Proud individuals hurt these types of teams, but if you can get people to give selflessly, team pride will usually lead to the higher morale, personal ownership, and consequent gains in productivity and quality of personal pride.

Then there’s our focal topic: corporate pride. Split into its component parts, there is brand pride and service pride. Service pride is what Southwest has. It is what Wal-mart greeter’s have. It is what every service person in every commercial has and every corporation wishes they had – and it is a huge advantage. It means that when people interact with your corporation, your brand, and your service arm, they see people happy to be associated with it. That happiness means instant equity: “Heck, if their employees like them this much, they must be good.” It also means greater brand consistency, as employees embody promises of quality and integrity and just plain look the advertisements.

How do organizations instill corporate service pride in their teams? Starbuck’s believes it comes from ownership. Barista’s are treated as team members, but nobody buys that bogus term any more. Instead, they are given opportunities for health care coverage, employee-ownership plans, and other equity incentives. Yet, this can’t be the only factor. Other companies have given similar benefits only to end up with dissent in the ranks and the resulting sarcasm at the sales-counter. Those that failed missed the second part – culture. Yup, the either-you-got-it-or-you-don’t factor. Cool coffee houses mean cool managers. Cool managers have cool regional reps. See where this is going? Cool companies are cool all the way up. Southwest? Friendly and low-key right up to their librarian-cum-president, Colleen Barrett. (Check her out: http://www.southwest.com/about_swa/) Monster? Jeff Taylor. Of course, he had to beat the ultimate cool in CEOs, Sir Richard Branson, to hold the world record for longest water-ski behind a blimp (seriously). The list goes on. This doesn’t mean that there aren’t great corporations out there without a “cool” hierarchy, but those corporations are not relying on their front-line customer service staff to maintain the brand.

Those corporations likely try for the other angle, corporate brand bride. This is classic brand equity, and some of the most famous include Mercedes, DeWalt/Black & Decker, John Deere, and the colas just to name a few. The main difference here is that product, not service, is the key. So, does pride provide a competitive advantage? Well, who’s pride? If we’re talking the consumer, it makes a huge difference. That’s why we see Mercedes ads advertising that owners have had them for 200,000 or driven the brand for over 50 years. It’s why Black & Decker insists its made in America and you wouldn’t trust anything less. Think the cola companies don’t have brand pride? There was a kid suspended in Atlanta for wearing a Pepsi shirt on Coke day at his school.

But I’d like to point out that customer pride – while it is the focus of marketing and product development – is not what we’re talking about. The real question is, does corporate pride from the inside, from the employees, improve brand pride? Saturn thought so when it built its cars. GE thought so when it re-created its jet engine factories by forming small teams, each dedicated to 1 engine start to finish. Me, I don’t think so. The Saturn gimmick is gone. The only value is indirect. GE claims its jets have fewer errors and quicker build times. If that’s what we mean by competitive advantage, I’m in – but I don’t see any examples where pride from the inside equaled brand equity on the outside. Service yes, brand no.