The reason internal branding isn't taking hold isn't the employees' fault. It might simply be that management "hasn't taken action yet."
Last month, during a regular brainstorming meeting with a client, the conversation took an unexpected turn. I have several contracted clients with whom I meet once or twice a month to brainstorm ideas and discuss creative output. The topic of that day's meeting was the problem that "our company philosophy just doesn't seem to permeate throughout the company."
We were trying to figure out the cause together, but in the middle of our conversation, the customer suddenly said, "Oh, if I were serious, I would have already done something." Perhaps the very fact that they hadn't taken action was proof that they weren't serious. No one had pointed it out to them; they had resolved it themselves with those words.
I receive a lot of inquiries about companies struggling to implement internal branding strategies. However, today I don't intend to write an article listing common causes; I believe there's something more fundamental that business leaders themselves should be questioning.
Companies that complain about their products not "penetrating" are often the ones that aren't actually doing anything!?
When you look into the reasons for the failure of internal branding, you'll find explanations such as insufficient involvement from management, ineffective training programs, and inconsistencies with evaluation systems. I don't think any of these are wrong. However, what these all have in common is that "there isn't a mechanism to ensure it permeates the company," not "are they even serious about it in the first place?"
I don't intend to dismiss initiatives like "creating a penetration committee" or "distributing credo cards to all employees." However, when you ask how much the management themselves actually use them in their daily decision-making, they often become hesitant. Do they include actions aligned with the company's philosophy as evaluation criteria in performance reviews? Do they actually bring up the philosophy as a decision-making standard in management meetings? When you get down to it, in most cases, it just stops at "distributing them."
The "2025 White Paper on Small and Medium Enterprises," published by the Small and Medium Enterprise Agency in 2025, shows data indicating that businesses that not only create business plans but also implement all three elements—taking action toward goals, managing progress, and regular reviews—have significantly higher levels of sales and profits compared to those that do not. This clearly shows that the difference in performance lies not in whether a philosophy or strategy was "created," but in whether it was "kept in motion."
I believe the structure of internal branding is the same. Are you satisfied with just writing down your philosophy on paper and reciting it at morning meetings? A philosophy that isn't accompanied by action will only appear to employees as "just something you want to do."
The difference between "I want to do it" and "I'd like to try it."
I recently read an article on Note that contained some great words. It was written by someone who inherited a long-established company, and they were reflecting on an experience during their job hunting days when a friend pointed out to them, "Isn't that something you want to try, rather than something you actually want to do?"
If it's something you want to do, you've already taken some kind of action on it unconsciously. If it's something you want to try, it's like a child saying, "I want to be a professional baseball player"—it's still in the dream stage, without any action yet. According to this person, they also use this criterion when deciding on new business ventures at their company. When an employee says, "I want to open a ramen shop," they look at whether the employee has visited major local ramen shops and can articulate who they want to serve and what they want to deliver, before even looking at the financial plan. If the employee hasn't taken that much action, they judge it as "something they want to try" rather than "something they want to do."
In internal branding, the key to success lies in whether the business owner themselves can make this judgment. It's easy to say you want to "instill" your company's philosophy. But have you changed how you use your time to achieve that? Have you attended tedious meetings? Have you sought out difficult feedback? In my experience, not many business owners delve that deeply into self-reflection.
Employees are watching the "actions" of management.
I believe that instilling a company philosophy and establishing a brand within the company ultimately boils down to how many people you can create who can use that philosophy as their basis for judgment and action. I don't want you to misunderstand; this is by no means about letting people act on their own initiative. What's important is whether their actions align with the philosophy, and the fact that they are actually acting in accordance with it.
However, there's a prerequisite for expecting that from employees. The manager themselves must be the one who practices the philosophy more than anyone else. You can't expect employees to understand something you don't do yourself. Training and workshops can function well as a starting point. But the moment they become the goal themselves, the implementation measures will end up being just something people "want to try." In that case, what managers can do is surprisingly simple: in the next performance review, ask them to give one specific example of "a situation where they acted on their own judgment in accordance with the philosophy." If many employees struggle to answer, it means they are still at the "want to try" stage. And I want you to ask yourself that question first.
Similar things are happening in B2B decision-making. According to a survey conducted by IDEATECH Co., Ltd. in August 2025 (targeting 323 marketing personnel involved in the introduction of products costing over 1 million yen at B2B companies), 85.51 TP3T said they value objective data and research results in decision-making, and 69.41 TP3T said they had the experience of realizing their company's challenges from external research reports. This shows that irrefutable evidence in the form of facts and data is far more influential than verbal explanations.
I believe this is not unrelated to the spread of generative AI. Because AI can synthesize any information to sound plausible, the value of mere "what it says" is steadily decreasing. Conversely, AI cannot generate firsthand experience or primary information that can only be obtained through such experiences. This is precisely where the "experience" of EEAT, which search engines value, comes into play, and ultimately, the presence or absence of this primary information will likely determine whether or not content will be cited by AI in the future.
I think the same structure is at work within companies. Employees look at how management actually acts before they pay attention to the "words" of management. If management talks about its philosophy at the morning meeting, are they making decisions that contradict that philosophy the very next day? Employees are surprisingly observant of this, and they watch silently. Before conducting a survey to measure the degree to which the philosophy has permeated the company, wouldn't it be much quicker to reflect on your own actions over the past month?
I completely understand the urge to attribute the lack of internal branding implementation to employee attitudes or system design. However, as I realized through brainstorming sessions with clients, the only way to prove whether you're serious or not is by taking action.
If you want to instill a vision, I'd like you to start by asking yourself what actions you're taking. Before you talk about your ideals, start by making small decisions that align with them. It may seem mundane, but I believe there's no other shortcut. If you're not confident in your current actions, I think it's a good idea to talk to someone about it. We actually quite enjoy giving advice on those kinds of things.
After starting his own business at the age of 26, he has over 20 years of management experience in the design and branding fields. In 2016, he moved with his family to the Philippines and established a local IT outsourcing company, leading its global expansion. Currently, as a "GLOBAL BRANDING AGENCY," he supports the growth of companies while also actively working on organizational reforms within his own company. Based on the real-world struggles and firsthand information he has faced in organizational development and overseas management, he shares practical branding and organizational theories that are thoroughly aligned with the perspective of business leaders.
