The four phases of branding
Brand is change
“We were missing tailored content our recruiters could use...”
With 700 employee responses gathered and 150 video and written pieces created – so far – David says: “The Martec has had a massive impact on our talent attraction strategy”. And with 1 million organic impressions, a 150% lift in career traffic for DE&I initiatives, and multiple business units using the content – every talent team across David’s global organization has benefited.
As David says: “It’s impossible to create enough content to stay top of mind for talent without The Martec.” Watch David explain in 2 minutes >>
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You all know my feelings towards the one and only Jasmine Bina, right? No? Then watch her episode of The Definition of Insanity. Just do it.
Anyway, I was struck by something she posted this week:
This is her work and I made sure she was cool with me sharing this.
In this model, this is the path that brands themselves take as they shape our culture. Think Uber:
It starts as a weird idea (Tension: I just get into a stranger’s car???)
Then we began to test it out (Exploration: So I can just see where the car is on a map?? Neat!)
Soon, we started to make changes to our behaviors because we could count on it (Transformation: No need to worry, I’ll grab an Uber from the airport)
Systems began to adjust to the new reality (Entrenchment: Airports now have designated ride share sections).
BUT! I think this same model describes how businesses react to employer branding as a function:
It starts weird (What is this brand thing? We’re recruiters!)
People began to play with it (What if we just played around with some video or rewrote a job posting from scratch to be more engaging? It works? Neat!)
People’s behaviors changed (Recruiter: Now that I can count on a steady flow of good content, I’m changing my strategy on social/outreach and it’s growing my audience and pipeline!)
Systems were developed to adjust to the new reality (All job postings flow through EB, better conversations about what more useful content on the career site looks like, more recruiters and hiring managers are advocating, people are volunteering to build content, marketing is making space for EB thinking, etc)
You might start to think about where you and your company is within this cycle.
But what’s interesting is that even in the same company, people may be on different steps of the process. You might be living in Transformation while your recruiter is living in Exploration but the hiring manager is still in Tension. Knowing where someone is in the process should help you understand what they need to know and what their fears are in that moment. For example, for someone in Transformation, talking about bigs ways to make change makes perfect sense, but to someone in Tension, it sounds chaotic and scary.
So when you are talking about your work, it will serve you to spend a moment and think about where your audience is and what they need to hear from you.
This approach should give you and your ideas their best chance to be properly heard.
🎲 Is there any real business value of branding? Let’s find out! »
🀄 “Job applications are often an expression of curiosity, not a firm commitment.” »
🃏 “A McKinsey study found that companies that prioritize creativity have 67 percent above-average organic revenue growth and 74 percent above-average net enterprise value.“ I bet if we dug into those numbers, we would find that teams and functions that got prioritize creativity performed better than their less empowered counterparts. That said, step one here is asking, “what does it mean to work creatively?” »
🎲 We don’t spend enough time talking about or thinking about what we can do when we have to reject applicants »
🀄 AI for better social media strategy »
🃏 I’m not saying it’s rough out there for TA and EB pros, but here is some advice for anyone who is getting laid off »
🎲 Networking tips for introverts » (BTW, if you ever see me out at a conference or something, understand that while I’m a total loudmouth, I am actually an introvert. So yes, you should come up to me and say hello.")
🀄 3 steps to boost your personal brand »
🏛️ All 2,300+ articles from this newsletter are in a searchable archive. Go get ‘em!
Yep. I have PROOF that it only takes 3 weeks to get an employer brand that makes every single one of your recruiters and your recruiting tactics more effective.
Don’t believe me? Let me send you one of two case studies I just wrapped up. Just reply to this email and I’ll send one over.
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