FutureM: Where's the Talk On Internal Branding?

FutureM, a week-long series of panel discussions and presentations on the future of marketing, is going down in Boston this week. Not surprisingly, there has been a lot of discussion around leveraging social media. The common theme: make your brand authentic and find the most relevant tools to build meaningful connections with consumers. Conversation has been great, but there are two issues that feel underrepresented in the panels I've attended (caveat: other panels may be covering these):

• The evolution of the consumer and its affect on the brand/consumer relationship
  
• The importance of effective internal branding

While FutureM may not be the right forum for an in-depth discussion about the evolution of the consumer, I think this needs to be part of any conversation around the future of brand/consumer communications. Just a few thoughts:

• It goes beyond privacy. It's about openness and expectations. What are we sharing now that we weren't a few years ago? How are our conversations evolving? Can brands predict what we'll be sharing tomorrow (not virally, but what personal information will we be disclosing)?
• Why are the conversations taking place? Are the tools driving the conversations? Or is the desire to share driving the tools? What's happening in our culture?
  

Internal branding, on the other hand deserves a seat at the table, if not at the head of the table. Josh Bernoff, of Forester, touched on the topic, as did Rick Burnes, of Hubspot, but overall the discussion around brand integration/cultural cultivation is lacking. Here's a few points and an example or two (these are also half-baked but I wanted to get this out there):

• Employees, regardless of title or position, need to understand their impact on the consumer experience. Whether it's direct or indirect.
• A product/brand experience is born from culture. Everyone at a company contributes to that brand culture. Everyone.
• The entire marketing budget rides on the personal experience with your employee (if you're retail) or your product. All marketing tools are driving to one thing: a personal connection (whether it's a product or a purchase experience). Traditional or not, the goal of marketing is to get someone to buy something/engage with your brand. If that experience is negative, you're wasting your money.
  
• There's a lot of talk around humanizing a brand via social media and creating meaningful connections. The best way to make happen is to connect people with people.
• It's not just for brick n' mortar, this applies to online brands too. The experience may need to be modified slightly (think ease of use/functionality vs. friendly encounter with clerk at checkout) but the same principle holds true.
• Our favorite example: Zappos. A brand committed to service and making sure everyone understands the mission. Remember their practice of paying people to quit after orientation (article here)?
  

This is a small blog, and usually treated a journal more than anything. Admittedly this post is not as thorough as it should be, but I'd love to hear peoples thoughts on this. Am I missing some great discussions? Have some kick ass examples? Do I have it all wrong? Share. Talk amongst yourselves.