Your Safety Program Needs a Brand

By: Kenny Young, CSP, ARM, AINS, CEAS

Whether we like to admit it or not, safety professionals and others tasked with safety are in the sales and marketing game. We sell ideas like investment in new fall protection equipment to management. We sell employees a better way to make decisions. We market a belief in a value system for everyone to share. We even need to sell our importance to the organization when times are tough and the company needs to make cutbacks.  

Your HR department created a wellness program and called it “10,000 Steps to a Healthier You.” Your sales department has the “Chairman’s Challenge” contest and a sales cycle called “From Us to You.” Dollar Shave Club will “Shave Time. Shave Money.” Disney is “The Happiest Place on Earth.” If you buy Nike shoes, then you better be ready to “Just Do It.” “What’s in Your Wallet?” A Capital One credit card, that’s what. Meanwhile, you have the all to creatively marketed "Safety Program." Sounds inspiring doesn't it? 

My safety slogan for companies that usually try the slogan thing is, “Slogans Don’t Save Lives.” I say this tongue in cheek while writing about needing to brand your safety program but let me explain. Branding creates value to a good or service by developing an emotional response with the end user. Think of the service we’re selling as safety and our customer is our employees. Developing a branded safety program enhances the value of our service and differentiates it from the programs of other companies. In practical terms it allows us to get buy in to what safety means at our organization and why an employee needs to conform to our culture.

Then how come “Slogans Don’t Save Lives?” It’s because any marketing expert will tell you that branding is more than a logo, tagline, or product name. Since branding in its simplest terms is the creation of perception, there needs to be follow through behind what you’re selling for the customer to buy in. The brand of Apple is about lifestyle, passion, and innovation. Yet, they’re tagline of “Think Different” hasn’t been used since the 80s. The products they deliver to the consumer and the way they sell it has spoken for itself and built a brand based on a track record of innovation. Your safety program needs to have more than a name. It must have substance. The employees need to be engaged, live the messaging, and leaders need to make decisions through the prism of protecting the brand of safety as they would any product they’re selling a customer.

So how do you go about building a safety brand? First you need to establish your safety goals and objectives. Once we know what we’re trying to achieve tactically, it can help us identify how we establish vision within the organization and sell the ideas (we’ll go into goals and objectives in a future post). This is a leadership step, but it would be helpful to get some incite from employees. Next, we need to learn what the current perception of the safety program is. This may be done through surveys or establishing a committee of employee representatives. This step will let us know where we are, and we can determine the gap that exists based on where we want to be.

In combination with the employees we can establish mission and vision statements for the safety program based on a set of core values. Now it’s time to break down that silo with the marketing department. Have them work with employees in developing a tagline, internal marketing campaign, and even logos. You may choose to hold a contest where everyone has a shot. I’ve seen some great logos drawn up by children of employees! The brand is aimed at them so ask a lot of questions. Why is safety important to them? How are they going to help with its success? Where do you see leadership’s role?

The brand you are trying to create may not be in line with the way things currently are. If your trying to brand a safety program centered around “Looking Out for Each Other” but you have an individualistic culture, then you need to develop a strategy of how you’re going to get there. While marketing is working to stylize the brand, this is a good time for leadership to strategize on how you’re going to initiate change. The rollout of the brand should be a big deal. It will take time to develop and a big launch will let your employees know it matters. Be transparent and share that some changes may need to be made but leadership has a plan. Knowing that there is a plan will lessen some resistance and your team will respect that it’s well thought out. Then it’s a matter of treating your new brand as you would any other product or service. Live by and protect it.

Let us know if you’re interested in building a brand for your safety program. We can help facilitate the process and get ideas flowing. We didn’t develop the golden arches but we think we have a pretty sweet logo.