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Archives for 2009

My Pick of the Posts: 2009


Transport Number Collage

As we reach the end of my first year in the “Careers Corner” at Corporate Eye, it’s a great opportunity to look back over all the topics that have been covered in the column.  We’ve analyzed best practices, explored fundamental issues and emerging trends, cataloged some hits and misses, asked serious questions—and had a little fun.  Not a bad way to spend twelve months!

Year-end lists always seem to be the “Ten Best.”  (Or “Ten Worst,” but I’m not going there.)  So that was my goal.  But it turns out to be quite a challenge.  Just ten?  So I’ve cheated a bit, and chosen all the series from 2009.  Which actually makes sense, since the topics that merited multiple posts were among the most important.

So here they are, in no particular order:

1.  Employer Brand

Three posts exploring the 2009 Fortune list of 100 Best Places to Work:  Communicating the Employer Brand, Shaping the Employer Brand, and Energizing the Employer Brand.   Plus a Fortune Follow-up.

2.  Diversity on the Corporate Website

Possibly the most ambitious series this year!  The four posts were:  Hot Topic or Obsolete Concept?; Four Strategies; The Challenge of Messaging; and Disability and Unvisibility.

3.  Some Really Good Advice

Part 1 and Part 2 offer a road-map to John Sullivan’s important series of articles, which add up to 127 suggested features or capabilities for the corporate Careers website of the future.

4.  Surfing the Boards

Exploring a report on job rankings, which provided Thought Provoking Hilarity.  The first post did the thought-provoking, so the second is called . . . And Now for the Funny.

5.  A Macy’s Mystery

Part 1 and Part 2 investigate the Forrester Report on corporate websites–and consider Macy’s shift from an award-winning charmer of a site to something rather more ordinary.

6.  Talent Acquisition 2009

Three posts on an important study:  Considering the Aberdeen Report, No Surprises, and On the Other Hand . . .

7.  Tick Tock:  Recruiting Hourly Workers

Part 1 and Part 2 take a look at what’s true, what’s new, and what works in this challenging segment of the recruitment world.

8.  Social Media Roundup

An informal series on the most talked-about aspect of recruiting this year:  Twitterama, Fair Play for Facebook, and Leveraging LinkedIn.

Okay, that’s eight.  Which leaves just two more.  But—why not make it a dozen?  And since no one’s stopping me, I’m going with the four I most enjoyed writing!

9. Funny Business (because it has Jack in it)

10. Exciting Sites (because it’s beautiful)

11. Get the Popcorn (because it’s always fun to think about movies)

12. Silver Linings (because it touched me)

Once I started, this review process got really interesting—so I’m going to follow up with a list of the posts I think were most significant.  In the meantime . . .  here’s looking forward to 2010!


(Many thanks to James Cridland for the marvelous numbers.  They come from different places in the London Transport System—visit the original Flickr page for this image and you can mouse over the numbers to see where each one came from!)

Tieto a Corporate Website Worth a Visit

I believe this is the first consulting services company I have profiled. It is not one of the mega consulting firms, but it sure knows how to tell visitors about itself. The company Tieto is based in Finland and does business across the globe.

Tieto
Click to enlarge image

A good feature on the uncluttered homepage is that the company tells you what they do (not every company does).

Industries served and their offerings are outlined.

Want to learn more? You only need to click on Industry Expertise and Offerings and you get more information.

Next, the About Us page offers a good menu of links.

I would like to see Corporate Governance here instead of being part of the Investors section. Good that Strategy is listed first and I think other companies would be wise to take note of this. Click on Strategy to see–

Tieto strategy

and related Financial Goals–

Tieto goals

This is a good example of transparency without divulging the “corporate jewels”.

Next the company offers Customer magazines and Other Publications.

Here is a tidbit from the article “Grow your own financial recovery” —

Cheer up…
– some of the benefits of a recession….

1

It forces you to stop being wasteful.

2

It makes you think again about business habits.

3

It accelerates change

4

It encourages you to be more creative

5

It forces you to make tough decisions

6

It thins out the competition

7

It makes you realize that you shouldn’t take anything for granted

8

It brings you back to basics

9

It is an opportunity for a new start

10

It reminds you that business is about people… and ideas

Good advice indeed.  Tieto: a corporate website worth a visit.

A Tale of Two Makeovers

Ever since Fred Astaire turned Audrey Hepburn from a bookworm to a cover girl in Funny Face, the makeover has been a Hollywood staple.  And more recently, a great source of ratings for reality TV.   Although a website transformation doesn’t have quite the same level of drama, it can still be entertaining—and instructive.

So here we have two makeover stories, both of which show what a difference design can make.  But while one is a clear winner, I’m perplexed about the other.

Let’s start with the unambiguous improvements made by DaVita early in 2008.  It was a perfect case study, with statistics to back up the effectiveness of the new design.  Within a year, site visits were up 88%, unique visitors up 76%, return visitors up 128%–and applications up 97%.

DaVita, a Fortune 500 company, is the largest independent “kidney care” (aka dialysis) company in the US, employing more than 33,000 “teammates.”  Also—winner of the 2009 ERE award for Recruiting Department of the Year, which makes the makeover worth a revisit.   For a fairly detailed presentation of DaVita’s approach to talent acquisition, watch this slideshow.

Here’s the single slide from that presentation which deals with the website:

DaVita Slide

Although the build text left on the published presentation makes it a little hard to see the old site, this side-by-side depiction of the old and new website designs clearly shows the increase in visual interest.  The lively new look features lots of people, along with clearly marked one-click paths to high-interest content.

The makeover goes beyond just improving look-and-feel qualities.  A big addition to the new site is a “Life in the Village” tab that focuses on this core message:  “The DaVita Community is a unique place where we care for our patients, each other and our world.”  One of the components is a Community and Charity section that goes far beyond the token presentations found on many sites.  DaVita organizes its wide-ranging collection of Village programs into three tabs (“Each Other,” “Patients,” and “The World”), ranging from employee recognition plans to clinical research grants to Bridge of Life, the medical missions program that “allows teammates to bring quality dialysis care to underserved regions, such as Africa, Latin America and Asia.”

With a full complement of social media connections, video tours, You Tube links, and other modern must-haves, DaVita touches all the bases nicely.  And it does so with a clean look that is cheerful without being frivolous.

Turning to the other makeover . . .

Earlier this year I picked the education/publishing company Pearson as one of the websites that charmed me unexpectedly.  It wasn’t slick and didn’t have all the bells and whistles we’ve come to expect—but it had an authentic, quirky feel.   Here’s how the “Our People” page looked in March:

Pearson Our People Old

And here’s how it looks now:

Pearson Careers New

As to whether this is an improvement, I think it depends on what measures you use.   The page is a component of a whole new site design that flows along a sort of bright, contemporary line—and there’s no doubt it looks more up-to-date and offers better functionality.  But it also seems generic.  The headline text on this page still emphasizes creativity and imagination, yet (to my eye, anyway) the design does not reinforce that message.  Perhaps there could have been a more engaging approach to modernization?

I’d love to hear other opinions!

2010 Branding Challenge – Don’t Let Them Say ‘So What’

The first decade of the 21st century is coming to a close, so I thought it would be a good time to think about, I mean really think about, your brand message, image, promise and positioning as we begin 2010.  To do so, consider the brand kiss of death.

What’s the brand kiss of death?  Simple …

When a brand name is mentioned, the common consumer reaction is to think, “so what?”  And asking “so what?” about your brand, is the brand kiss of death.

In other words, you never want anyone to think, “so what” after they hear your brand name or any kind of messaging related to your brand.  Your goal for 2010 should be this: make sure that your brand image, message, promise and position is so clear that no one ever has to ask “so what?”

Let’s take a step back and consider why people ask “so what” after hearing about a brand, product, etc.  It’s actually very simple.  People want to know “What’s In It For Me?” (WIIFM) if they take out their hard-earned money and choose your brand, product, etc.

I talk about the WIIFM concept a lot in my book about copywriting, Kick-ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps.  In short, the concept tells us that no one cares about you.  They care about what your brand, product, service, etc. can do for them.  They want to know how it make their lives easier or help them.  If they don’t know what’s in it for them if they choose your brand or product, then they’ll ask “so what?” when they hear about it.

And that’s what you don’t want to happen.

So I challenge you in 2010 to create a strategic goal in 2010 to ensure no one asks “so what” about your brand before the year is out.  Do you think you can do it?

15 Must-Read Branding Stories of 2009

2009_calendar_augustLast week, I published a list of 20 must-read branding articles of 2009, and this week, I’m taking that recap a step further by offering my list of 15 must-read branding stories of 2009.

Below are links to 15 stories about well-known brands that got us thinking in 2009.  These stories might have surprised us, validated our existing opinions, or even established the first steps in defining new branding trends that will carry into 2010 and beyond.  Others are just plain entertaining or fun!

As you read through the 15 must-read branding stories that I’ve written about here on Corporate Eye throughout 2009, consider how the questions elicited, debates opened, and lessons learned can affect your own brand strategy for 2010.

15 Must-Read Branding Stories of 2009:

  1. Microsoft was the Most Talked About Brand in 2009
  2. Obama and the Revitalization of Brand U.S.A.
  3. Continental Airlines Teams up with Winstar Interactive to Display Third-Party Ads on Continental.com
  4. Nissan – A Lesson in Creating a Brand Image, Message and Promise
  5. MySpace Repositions – Goodbye Friends, Hello Bands
  6. Twitter’s Trademark Stance
  7. International Trademarking Problems for Apple’s iPhone
  8. Microsoft Redemption Comes in the Form of New Bing Ads
  9. Penske Rescues Saturn from GM
  10. Oprah Winfrey Extends Brand to Her OWN Television Network
  11. Wikipedia Kills MSN Encarta
  12. Anheuser-Busch Loses Trademark Battle and Budweiser Brand Name in EU
  13. Miller Introduces the 1-Second Ad
  14. Exposed – Belkin Pays for Positive Customer Reviews
  15. Cause Marketing Boosts Brand Marketing on Facebook for Kraft

Image: Flickr

Free Product Placement – It Might Be Easier than You Think

American_AirlinesRaising brand awareness through entertainment marketing and product placement in movies and on television can bring significant exposure, but it can also cost a significant amount.

But what if you look at product placement from the movie and television studios’ perspectives?  Sometimes, studios pay companies to use their products, brand names, locations, and so on in movies.  How can you make their need work to your advantage?

Consider the movie Up in the Air starring George Clooney.  According to The New York Times, the movie’s studio team wanted to use real airline and hotel brands and locations to add authenticity to the movie.  Normally, the producers would need to find money in the movie’s budget to pay for access to locations such as airplanes, airport terminals, hotel lobbies, hotel rooms, and so on.  But for Up in the Air both American Airlines and Hilton Hotels offered their brand names and locations for free.

Not only that, but American Airlines and Hilton Hotels also created their own marketing campaigns that tied into the movie.  It’s a win-win situation for all sides.  The movie’s studio and the audience get the authenticity they need and want, and American Airlines and Hilton Hotels get a lot of free brand advertising because the movie has been well-reviewed and garnered a lot of buzz, including six Golden Globe nominations.

The trick is to match your brand to entertainment opportunities that put your brand in a positive light and allow you to create an integrated marketing plan that goes further than simple product placement.

For the American Airlines  and Up in the Air deal, entertainment public relations agency Rogers & Cowan did the negotiating.  Is this the first step in a new way of handling product placement?  Or is it a one-shot deal?  What do you think?

Sounds like an amazing opportunity for brands if you ask me.

Images: Flickr