Brand building is a prime activity in today's highly competitive business world. Companies are spending huge amounts on brand building. Intensive promotional activities, celebrity endorsements and charity are some of the measures companies adopt for the brand building exercise. But they make very little effort at using employees as brand ambassadors. A good employee is always an asset to a company and he/she spreads positive image of the company in society. Thus, employees can spread a positive word-of-mouth image and help build the company's brand. This article discusses how companies can benefit from employees in their role as effective brand ambassadors.

Brand management is of key importance in today's stiff competitive corporate world. In today's borderless business world, wherein innumerable new products are being introduced into the market, which are quite similar to each other, management of brands becomes very important for survival. A big, powerful brand is the best protection that all companies can think of for defending their market share and also to protect the interest of their franchisees.

Brand building is an important function in any organization. A strong brand can bring back customers repeatedly, thus, creating a loyal base. Organizations spend a huge amount of money and make all-out efforts towards branding their product and service brands. Organizations use innovative promotional campaigns with popular superstars and top ranking sportspersons as brand ambassadors to build brand image. And while these activities create a positive brand image, they require huge expenditures.

But, in recent times, many organizations have realized that internal brand building is also equally important as external branding, and that employees too can play significant role in brand building. A prominent example is that of Country Club India Ltd., whose founding Chairman & Managing Director, Rajeev Reddy, acts as brand ambassador for his company (See Exhibit). As brand ambassador, he has built considerable credibility among customers. In a similar way, faculty and students can be the brand ambassadors for an educational establishment. Competent faculty always add value to an educational institute and attract good students. The students, in turn, act as brand ambassadors through their performance in their careers.

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