The secret to Airstream’s iconic culture? Its 30-person employee council

vintage Airstream trailer, Mobile home, Airstream trailer parked on city street, ready for travel, freedom of the open road, brand automotive manufacturer, Frankfurt - October 11, 2024

When you think of a classic American road trip, there’s a good chance an Airstream trailer comes to mind. But Airstream isn’t famous just because of good marketing. Much of the company’s image has deep roots in the company’s internal culture.

Brittany Fullenkamp, internal brand manager for Airstream, told Ragan that at her company external image begins on the inside.

“If you want to build your brand and make a positive external experience, push it internally first,” Fullenkamp said.

But what makes Airstream different from other famous companies is that it has a formal process for how employees can make their voices heard and define culture.

The employees are the culture creators

The Airstream Associate Council gathers together monthly to discuss employee experience at the company. It’s made up of 30 employees out of the company’s 1,100 overall.

“Each department is represented, and it’s consistent with our demographics,” she said. “Seventy-five percent of our workforce is deskless, so 75% of the council is deskless too.”

The council’s true influence lies in the fact that it’s a direct tie between employees and leaders. Fullenkamp said that the council makes such a major difference because it enables them to get attention directly from leadership.

“She added that the council has also worked with the comms team to help them refine their tools.

“They were a big piece of building our intranet and crafting that,” Fullenkamp said. “We involved them in the name of the thing, the branding and the content structure. What needs to be on the homepage and what should be in the mobile app.”

Fullenkamp said that the council helps leaders anticipate how employees might react to a given message, which helps comms pros and leaders craft things the right way the first time.

“They’ll say, ‘If you’ve made this decision, this is how it’s going to go over and these are the questions people are going to ask,’” she said. “So, we can preemptively write the communications to answer the questions instead of maybe trying to mitigate frustration after.”

Fullenkamp said that the council’s influence on leadership has a direct tie to how Airstream brands itself. With a happy employee base, the company can then reflect that energy into its branding and business processes with the outside world.

“At the end of the day, we recognize that the happier our employees are, the better quality product they’re going to build and the better service provided to our customers,” Fullenkamp said. “Which in turn just makes the business more profitable.”

She added that the council’s success is no accident. It’s a result of carefully constructed feedback mechanisms.

“We’re not just out throwing darts and not hitting the right places,” she said. “We’re shaping culture with real feedback from people who live it every day.”

Fullenkamp shared that no matter how popular a company is, internal communicators still need to work intentionally to cultivate internal cultures that cultivate employees who exude the brand’s values.

“If the people behind the brand don’t believe in it, customers will feel that disconnect,” Fullenkamp said. “You can’t lean only on the cool product to get buy-in on the brand.”

Sean Devlin is an editor at Ragan Communications. In his spare time he enjoys Philly sports and hosting trivia.