The (almost over)simplified perspective for decision-makers
“I have to say, I don’t get it,” admitted a CFO friend of mine. “We just finished a huge branding process six months ago; wasn’t that Employer Branding?”
My friend is in good company, as many executives have a hard time with this novel branding terminology — terminology that, until not long ago, was used only by branding geeks like myself.
But don’t mistake novelty for hype; Employer Branding and Employee Branding are a necessity in today’s world. Especially in Israel, which has recently become a war zone of companies fighting over talent. With dozens of unicorn startups and many more large internationals operating in close proximity in central Israel, this war demands strategic attention, strategic planning, and strategic resources.
And just like in every war, the companies who manufacture weapons of mass destruction (branding and advertising agencies) tend to encourage going big and using everything in their branding arsenal. Even if it’s unnecessary.
Allow me to quickly break down the terminology and give you some rules of thumb:
Branding
A narrative about the challenges your customer is facing and how the brand can help to overcome them. A big part of this process is positioning, but let’s not overcomplicate things, so I leave it here.
The storytelling is done through visual language, advertising, and other forms of marketing communication.
Employer Branding
A story about the life challenges and dreams of your potential employee and how she can overcome them by working for you.
The storytelling is done in recruitment advertising and via brand ambassadors (employees, partners, etc.).
Employee Branding
Teaching your employees to communicate the brand narrative to customers and partners in the best possible way.
This terminology is misleading — it’s not a branding process, but a brand-building/brand communication process.
Now, should you actually carry out three separate processes? Well, rarely.
If you’re aiming for what I see as an ideal branding process, you can have them all in one.
Ideal Branding Process (all-in-one)
In this process, Branding and Employer Branding should be addressed as two sides of the same coin. For example, if the customer-facing narrative is about creating exciting games, the employee-facing side can address the open and creativity-encouraging culture that allows the creation of exciting games.
The ideal process will also include an internal communication strategy. This strategy should be broken down into touchpoints and experiences for employees to engage with. If done properly, this will make a separate Employee Branding process obsolete.
Still, while striving for the ideal, sometimes we need to deal with far-from-ideal circumstances. Let’s break down these scenarios, which I call:
Ideal Compromises
Employer Branding should be built on the foundations of an existing corporate culture. It should emphasize the most prominent aspects of the culture authentically. For example, if the real experience of working in the company is dull and far from creativity-friendly, then focusing on creativity will surely backfire.
In such cases, Employer Branding deserves a separate strategic process. Still, there are advantages to running both processes consecutively and having the same expert(s) run both processes:
– shorter learning curve
– wider perspective
– no need for a separate bid
If streamlining all three processes makes no sense to you (for example, if you are happy with your customer-facing branding that was done many years ago), try to combine the other two processes. If this is your situation, call on experts who have experience in both brand strategy and brand communication. The latter type of experience, in particular, is a big advantage for Employer Branding.
That’s about it (I warned you, it’s a simplified take!), but while we’re on the subject, allow me to warn you about…
One major mistake you should avoid
One of the classic mistakes with many branding processes is the “grand reveal”. It’s the idea that the first time you expose the branding, outside the closed circle of decision-makers, should be when you are launching it. Though the notion of a grand reveal often fills everyone with lots of excitement and adrenaline, this is a very risky approach.
Branding, of all sorts, is a strategic process in its own right and not a mere execution of a business strategy. This is why it’s unreasonable not to validate it prior to the official launch.
Think about your business strategy as a missile you’ve built to hit your target, and about your branding as an aiming mechanism that guides this missile. It doesn’t matter how big the potential impact of your missile is; if the aiming is not done properly, you will miss your target. Use imprecise wording in your positioning, choose irrelevant shapes and colors for your logo, and the new branding will miss its target.
My warm advice to you is to test, test, test! But only with the exact audiences you want to target.
How can you properly test without revealing your new branding to the world? I will explain my methodology in an upcoming article on this topic. Follow me if this interests you.
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Need someone to lead one of the abovementioned branding processes? Ping me here or on LinkedIn.