Posted on Jun 10, 2013

Building the Value of Spirit into Your Brand

Why does one school appear to have more spirit than another? Why do sports fans paint their faces – and even their bodies – with the colors of their team?

Pride. Passion. Excitement. Enthusiasm. All good reasons. Maybe also a desire to belong to a community bonded together by a common purpose. In fact, it might even by this spirit that gives them a personal sense of purpose.

As a differentiating value, Spirit means life; a strong emotional and activating principle determining one’s character.

Many businesses have tried to incorporate the value of spirit into their brand. But this is one value that can’t be dictated. The people in the organization either have it, or they don’t.

One company whose employees have clearly demonstrated the value of spirit is Southwest Airlines.

A Brand with Spirit

One thing that immediately sets Southwest Airlines apart is the fact employees are the organization’s first priority. Their formula for success is:

Happy Employees=Happy Customers=Increased Business/Profits=Happy Shareholders

They know that if they treat their Employees right, they will in turn treat their Customers right, which in turn results in increased business and profits that satisfies shareholders.

The culture is all about their people, and they call it “Living the Southwest Way.”

The spirit of this culture is defined by three specific characteristics:

Warrior Spirit: work hard, desire to be the best, be courageous, display a sense of urgency, preserve, and innovate.
Servant’s Heart: follow The Golden Rule, put others first, demonstrate proactive Customer Service (that includes both Internal–SWA Employees–and External Customers), and embrace the SWA Family.
Fun-LUVing Attitude: don’t take yourself too seriously, maintain perspective (balance), celebrate successes, enjoy your work, and be a passionate team player.

As the world’s fourth largest airline, a team of 46,000 employees, with $17 Billion in revenues, they must be doing something right.

Does this really work?

A Personal Experience

On my son’s 13^th birthday, we flew on Southwest from Dallas up to Amarillo, Texas to tour the Palo Duro Canyon. During this flight I happened to mention to a flight attendant about my son’s birthday. A short-time later, she comes to my son, wishing him a happy birthday and presents him with a brown bag filled with goodies – packages of peanuts and SW memorabilia items – and a bunch of Southwest pins all over the bag. Who doesn’t like receiving gifts, not matter what’s inside?

Then, as we landed and were taxing to the gate, the flight attendant made an announcement about my son’s birthday, asking everyone to sing happy birthday. And they did!

Wow!

I don’t know who enjoyed the experience more, my son or me. On that day, the folks at Southwest proved to me why they are such an admired brand. It’s their people who make the difference.

So what’s their secret?

Building a Spirit-Based Culture

In an interview with Colleen Barrett, the former CEO of Southwest, she outlined three important factors in building a spirit-based culture.

1) Hire Smart. A popular story at Southwest is a potential pilot not being hired, in spite of his sterling credentials, because he was rude to several employees during his trip to the interview location. Southwest only wants to hire people that will fit in with their culture, as defined above.

2) Tap Individual Talents. Often, Southwest must help new hires “be themselves” by encouraging them to let their individual humor and personalities shine. As Barrett states: “Good grief, we hired you because of who you are. We didn’t hire you because you filled a mold.”

3) Little Things Matter. Southwest recognizes the importance of taking care of employees and creating a place they want to stay. One thing Barrett did was track every single employee’s birthday, significant anniversaries, the birth of children and other important events, and make sure that a card was sent for nearly every occasion.

It’s the combination of such factors that enables the Southwest team to continually over-deliver on their promises. Based on their lower than average turnover rate, high customer satisfaction, consistent profitability, and a world-renowned brand, Southwest Airlines has been a model of success for the airline industry – and any organization that wants to build spirit into their brand.