Got culture? If not, don’t worry, but don’t wait either Events in the Network Marketing space can have some of the most fun and inventive themes built around their culture. Each company, with their unique products and brand have an opportunity to display and celebrate their company culture through each show they put on for their distributors. I’ve seen CEO’s fly in on hot air balloons, or fly onto stage rigged up by wires. Others choose to drive onto stage in a Harley Davidson or simply emerge from below the stage in a waft of smoky mysteriousness. Whatever your flavor, your events give you the flexibility to get creative and show your folks what you are all about. Company culture however, does not just boil down to the extravagance, or simplicity that is on display at your events. NULL
Company culture has a lot to do with the underlying values and mission of any given company and how they are manifested and perceived by their community.
Culture also has a lot to do with your company brand. Some companies struggle to create a culture, they believe that their people are happy to just show up to an event and hear the latest leader and company executive give the latest update and hoo-rah-rah and go home.
Failing to cultivate an atmosphere of unique company culture is a mistake, since culture is what cultivates a sense of community, which helps keep everyone in harmony.
However, if some of these manifestations of the company culture are not carefully outlined in an event contract, you may find yourself falling short of your distributors expectations. Many hotels, as a standard and because of liability purposes, restrict outside food and beverage within the hotel meeting space. However, like most things in life, this clause is negotiable with good reason and under strict definitions. If you have edible products in your product line, like shakes or supplement mixes, make sure the hotel contract clause will allow service of company supplements and foods at breaks and within the space. In some cases, the hotel may charge a surcharge or require a liability waiver. On the other hand, you can even get the hotel chefs on board to integrate your products into the breakfast, lunch or dinner selections to help further the reinforcement of company values at your events. In all my years of events I’ve never seen this back fire and typically the distributors are delighted that they are being served the “healthy” smoothies for breakfast or that vitamin energy mix as their mid afternoon beverage. Having your products served or even integrated into the menu at events will further both your branding efforts and your company culture. Over time, it will become something your older distributors buzz about to your newer distributors and the expectation becomes part of the experience. If you are a company that promotes healthy chocolate, but the hotel serves Hershey’s chocolate during an afternoon break, this would be in conflict with the company culture. This event faux pas can be averted with the right food and beverage clause in place. If you have non-edible products, then creating a culture through doing something service related may be more appropriate for your group and a fun way to get everyone participating in a different way. Let’s suppose your company’s products are handbags or jewelry. A great way to integrate service and products into your events would be to do an outreach program where a certain number of jewels or handbags are given to the less fortunate who are in a work program and about to go on their first job interview. Each team could have an opportunity to “dress” their interviewee. Integrating charity along with your products and distributor participation will give everyone the warm-fuzzies, it will create a culture of giving back and of course, it will create a lot of positive press. (No special hotel clauses are required for this one!)
Got culture? If not, don’t worry, but don’t wait either.
And if you need help coming up with creative ideas to help integrate your company culture into your meetings …you should really think about hiring a meeting planner!
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- Discover the Secret to Attracting More Female Leaders By Mary Dee - December 1, 2017
- Brave New World: Combining Offline and Online Marketing By Mary Dee - April 1, 2016
- Integrating Company Culture Into Events by Mary Dee - December 1, 2013