I often get falsely accused of being "anti-marketing" when in reality I value marketing as much as the top marketers and leaders in the world, I just see marketing as a piece to a larger puzzle rather than the "'end all" solution. In my travels I come across too many leaders focused so much on positioning and messaging and not focused enough on what it truly takes to deliver a differentiated experience to employees and customers. In my opinion, at least 90% of the time your employees and customers are going to judge your company and its products and services by the experience they have with it and 10% or less by what you tell and market to them. A brand is not built through marketing messages, it is built though people and process held together by employee day-to-day behaviors.

Let me share with you a quick story about the power of brand-behavior.

Recently I was in Florida visiting a well-known restaurant chain that serves bagels. My family had ordered dinner, but I also wanted to take six bagels home. I went to the takeout line to place the order. While the sales clerk was packing the bagels, I noticed she was putting them into a large, expensive box suited for 12 to 24 bagels.

I said to her: “Please don’t waste that costly box on my bagels—a smaller bag will do.” Her response was appalling: “It’s OK, I’m not paying for it.”

Ouch! My immediate thought: “Well, I’m paying for it!”

Now, I’m fairly certain this attitude and behavior wasn’t taught during the company’s training and orientation session. But it clarifies the root cause of this imbalance between what the brand stands for and reality. Quite simply: Employees don’t see themselves as a vital part of the company brand.

Simply put, if you are not managing behaviors employees do and experiences employees and customers have, then you are not managing your company brand.  It doesn't matter what the restaurant's marketing said, the employee's behavior undercut all of it!

A brand is the sum of all experiences a company’s people have with an audience. Brand Integrity is the ultimate business and management strategy. It is the one strategy that works in companies of all sizes and within all industries to strengthen culture and business results. Brand Integrity aligns who a company is (core values, mission/vision, and strategic benefits) with where it is going (goals and strategic plans) and how employees will deliver the behaviors and experiences to achieve results.

In addition to being a management strategy, Brand Integrity is a destination. The destination is the point at which a company achieves its desired brand image while reaching its business goals. Said another way, it’s when employees, customers, partners, and the market understand, believe, and experience that the company is who it says it is.
To achieve Brand Integrity, leaders need a strategy and employees need to know the strategy and how they can best deliver it through their day-to-day work activities.

It only takes minutes with Gregg to realize this unforgettable expert has solved the mystery to creating high-performance work cultures and driving sustainable results.

Participants who attend Gregg’s interactive presentations and workshops, delivered to associations as well as at corporate and university conferences, consistently rate him among the very best of speakers. More than 80 percent of Gregg's bookings are repeat hires by delighted clients. For example, AMA President, Peter Piusz had this to say: "We just had the most dynamic speaker! Gregg Lederman challenged our audience to think about their business in new ways and captured their hearts with buckets of takeaway value relevant to their business. He is one of the highest audience-rated speakers we've ever had.”

Gregg's two-time award-winning book, Achieve Brand Integrity: Ten Truths You Must Know to Enhance Employee Performance and Increase Company Profits, and his trademark ABI Strategy Development Model have been used by corporations across the US to integrate their company brand into employee performance systems from hiring and customer service training to employee recognition and performance evaluations.

Driven by a relentless desire to help as many people as possible "Live the Brand," Gregg has made it his personal mission to dramatically improve people’s lives by positively enhancing their work cultures, leading to greater individual success while increasing the profitability of the company they work for. His work, along with the work of his team at Brand Integrity Inc., where he is currently the Managing Partner, has helped many of today's "best places to work” companies such as Wegmans Food Markets, Erickson Retirement Communities, Cowan, Gunteski & Co., P.A., and Retirement Living TV close the gap between their business strategies and the employee behaviors needed to bring those strategies to life.

Gregg received his MBA from the William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration, where he has been a professor teaching the ABI methodology since 2003. He is also a member of the National Speakers Association. Gregg resides in Rochester, NY, with his wife and three daughters.

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