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Anders Gronstedt, Ph.D.
In its quest to become the new category-killer of the financial services sector,
Washington Mutual is taking some unconventional steps to imbed its core values
and assure delivery of its brand promises across all customer touchpoints. "It
all happens at the front line," says Rob Hallam, First VP of Internal Communications.
"Tellers, financial advisors and the loan officers, they all need to incorporate
our brand attributes in their everyday work." Hallam's
team, working in close partnership with Washington Mutual's Human Resources group,
sought to drive this message home by taking the show on the road, holding no fewer
than 133 brand rallies, with up to 3,000 employees at a time. The goal was to
illustrate the company's brand values for employees and reinforce the importance
of executing these values in all encounters with customers. Hallam describes the
mood among these audiences as almost "magical." The 60-90 minute road show featured
speeches, trivia games and vignettes, with managers presenting scenarios highlighting
such core brand values as fairness, caring, and "being human." Professional actors
and senior managers led these presentations, and many of the shows featured the
headman himself, C.E.O. Kerry Killinger, the company's self-proclaimed "Chief
Brand Ambassador." For smaller, more remote sites where holding a live rally wasn't
feasible, a cadre of 76 brand ambassadors were trained to hold local meetings.
All told, 94% of the employees participated in at least one of the rallies. To
sustain the missionary fervor, the company' s brand program is now embedded in
everything from recruitment processes and introduction programs to rewards and
training programs. Washington Mutual "trading cards" feature employees demonstrating
exemplary behavior, and an online training game called "The Circle of Value" has
been played by 16,000 employees (and counting). "It tests your knowledge about
the brand - and it's definitely a game with an attitude," says Hallam. Half of
the players so far have passed the test and been entered in a drawing for 1,000
limited-edition Kerry Killinger bobblehead dolls. Hallam
laughs when talking about the bobbleheads, and admits that it might sound a bit
corny to those unfamiliar with the company's often-rambunctious culture. But he
explains that thanks to the energy leadership has committed to promoting its brand
across the enterprise, employees truly have bought in, and notes that items like
the Killinger bobblehead are greatly coveted by employees. "I doubt they'll ever
be collector's items on eBay," chuckles Hallam, "but they sure are status markers
inside the company." While
traditional brand building is often performed in isolation by the marcom department
and its ad agency, big "B" brand building needs to start from the top and be managed
cross-functionally. "The project was Killinger's initiative," recalls Hallam.
"He pulled together the team and said that we're getting so big that we have to
sharpen our focus." A team of HR, communications and marketing leaders went to
work ensuring that the growing employee population could deliver on the company's
new brand promises. The new brand
messages weren't just window dressing, either. The bank wanted to carve out a
unique position in the cutthroat financial services industry. While other banks
are steering customers away from their branches, "WaMu" are furiously opening
new branches, 240 of them this year alone. The branches resemble a Starbucks without
the espresso machines in design, and aim to be like the Ritz Carlton (without
the attitude) in service. Friendly concierges greet customers at the door. Tellers
are moved out from behind bullet-proof windows and roam around the office, helping
customers quickly find their way from the mortgage office to the lending officer,
all in a big cross-selling bonanza. This
approach might seem like old hat for those of us who grew up or have spent time
in Europe, and who witnessed this shift years ago in the Swedish banking industry,
but it's a surprisingly novel approach in the U.S. Its success here will depend
on every employee's ability to deliver on the brand promise. At
$19 billion in revenue and $3.8 billion in profit last year, Washington Mutual
stands head and shoulders above its mid-sized bank competitors, and employee survey
numbers speak volumes about the company's success: 86% feel they have a good understanding
of the brand values. "Compared to where I came from, this is off the charts,"
says Hallam, and considering that he came from Home Depot, one of the companies
Washington Mutual model itself after, that's a heavy statement.
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