Zeus Jones had a great post a little while ago, showing examples of how a company’s internal operations can become marketing.  Zappo’s for how they handle merchandise delivery, Patagonia for their materials sourcing, even Apple for their payment and billing. (It’s definitely worth having a look, if you haven’t already.)

Now, this is a point of view that we here at Naked can get behind.  We have long held the philosophy that everything communicates.

But if this is true — if the way a company operates internally can be such a powerful tool for marketing and shaping a consumer’s perception of and experience with a brand — then we have to stop a minute and consider the implications for the brand in question.

To have operations become a de facto function of marketing, then the process by which marketing is created at the vast majority of companies in this country will need to be fundamentally changed.

Because at the end of the day, true integrated marketing communications (IMC) is really about process.  A great idea is worthless without the ability to implement it.

We’ve written a good bit recently about this:  That the brand’s internal business structure is a key component of implementing IMC.  That our collective interestingness needs to be encouraged, rather than institutionalized, through structure.  That sexy is the process.

Enough theory, let’s take a step towards the real world.  For your consideration, here are a handful of catalysts for a healthy IMC process:

1) Structural cross-pollination. Accept that all facets of the organization have to work together to achieve IMC, and set up a better structure to facilitate cross-pollination.  As Adrian of Zeus Jones (correctly, in my experience) points out in the comments section of his post, most companies are not currently structured in a way to be able to coordinate programs. We’ve written more on business structure here.

Practically speaking, though, this is a huge undertaking — the nuclear option.  Most of us don’t have the authority or experience to overhaul a business structure.  So…

2) Believe. We all have to agree that operations (and everything else, for that matter) are in fact marketing — at least, the bits of our operations that will have an impact on the end consumer.  Everything communicates.  Really.

3) Think holistically. We have to think and work within our particular area of responsibility, but the challenge is to also see the bigger picture as we do so.  Understand all the ways that consumer can interact with our brand, and the different ways that each interaction contributes to the overall perception of our brand.  Our brand behavior should provide a guide for interacting in all of these places.

4) Champion. Someone has to herd the kittens.  In other words, someone has to spearhead the coordination of all the different departments and responsibilities, and get them all moving in the same direction. Recently, CMOs seem to be getting more and more responsibility within their respective organizations, beginning to address this need. Who is that person within your company?

5) Orchestrate. All pieces of communications should fit together and “talk” with one another to create a cohesive brand experience for the consumer. There should be no dead-ends in that experience.

[picture credit: cybjorg]