There are many things to think about when deciding how to shape your company’s rewards and recognition program.  How will participants earn points?  How often will points be awarded? Who is in the target audience?  All important factors worthy of evaluation prior to a program launch.

One additional critical component that is absolutely essential to the creation of a successful program is branding.  Simply naming your program “The ABC Company Rewards Program” is not enough and certainly is not memorable to your audience.  While keeping a program name in line with the company branding guidelines is important to consider, we believe it is vital to success to in fact brand the program with its’ own identity.

Creating a branding strategy around your rewards and recognition program enables it to have a life of its’ own within the frame of the company mission.  Within that branding strategy consider not only a program name but also logo, color scheme, tag line and mission.  In determining the look and feel of the brand, those involved with creating and launching the program should be sure to evaluate target audience, overall goals, as well as anticipate how the program could potentially evolve (Will the target audience grow?  Will additional objectives be added over time? etc.).  The brand needs to encapsulate the program’s mission while taking into consideration company culture and the overall makeup of the participants (How can they be most engaged?  What’s the best way to “speak” to them?  What appeals to and motivates them?).

It’s highly recommended that a baseline survey of participants be conducted as part of program planning to gain specific insights into your audience.  Taking this information into consideration when creating the program can help shape a brand that is meaningful to participants as well as those that will be part of driving program success – the management of the company.