Employer Branding for the New Workforce
The best book on branding I’ve read is “What is Branding?” by Matthew Healey. I recommend it be your reference book on branding. Every graphic designer, product designer, artist, and business person should have a copy of this book and look through it regularly.
Branding is more than a logo, more than design, more than....listen to the definition Healy gives in his glossary:
BRAND: A tangible, symbolic system created by a producer to evoke an intangible notion in a customer’s mind. The system comprises a discrete identitiy - name, logo, color, visual style, tone of voice, product design, package design, advertising, approach to customer service, and environmental design - associated with an insight involving rational product benefits, emotional desires, and personal aspirations.
Whoa! Emotional desires and personal aspirations? Yes, sirree!
Healy goes on to define the brand experience as: The sum of all of the cognitive associations a customer enjoys when coming into contact with a brand, whether visual, sensory, or emotional, (and more……)
Hmmmm...visual, sensory, and emotional?? This brand stuff is starting to sound a bit fluffy. What's emotional about a tractor part?
It's not the tractor part. It's part of the John Deere experience. (for example, since it's one of my favorite brands).
Walt Disney always stressed that, at much as possible, people should be able to use all five senses when enjoying a customer experience: taste, smell, see, hear, and touch/feel what they are "buying" or "consuming", which is just another way to say "experiencing". The clearer you can be about what your customers experience when they purchase your products or services, the clearer you will be on how to brand yourself as the employer of choice. (Uh,,,,,oh yeah, we were talking about employer branding before she got all sidetracked on John Deere and Walt Disney.)(I knew that. I'm trying to make a point here. The point is, that there is a brand experience for the customer, and there is also a brand experience for the existing, and the future employee. Finally, she asks........What is the employee brand experience? After all....(and I've been thrown out of more than one boardroom for saying this) your employees ARE customers. Their experience is very real. What is it? Is it consistent with what you think your brand is? If not, you will end up with a big mess. Your employees interface with the public every day; whether it's on the job, or when they're off (don't kid yourself...they talk about their work experience at church, at home, and everywhere they go). What is the brand experience for them? Whatever it is for them will be passed on to the end-user customer/client. Okay, now that I've ruined your lunch, you can hate me. But knowledge is power. So, I never giving you the "punch-list" for becoming the employer of choice for the new workforce. That will have to wait until my next post. Right now I have to jump on my trusty green and yellow steed and mow the lawn.
Tags: brand experience, Branding, Coach, coaching, employer experience, Executive Coach, executive coaching, Hiring, Leadership, Marketing, Recruiting, Retention, workforce
