A powerful brand vision should do more than look good on a PowerPoint slide. It should align the organisation, energise the team and inspire people to deliver the brand consistently in everything they do.
However, internal brand engagement is often treated as a second-class marketing task. The brand strategy is presented in a meeting room, perhaps accompanied by a polished video created by the ad agency. Everyone nods politely — then goes back to business as usual!
I read on Linked In today a more inspiring example of how to bring a brand to life internally. It came from Crosta Mollica’s CMO Dean Lavender (1). Rather than simply telling the team about the brand’s Italian roots, he took them to Milan to celebrate the end of a successful financial year. Here, I share three principles we can take from this internal engagement experience.
A quick reminder on the Crosta Mollica brand
We posted here about the impressive brand growth story of Crosta Mollica. The brand makes quality, modern Italian food including pizzas and baked goods, all made in Italy. Its black-and-white stripes provide a powerful visual thread across the portfolio, helping the brand stand out and create consistency. The brand is now in The Grocer’s 100 Biggest Brands, with UK sales of £77m, up +44% versus year ago.
1. Lead with actions, not just words
Some CMOs rely mainly on communication to engage their organisation with the brand: a presentation, a brand book or perhaps a fancy launch video. These tools can all play a useful role. But what leaders do sends a much stronger signal than what they say. Dean did not simply present a slide explaining how the brand was inspired by Italian food and culture. He took the team to Milan, immersing them in the geographic roots at the heart of the brand.
People will doubt what you say but believe what you do
This is a powerful example of leading with actions. The trip transformed Italian provenance from an abstract statement into a shared experience the team could see, taste and feel. It also communicated that the brand mattered enough to merit meaningful investment. The message was clear: Italy is not just something we put on the packaging. It is part of who we are.
Inspiration: look beyond internal communication and ask what can you actually DO to demonstrate your brand vision?
2. Invest in engaging the team
Too many brand workshops take place in dull, cookie-cutter corporate hotels near company headquarters. The surroundings are uninspiring, the agenda is overloaded and much of the day is spent sitting in a windowless meeting room. Is it surprising when the team does not leave feeling energised?
Crosta Mollica took a different approach. The company moved the team out of its normal working environment and took them to Milan. From Dean’s description, the trip included time to explore the city and enjoy activities together, rather than simply replacing the usual office boardroom with an Italian one. The experience also celebrated the team’s contribution to a successful financial year. This combination of brand immersion, recognition and shared enjoyment should help create stronger memories and deeper emotional engagement.
Inspiration: create an environment that brings your brand world to life. Build in moments of discovery and enjoyment, giving people time to connect with each other.
3. Execute with excellence
Internal branding is often executed with less care than customer-facing marketing. Materials are produced quickly, visual identity is applied inconsistently and the overall experience can feel distinctly homemade. This sends the wrong signal. If the company does not execute its own brand with excellence internally, why should employees be expected to do so externally?
Crosta Mollica appears to treated the Milan engagement event with the same creative love and care as an external marketing campaign. The company enlisted Milan-based designer Federico Bragaglia, who had previously worked on another Crosta Mollica creative project. He developed a stylish and unmistakably Milanese identity for the event, combining the brand’s distinctive stripes with the city’s iconic Duomo. This identity was then applied consistently across a suite of printed materials, including a bespoke city guide with an illustrated map, an agenda, menus, coasters and prints.
These may sound like small details. But together, they created a coherent and distinctive brand world so the event was much more than a generic corporate away day with a Crosta Mollica logo slapped on top.
Inspiration: apply the same standards internally that you apply externally, using distinctive brand assets to create an experience that could only come from you.
Photography courtesy of Poetry Film Productions
In conclusion
In conclusion, Crosta Mollica shows how to bring a brand to life internally by leading with actions, investing in a genuinely engaging team experience and executing every detail with excellence — turning the brand vision from words on a slide into something people can see, feel and remember.
SOURCES
