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I had a really good chat with Ian today about The Escape brand, passing over my own views on where we’ve been, who we are and where we are going. It was a kind of hand over meeting for him to pick up the mantle of our brand development as Creative Director.

The funny thing is I work with this stuff pretty much every day, advising clients how to best approach their own brand development - it’s second nature. But, closer to home, it seems a little bit harder.

By being SO involved it’s very easy to keep digging, trying to understand every nuance of a business - delving to find the ‘essence’ of The Escape and evolve the brand.

We also look outside for answers, interviewing clients and suppliers to establish how everyone sees us and we test our marketing campaigns to discover what works and what doesn’t.

And then there’s hear say. Other people will always make assumptions about your company from the outside. I’ve heard some of the things people say about our company and some make me laugh, some make me angry, and although no two are ever the same there are elements of consistent understanding about who we are and what we do.

Anyway, back to my chat. From the outset, we discussed how we could develop our message for external marketing. But, two hours later we had spent most of the time talking about internal branding and the need to create a core of understanding with everyone at our company.

Word of mouth is still the best marketing tool available to a business. Third party anecdotal evidence and real business case studies are hard to argue with. What’s more it’s free.

If you can rally your own troops, with a clear message, then you are starting with the very centre of that word of mouth ‘virus’. ie. If your employees understand it; then they can live it, breathe it, and convey it.

I see this time and time again and I always come to the same conclusion. The most important audience to sell your own brand to - is your own people.