It's easy to forget that the “other” people in the company and those representing the brand throughout the sales channel don’t always understand their role in making the brand a success. The key to turning these employees, distributors and other channel partners on the front lines into brand ambassadors is to give them a way to take ownership in the brand story.

How do we find ways to make the brand believable to this group, so they can “live the brand?” How can we make all those “brand pyramids” and other abstractions become real, and create opportunities for our team to let their passion play a role? It all starts with the truth about the brand.

By peeling back the onion (with the help of market research, account planning, or good internal audits), we’ve uncovered the nuggets that make people nod their head in agreement, and say “yeah, that’s us.” By using these building blocks, not only does it make every piece of communication you create more compelling and resound more with end users, it gives your employees and channel partners an opportunity to emotionally align themselves with the brand, too.