People Powering Brands  |  Brands Powering  People

The ‘People Powering Brands’ Forum

Presented in cooperation with a coalition of associations addressing the critical elements of improving people performance across entire organizations

• Format
• Objectives
• Overview of Sessions
• Sponsors

Included 11 sessions on how to maximize brand and financial performance through people. 

Format

The two-day conference featured 11 sessions covering:

• The economics of customer and employee engagement
  
• The psychology of engagement
  
• The connection points between brands and people
  
• Strategies to engage customers, channel partners, salespeople and employees
  
• Implementation and measurement of engagement strategies and tactics

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Objectives

• Provide concrete research and information to corporations and their marketing agencies and consultants on the economic link between brands and people.
  
• Demonstrate the financial benefits of integrating external and internal marketing.
  
• Provide concrete, compelling case studies, research, and facts.
  
• Show how these strategies can be implemented at the grass-roots level.
  
• Provide an opportunity for sales, marketing, and human resources people to better understand each other’s needs in order to foster integration.

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Overview of Sessions

Wednesday, May 7

People Session 1: 9:30-10:20 am

The Economics of People—What Research Says About Human Capital ROI

Speaker: Alex Edmans, Assistant Professor of Finance at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, with introduction by Bruce Bolger, conference director, and president of Selling Communications Inc. 

Session overview: Learn about the latest research on the economics of people, in particular the link between employee satisfaction and financial results. Are employee-friendly programs wasteful expenditure that reduces shareholder returns, or can they lead to win-win outcomes? The session will cover the changing role of human capital in organizations over time, and the resulting implications for the recruitment, retention and motivation of employees.

People Session 2: 10:30-11:20 am

KEYNOTE: Don Peppers: Turn Your Brand Message Into a Brand Mission

(FREE to all exhibit hall attendees.)

Presenter: Don Peppers, founder, 1to1 Marketing

Session overview: Customers only need 20 seconds on the phone or two clicks on the Web site to tell whether your brand is living up to its promise. The best, most persuasive brand messaging in the world is no match for the customer’s impression after interacting with a store clerk, or a service technician, or a sales rep touting the benefits of the latest product. What do you need to do to be sure all your employees walk, talk, think, live, dream and breathe your brand? In this session, based on his just-released book Rules to Break and Laws to Follow, Don Peppers will show:

• Why technology has undermined the corporate hierarchy, making it impossible to rely solely on rules and procedures to manage your brand;
  
• How to break down hardened silos by engaging and enabling your employees to become a “self organizing” force for your brand;
  
• How to ensure your brand is not just the message your company puts out, but the corporate mission that permeates everything it does.

People Session 3: 11:30 am-12:20 pm

The Science of Human Performance Measurement

Speaker: Rodger Stotz, Research Committee Chair, Incentive Research Foundation and Forum for People Performance Management and Measurement; Vice President, Senior Consultant, Maritz Inc.

Session overview: The ability to measure human performance and its impact on organizational results has reached a new level of precision. This session will address the growing number of ways that organizations can measure results on a concrete basis, encompassing almost any job function. Attendees will also learn about new ways that technology can help make measurement easier and more effective.

People Session 4: 1:30-2:20 pm

Customer Engagement: Loyalty Strategy Essentials

Sponsor: The Promotion Marketing Association
Speaker: Dianne Durkin, President & Founder, Loyalty Factor, LLC, and author of The Loyalty Advantage

Session overview: Customer loyalty goes far beyond traditional frequency programs; it’s about fully engaging and rewarding customers in a way that not only keeps them coming back, but encourages them to bring along their friends and colleagues. Learn about the latest approach to customer loyalty that touches on the key drivers of repeat business and how your organization can put these actions into place, as well as the connection between loyalty, frequency and word of mouth. 

People Session 5: 2:30-3:20 pm

Channel Partner Programs

Sponsor: The Incentive Marketing Association
Speaker: Doug Press, President, The Incentive Group

Session overview: For organizations that sell through brokers, agents, retailers or other third-parties, engagement is even more challenging. Any strategy has to address the reality that these are independent businesses that have their own organizational needs and challenges. Attendees at this session will get an overview of the essentials of developing effective channel partner relationships and engaging the key people you need to drive the performance of your products or services. Press has built and managed distribution channels for major technology companies and has helped dozens of other companies do the same.

People Session 6: 3:30-4:20 pm

Internal Talent Branding: Practical Innovations

Speaker: Speakers: Allan Schweyer, President & Executive Director, Human Capital Institute, and Brian Platz, COO, SilkRoad Technology.

Session overview: The benefits of a strong talent brand cannot be overstated. Presenters will share research results honing in on the strategic value of owning a strong talent brand and how such brands can be created. They’ll also explore the impact of the onboarding process, including socialization and connectedness, career “pathing,” the employee experience in interactions with the organization and other vital information.

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Thursday, May 8

People Session 7: 9:30-10:20 am

KEYNOTE: Mark Schumann: Branding From the Inside 

(FREE to all exhibit hall attendees.)

Speaker: Mark Schumann, co-author of Brand From the Inside, and Communication Consultant for Towers Perrin.

Session overview: How does an organization go about creating a brand orientation among its own employees? What’s involved with getting employees involved with the message of satisfying customers? This session provides concrete information on why it is essential for most organizations to turn employees into brand ambassadors. It includes ideas on how to turn internal communications and recognition strategies into formal ways to connect employees to customers and achieve organizational goals. Schumann’s book, Brand From the Inside, co-authored with Libby Sartain, broke new ground in the emerging field of internal marketing and branding. His talk will provide a fresh look at the role of internal communications and marketing from the perspective of an expert for one of the nation’s leading human resources consulting companies.

People Session 8: 10:30-11:20 am

Employee Engagement and High Performance

Sponsor: Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology
Speaker: Jack Wiley, Executive Director of Kenexa Research Institute.

Session overview: How can organizations implement the changes necessary to inspire all employees to focus on customer needs? What impact does this have on business results? This session focuses on the organizational and leadership practices that build employee engagement and drive customer loyalty and business success. Twenty years of research, as well as case studies from a variety of industries, will illustrate the requirements for delivering the customer value proposition to ultimately outperform competitors.

People Session 9: 11:30 am -12:20 pm

Linking Employee Recognition to Brand Success

Speaker: Tom Miller, President, The Miller Co.
Sponsor: Recognition Professionals International

Session overview: Fostering a customer-focused organization requires an integrated approach including communications, training, rewards, and recognition to engage and enable employees. This session covers the key elements your organization needs to address in order to align employee behaviors and attitudes with customer and organizational objectives. Attendees will leave with a step-by-step approach they can start utilizing with their next internal recognition campaign.

People Session 10: 12:30-1:20 pm

Case Study: How Sovereign Bank Built a High-Performance Sales Organization

Speaker: Jim Dittman, President, Dittman Incentive Marketing, and key corporate executives from Sovereign Bank.

Session overview: Presenters will discuss the key elements that drive true sales motivation, touching on all parts of the human motivation factor, including support, recognition, aspiration and emotion, providing attendees with concrete examples from Sovereign Bank’s SovereignEDGE program that will explain how to turn your entire company into a high-performance sales organization.

People Session 11: 1:30-2:20 pm

The Missing Link Between Customers, Employees, and Performance 

Speaker: Frank Mulhern, Academic Director, Forum for People Performance Management and Measurement.

Session overview: Attendees will learn about the latest Forum research on the economics of people, including the link between engaged employees, satisfied customers, and financial results. The session includes new research on the economic contribution of employees over time, as well as on other findings related to the ROI of people. Mulhern will demonstrate how today’s customer focus is forcing organizations to place a new emphasis on linking internal marketing, communication, and reward systems to customer needs and financial results.

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Sponsors 

    
   

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