Strategy

Experiential Marketing: Emotion and the employer brand

Have you read Brett's latest book,  Employer Brand Leadership-A Global Perspective?

Experiential marketing has successfully been used by brands over the past few years to connect with consumers to drive sales and profit. Appealing to a variety of senses, the goal of experiential marketing is to establish the connection in such a way that the consumer responds to a product offering based on both emotional and rational response levels. Are marketers missing an opportunity to make an impact on the employer brand at the same time as using experiential marketing initiatives to build consumer brand equity?

The role of experiential marketing in branding:

There’s no doubt that brand is about reputation. It’s what you hear, think and feel about a organization and its product or service–that’s the brand. What’s changed is the role people play in brands. We care more than ever about what other people say about a brand, or how they rate a product. In fact, 2012 marketing data shows that conversion rates are 105% higher when ratings and reviews are used by customers.

It just means that as customers, we’re smarter because information about a product or brand is more accessible. Since that information is there, we use it, we experience the brand before we make a choice.  And marketers are increasingly taking notice of this. I don’t mean social media–we all know marketers are making exceptional use of online channels.  I mean experiences–marketers aren’t just introducing products and brands. They’re giving customers ways to experience the brand in increasingly personal and emotional ways.

Think about it this way–you’re at the grocery store staring at the shelf trying to decide which shampoo to buy. There’s no interaction and likely no emotional component. Instead, you’re just recalling information consciously and subconsciously in your head: commercials you’ve seen, what your friends use, what you’re typically loyal too. Then you make your choice.

But marketers have evolved. They know some things either can’t be sold on a shelf or can’t be sold well. In 2011, Nokia embraced this, launching their Lumia 800 phone with a dazzling 4-D light show featuring the popular cult DJ Deadmau5.  It’s a wild show with incredible technology and pull-through marketing from the light show graphics displayed on the side of the buidling to the Deadmau5 ears given to attendees. Recently, Nokia jumped the most it has since 2008 primarily based on sales of the Lumia. Is experiential marketing the culprit? Well, the light show has over 4 million views on YouTube. You be the judge.

Your most important employer brand asset – Your EVP!

Full length article of shorter version published in Human Resources, New Zealand's Magazine for HR Professionals.

Click here for the pdf version

Have you read Brett's latest book,  Employer Brand Leadership-A Global Perspective?

Recently I caught up with International employer brand strategist and author, Brett Minchington to ask his thoughts on the question that causes alot of confusion!

Should an employer use different EVP-subsets in their employer branding activities if they target many different audiences?
 

The short answer to this is YES!

However before I delve into the details it’s important to define what an Employer Value Proposition (EVP) is.

Transforming culture with employer branding

Have you read Brett's new book,  Employer Brand Leadership-A Global Perspective?

The original article was published in the UK's Personnel Today as article 4 in a 4 part series in the lead up to the 2012 UK Employer Branding World Series Summit in London on 21 March 2012 where Brett is Chairing and presenting.

Upcoming 2012 employer branding events -

May

17 - Toronto

22 - Kiev

25 - Madrid

29 - Paris

31 - Milan

In the final article of a four part series, Brett Minchington, chairman and CEO of Employer Brand International teams up with Neil Harrison, Head of Employer Branding and Insight at TMP UK to discuss the challenges of transforming organisational culture through employer branding strategies and highlighting  the key focus areas to improve your success.

The holy grail of employer branding is the ability for leaders to transform the company’s culture to align with the identity, image and perception they strive stakeholders to have about their organisation as a ‘Great place to work.”

Many have tried and many have failed!

Challenges of implementation

Some of the most common challenges and excuses we hear from leaders when the employer brand strategy has little or no impact on transforming culture usually begin with, “Perfect! We’ve just developed our new employer brand strategy.” However:

Delivering a signature employment experience

Have you read Brett's new book,  Employer Brand Leadership-A Global Perspective?

Upcoming Summits & Masterclass events were Brett will be presenting click here >

The key moments of truth for your employer brand

Companies are increasingly realising that looking at only one part of the employee lifecycle e.g. recruitment, is simply not enough! Employee’s needs and motivators change over time during the course of their tenure. These changes may be influenced by lifestyle factors such as age, gender, experience, qualifications, marital status, stage of life, career aspirations, etc.

Your employer brand strategy must consider the complete picture and leaders need to carefully consider and plan how the employee experience impacts people at each touchpoint across the lifecycle. Smart Executives realise that a ‘one-size-fits’ all lifecycle strategy fails to optimise productivity.  Companies that segment and align the employee lifecycle as part of their employer brand strategy will benefit from maintaining higher levels of engagement, productivity, customer satisfaction and profit!

Where to begin!

A lifecycle mapping audit will identify any gaps in employee experience from pre-hire to re-hire and your future strategy will need to address these gaps to ensure your people policies, processes and systems are working to provide a signature employee experience. In theory it makes good sense, in practice, much work needs to be done as there are many moving parts to join up.  Segmenting and effectively managing the employee lifecycle will require a culture change for many companies.

The fifteen moments of truth

Whilst there will be variances depending on company size, scope and scale, the key ‘moments of truths’ across the employee lifecycle which will require your focus include: