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Scott Randall is the president of New York-based Brand Games, a youth marketing company that pioneered branded videogames as a messaging and brand building platform in 1995. Scott is an innovator and thought leader on entertainment marketing strategies, and consults General Motors, Kellogg's, Taco Bell, GAP, Reebok, General Mills on re-aligning marketing strategies for digital consumers. Scott has won design and marketing awards from the Association of Graphic Arts, Art Direction Magazine, the Interactive One Show, and the WebAwards.

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Buzzwords are Branding Weapons: How Marketers Can Steer Buzz into Big Bucks

Written on
August 2nd 2006
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by Scott Randall  |
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Speaking Their Language
Brand marketers go to great lengths to make sure that their brand messaging resonates with their target customer audience. Increasingly, HR and corporate communications executives are recognizing that they will have more success connecting with their target if they tailor their communications to appeal to them. This has lead to some interesting approaches. Professional services firms have resorted to tequila parties and snowboard trips in an effort to appear “cool” to young recruits.

While these approaches definitely get the attention of young recruits, they do little to differentiate the companies represented or create a desire among the recruits to work there. Investment banker Merrill Lynch wanted to break this mold. Never at a shortage of applicants, Merrill wanted to break from the HR party pack, and improve the profile of job applicants.

Merrill recruiting execs wanted applicants who were problems solvers and communicators, and, they wanted applicants to have an understanding of how the investment banking business works. “We wanted a program that would educate applicants about our industry as well as communicate the values of the firm and the skills required to work here,” says Heather Menella, former VP Global Marketing for Merrill Lynch.

People under the age of 40 man 63% of the U.S. workplace. Employees who were born after 1972 (that makes them 31 years old) have never known a world without computers. HR and recruiting executives have responded to this demographic reality by building increasingly sophisticated websites. But is a website enough to differentiate your firm when almost everyone has one?

Merrill Lynch created a business simulation CD-ROM videogame that introduced under graduate and MBA candidates to the equity, debt and M&A aspects of Merrill’s business. College students could participate in virtual client engagements that let them experience what it is like to work in investment banking at Merrill Lynch before they met with the firm. The CD emphasized the problem solving and communications skills that Merrill looks for and students could connect directly to the Merrill website from the CD.

“Educating job applicants means the dialoged begins at a much higher level. We don’t have to start at square one with them, and applicants benefit from a conversation that speaks to their skills and ambitions,” says Menella.

Meeting Your Goals
In the end, companies need to create a clear, consistent image for employees and recruits. The company image projected in the customer and employee marketplace should match up to what new employees experience when they are hired and on the job. The image should be communicated in terms that everyone understands. Letting recruits and employees role-play is a good way to introduce “real life” meaning to the message. Don’t take anything for granted with employees and recruits — communicate with them like customers and turn a buzzword into a powerful workforce enabler!



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