Do you know what stops employer brands from actually working? Their name.
Employer brand.
Like we’ve got this magical ability to make people look at a brand from just one viewpoint at a time.
An employer brand is about showing off the real stuff that makes a company tick. Culture. People. The good days and the bad days.
So how about making that stuff part of your whole brand?
Picture the scene. Two companies have the same mission and make the same product. One company has a reputation as a nasty place to work, the other is good – not just ‘fruit and slides’ good but a progressive, challenging and fun place to work.
Which brand would you choose? And because consumers buy from brands that support their self-identity, which will sell more?
Seeing as it’s the name that’s the problem, that’s where we start. No more ‘employer’ brands.
Let’s start talking about People Powered Brands.
It’s not a massive shift – to a ‘consumer’ marketer, it’s similar to employee advocacy but on a large enough scale to make a difference. To an HR professional, it’s an employer brand that not just calls out purpose, people and performance, but helps define it.
People Powered Brands will be sponsored (and financed) by both the CPO and the CMO, because they create value for both. And we’ve already seen it with some of our most advanced clients. The ones we call partners.
So – there, we’ve said it. We’re trying to move employer branding forward, moving with our partners to a territory that impacts people not just employees. We want to widen the conversation, and provide more value.
Nothing more… but nothing less.
