A couple of days ago I asked all my HR friends on Twitter: “What’s the simplest definition of brand you have heard” and the best response I got was, “What people think when they think of you.”
Underscoring the importance of branding is the recent news from Europe that Publicis won the RBS recruitment advertising account in a hotly contested RFP. The business will be handled by Publicis “Engage”, a brand new recruitment and employment branding entity. This is the second time in a month that a well-known brand opted for a non-traditional firm to handle its recruitment (McDonalds/VCCP). This might signal a trend, which I, for one, am in favor of, that employers reviewing their future employment strategies and branding are taking a “consumer” approach! It’s a great time to be focusing on branding and engagement challenges and opportunities.
What we strive for at Pinstripe can be explained in these analogies… in the list of the top department stores, for example, we want to be more like Nordstrom and less like Sears; more like Best Buy or Costco, and less like WalMart. Always provide the best value, results and customer experience with the best “total cost of ownership”.
Here at Pinstripe, as we move through our 4th year of operation, our strategy continues to be play our own game. To “be more like Pinstripe and less like anyone else.” And I know we’re succeeding when I recently talked with our 4 newest clients. They said things like:
- Pinstripe is unlike anyone else
- What made you our unanimous choice is that throughout the process, your presentations were all about us — NOT about you
- We could tell from your presentations that Pinstripe took a consultative, rather than transactional, approach, and we wanted that
- We knew we could rely on the Pinstripe team to live up to its brand promise of “We Become You” and represent our brand better than anyone else.
As we help our clients prepare for the inevitable market upturn, we offer them one most important piece of advice …
Take this opportunity to be thoughtful, yet bold, because the “new normal” that evolves from this economic turbulence will be different – very different – from our traditional past.
Tags: Best Buy, branding, Costco, Europe, HR, McDonalds, Nordstrom, Publicis, recruitment, Sears, twitter, WalMart
Great insight Sue in what is now evolving in this reset (not recovery) period.
I talk to a lot of folks, particularly those who recently acquired “career transition” status, who are going through their own version of the 12-step program towards realizing they must reset, because we’re never going back “to the way things were.”
I’ve witnessed a transformation in people when I ask them “why I should care about you?” Through their defense, they find their passion voice, partly from anger, partly from a real fear of the new “what’s next.” But in the end, I see they get a glimpse of their own unique “compelling and interesting” which ultimately shapes their own unique brand essence.
I’m optimistic about this reset that is making people move from entitlement to self reliance. From no longer being affected by change. But affecting change. The personal branding process is a great springboard to something much more human and significant. Cheers.