We live in a marketing world of explosive change: new channels, newly empowered consumers and a new commitment by brands to re-write old rules. So why is it so much still hasn’t changed about how brands engage their own employees?
But isn’t it all one brand? And isn’t it all dependent on creating a distinctive and great experience—with employees at the core? We think so. It’s time for new words to describe employee engagement—words that speak to a new approach to the field. Instead of employee engagement, how about Brand Experience Alignment?
From interim CHRO for the U.S. Olympic Committee with the world's best athletes to head of employee engagement at storied brand American Express to CLO and change agent at Apollo Education Group, Alicia Mandel is a strategic thinker and compelling speaker. In this webinar, she explored and shared:
The need to transition from compliance-focused to engagement-centric HR
How the “sprint” business paradigm conflicts with an annual performance process
Core principles for a new performance management model
Four good transformation starting points
Change readiness model and process checklist for transforming your process
Full recording: http://bit.ly/1mcEgQD
This slideshare shows why our employees are often be distracted and how to get them back on track. By looking at what drives employee engagement, your teams will learn how to "be in the zone" more often.
O.C. Tanner presents the Coolest Companies award to appreciate companies with standout cultures that recognize all the great work done by employees. We look back at the seven cities highlighted during 2014.
From interim CHRO for the U.S. Olympic Committee with the world's best athletes to head of employee engagement at storied brand American Express to CLO and change agent at Apollo Education Group, Alicia Mandel is a strategic thinker and compelling speaker. In this webinar, she explored and shared:
The need to transition from compliance-focused to engagement-centric HR
How the “sprint” business paradigm conflicts with an annual performance process
Core principles for a new performance management model
Four good transformation starting points
Change readiness model and process checklist for transforming your process
Full recording: http://bit.ly/1mcEgQD
This slideshare shows why our employees are often be distracted and how to get them back on track. By looking at what drives employee engagement, your teams will learn how to "be in the zone" more often.
O.C. Tanner presents the Coolest Companies award to appreciate companies with standout cultures that recognize all the great work done by employees. We look back at the seven cities highlighted during 2014.
It is time to conduct a “reset” exercise and put employee
engagement back in its proper place and perspective. This paper
identifies five areas that our research has shown to be
potentially troublesome for companies - especially in terms of
helping them frame their expectations in the most reasonable,
realistic and productive ways. We have discussed them here to
help you understand the true power of aligning employee drives
and needs with those of your company
Is Pay Hindering Your Company’s Performance?
A culture of performance is one where success patterns have taken root throughout an organization. The company is winning and you see it manifest in every part of the business. However, for too many companies, the culture is not “firing on all cylinders.” Performance is lagging. As a result, breakthrough growth remains out of reach.
Pay can either drive or inhibit the success patterns that fuel business growth. If your company’s rewards strategy is hindering more than enabling a performance culture, you will not want to miss this presenation
Communicating Compensation to Executives and ManagersBambooHR
Communicating compensation can be like walking a minefield—mistakes can be disastrous and getting it right is critical to your organization’s health and well-being. In this webinar, we’ll discuss the strategy of communicating compensation, how to make and execute a compensation plan, and how to include executives and managers in the conversation. We’ll also talk about pay transparency, and how to use compensation conversations as an opportunity to build both your culture and your internal influence.
By Brett Minchington & Lisa G.Morris with contributions from students & graduates of the Certificate in Employer Brand Leadership & EBI Advisory Board Members. Employer Brand International is pleased to present their latest thought leadership whitepaper.
How LinkedIn built a Community of Half a BillionAatif Awan
Traction Conference 2017 - Since its 2003 inception, LinkedIn has transformed from a networking hub to a beacon of economic opportunity for more than 500 million global members. Vice President of Growth at LinkedIn, Aatif Awan, will explore vital contributors to its growth at milestones throughout LinkedIn’s history, from product innovations and team structure to international expansion. Sharing key lessons learned through this journey, Awan will discuss LinkedIn’s alignment of growth strategy to company vision rather than metrics, and the impact this approach has had on attracting, retaining and servicing its more than half billion members.
The Employee Experience: From Engagement to EnergyGlintInc
In times of change, the employee experience helps hold the company together. Whether it be changes to leadership, products, or culture, the employee experience is the one item that should remain constant and strong in order to keep employees engaged. In this research-based presentation, Josh Bersin, principal and founder, Bersin™, Deloitte Consulting LLP, will highlight the latest trends in the employee engagement market and explain why citizenship, purpose, meaningful work, and “energy, not just engagement” are the most important business strategies you have.
What is great company culture? Free food? Extra vacation? Flexible hours? More than $720 million is spent on engagement every year, yet only 30% of the workforce is actively engaged. That’s because it takes more than “stuff” to truly engage team members.
Check out our ‘Creating a Magnetic Culture’ webinar presentation with HR strategist, writer and speaker, Laurie Ruettimann, to:
– Uncover how to give your team members real meaning in their jobs … no matter where they are in the employee life cycle
– Define what it means to have a “magnetic” culture and how to build it by design, not by default
– Get actionable tips on how to create an engaging culture from companies like Texas Roadhouse and Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams
– Discover which “perks” can actually drive record sales and continued growth
– Learn how a meaningful culture gives you a competitive edge to attract and retain top talent
Understand the difference between "satisfaction" and "engagement" plus what process I believe will get the most engagement levels for human capital within organisations.
United Minds’ Forward to Work: Designing the Employee Experience of the FutureWeber Shandwick
In our sixth session, “Designing the Employee Experience of the Future,” TIAA's Chief Associate Experience & Employee Relations Officer Andy Habenicht and Chief Talent Management Officer Josh Greenwald discussed their journey to becoming an employee-centric organization, including:
- The importance of focusing on employee experience
- Changing expectations in today’s environment
- Considerations to inform planning
Please visit our website for more information: http://unitedmindsglobal.com.
First impressions are important. Our studies show 25% of subscribers never engage with a brand because they are not properly on-boarded. Learn how to begin building a 1:1 customer relationship right from the start.
Today’s leaders are poorly served by conventional management theories and practices. Instead of helping executives manage the growing complexity of business, the supposed solutions only seem to make things worse. A new book from BCG outlines a better approach to managing complexity. The approach is called smart simplicity, and it hinges on six simple rules.
When it comes to recruiting and keeping top talent, companies need to understand what potential employees value and create a company culture that appreciates all they have to offer. The following slides are tips and management tactics to help employers find and keep their “A players”.
This third installment, on the topic of Employee Engagement and Retention, looks in some depth at the employee-employer relationship, including issues such as employee loyalty, happiness and commitment to the job. It also examines views about the employer’s reputation as a preferred place to work, and the circumstances under which employees explore alternative jobs and careers.
“What’s the problem”? You have assembled some of the best talent there is, a team chocked with talent and potential...yet every year the performance does not correlate to the talent hype. Right about this time senior management has become frustrated because of the investment made on constructing this world class talent, and begins pointing the crosshairs toward your direction as the leader of the team. Now, you have a decision to make “do I blame the performance solely on the team” or “do I take the blame and hope for the best” both decisions have consequences.
This whitepaper will walk you through the possible solutions to those decisions, and importantly help you lead your team/organization to a center of excellence level.
Employee Engagement - Definition and BenefitsIdeaGlow
Having engaged employees is perhaps the ultimate secret to a successful organization. In fact, in the past decade, most organizations have moved from focusing on employee satisfaction to focusing on employee engagement.
As a result, increasing employee engagement is one of the top priorities for most HR organizations.
So, what is employee engagement? And what are the benefits of having engaged employees?
Click through this presentation for more information!
Despite spending vast amounts of time and money on employee engagement, engagement metrics remain stagnant. What if, instead of obsessing about how to increase employee engagement, how to improve and position your employer brand, or how to fight the war for talent, you instead put serious effort into thinking about how to improve and position your employees?
It is time to conduct a “reset” exercise and put employee
engagement back in its proper place and perspective. This paper
identifies five areas that our research has shown to be
potentially troublesome for companies - especially in terms of
helping them frame their expectations in the most reasonable,
realistic and productive ways. We have discussed them here to
help you understand the true power of aligning employee drives
and needs with those of your company
Is Pay Hindering Your Company’s Performance?
A culture of performance is one where success patterns have taken root throughout an organization. The company is winning and you see it manifest in every part of the business. However, for too many companies, the culture is not “firing on all cylinders.” Performance is lagging. As a result, breakthrough growth remains out of reach.
Pay can either drive or inhibit the success patterns that fuel business growth. If your company’s rewards strategy is hindering more than enabling a performance culture, you will not want to miss this presenation
Communicating Compensation to Executives and ManagersBambooHR
Communicating compensation can be like walking a minefield—mistakes can be disastrous and getting it right is critical to your organization’s health and well-being. In this webinar, we’ll discuss the strategy of communicating compensation, how to make and execute a compensation plan, and how to include executives and managers in the conversation. We’ll also talk about pay transparency, and how to use compensation conversations as an opportunity to build both your culture and your internal influence.
By Brett Minchington & Lisa G.Morris with contributions from students & graduates of the Certificate in Employer Brand Leadership & EBI Advisory Board Members. Employer Brand International is pleased to present their latest thought leadership whitepaper.
How LinkedIn built a Community of Half a BillionAatif Awan
Traction Conference 2017 - Since its 2003 inception, LinkedIn has transformed from a networking hub to a beacon of economic opportunity for more than 500 million global members. Vice President of Growth at LinkedIn, Aatif Awan, will explore vital contributors to its growth at milestones throughout LinkedIn’s history, from product innovations and team structure to international expansion. Sharing key lessons learned through this journey, Awan will discuss LinkedIn’s alignment of growth strategy to company vision rather than metrics, and the impact this approach has had on attracting, retaining and servicing its more than half billion members.
The Employee Experience: From Engagement to EnergyGlintInc
In times of change, the employee experience helps hold the company together. Whether it be changes to leadership, products, or culture, the employee experience is the one item that should remain constant and strong in order to keep employees engaged. In this research-based presentation, Josh Bersin, principal and founder, Bersin™, Deloitte Consulting LLP, will highlight the latest trends in the employee engagement market and explain why citizenship, purpose, meaningful work, and “energy, not just engagement” are the most important business strategies you have.
What is great company culture? Free food? Extra vacation? Flexible hours? More than $720 million is spent on engagement every year, yet only 30% of the workforce is actively engaged. That’s because it takes more than “stuff” to truly engage team members.
Check out our ‘Creating a Magnetic Culture’ webinar presentation with HR strategist, writer and speaker, Laurie Ruettimann, to:
– Uncover how to give your team members real meaning in their jobs … no matter where they are in the employee life cycle
– Define what it means to have a “magnetic” culture and how to build it by design, not by default
– Get actionable tips on how to create an engaging culture from companies like Texas Roadhouse and Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams
– Discover which “perks” can actually drive record sales and continued growth
– Learn how a meaningful culture gives you a competitive edge to attract and retain top talent
Understand the difference between "satisfaction" and "engagement" plus what process I believe will get the most engagement levels for human capital within organisations.
United Minds’ Forward to Work: Designing the Employee Experience of the FutureWeber Shandwick
In our sixth session, “Designing the Employee Experience of the Future,” TIAA's Chief Associate Experience & Employee Relations Officer Andy Habenicht and Chief Talent Management Officer Josh Greenwald discussed their journey to becoming an employee-centric organization, including:
- The importance of focusing on employee experience
- Changing expectations in today’s environment
- Considerations to inform planning
Please visit our website for more information: http://unitedmindsglobal.com.
First impressions are important. Our studies show 25% of subscribers never engage with a brand because they are not properly on-boarded. Learn how to begin building a 1:1 customer relationship right from the start.
Today’s leaders are poorly served by conventional management theories and practices. Instead of helping executives manage the growing complexity of business, the supposed solutions only seem to make things worse. A new book from BCG outlines a better approach to managing complexity. The approach is called smart simplicity, and it hinges on six simple rules.
When it comes to recruiting and keeping top talent, companies need to understand what potential employees value and create a company culture that appreciates all they have to offer. The following slides are tips and management tactics to help employers find and keep their “A players”.
This third installment, on the topic of Employee Engagement and Retention, looks in some depth at the employee-employer relationship, including issues such as employee loyalty, happiness and commitment to the job. It also examines views about the employer’s reputation as a preferred place to work, and the circumstances under which employees explore alternative jobs and careers.
“What’s the problem”? You have assembled some of the best talent there is, a team chocked with talent and potential...yet every year the performance does not correlate to the talent hype. Right about this time senior management has become frustrated because of the investment made on constructing this world class talent, and begins pointing the crosshairs toward your direction as the leader of the team. Now, you have a decision to make “do I blame the performance solely on the team” or “do I take the blame and hope for the best” both decisions have consequences.
This whitepaper will walk you through the possible solutions to those decisions, and importantly help you lead your team/organization to a center of excellence level.
Employee Engagement - Definition and BenefitsIdeaGlow
Having engaged employees is perhaps the ultimate secret to a successful organization. In fact, in the past decade, most organizations have moved from focusing on employee satisfaction to focusing on employee engagement.
As a result, increasing employee engagement is one of the top priorities for most HR organizations.
So, what is employee engagement? And what are the benefits of having engaged employees?
Click through this presentation for more information!
Despite spending vast amounts of time and money on employee engagement, engagement metrics remain stagnant. What if, instead of obsessing about how to increase employee engagement, how to improve and position your employer brand, or how to fight the war for talent, you instead put serious effort into thinking about how to improve and position your employees?
21 Employee Engagement Activities that WorkKaiNexus
Whether your company has 10 employees or 10,000, coming up with ideas to keep everyone connected and engaged can be a challenge. It’s easy to fall back on the same old employee engagement programs, but they tend to lose their effectiveness with too much repetition. Don’t worry; we’ve got your back.
Here are 21 employee engagement activities you can use as inspiration.
Top Employee Engagement Trends for 2014BI WORLDWIDE
Start the new year off right by making employee engagement a priority in your organization. Engaged employees have 18% higher productivity and 60% higher quality work than under-engaged employees (Insync Surveys). Follow these top trends for 2014 to motivate, inspire and celebrate your employees in ways that lead to extraordinary effort and positive financial results.
1. Manager Engagement
Middle managers hold the key to employee engagement. As the conduit between employees and senior management, middle managers have the power to create an environment that fosters employee engagement.
2. Recognition Ambassadors
Riding shot-gun for middle managers, recognition
ambassadors are employees who see the value of recognition and are willing to champion it among their peers. Ambassadors are most valuable in manufacturing facilities, plants or at locations where a large number of employees work.
3. Social Recognition
Many, many employees are socially connected in all aspects
of their lives and crave the opportunity to share not only what’s going on in their personal lives, but also in their professional endeavors.
4. Mobile Recognition
It’s important to have accessibility to recognition technology regardless of where you work. Seamless integration on all devices and operating systems is a key element
for success.
5. Manager Training
See number 1! As the masters of engagement, it only makes sense to invest in recognition training for middle managers to truly achieve a culture of recognition within any organization.
6. New Rules of Engagement
Four generations populate the workforce, each with their
own likes, dislikes, values, attitudes and receptivity to engagement. Savvy companies know how to make good recognition programs flexible to captivate every age group.
7.Award Selection
The only way to please everyone all the time is to offer a diverse, eclectic and encompassing array of awards including merchandise, travel, entertainment and experiences.
8. Global Recognition
Few companies operate only in the United States anymore. Workforces are scattered around the world, each with their own idea of what constitutes appropriate and engaging recognition. Adept organizations know how to incorporate cultural influences to maximize employee engagement.
9. Measurement & Accountability
The old saying of “what gets measured gets done” still rings true in the second decade of the 21st century. Great enterprises have the data to back up their successes.
10. Expansion & Consolidation
Keeping it simple, straightforward and well-balanced is critical. Include a variety of engagement initiatives from recognition to rewards to anniversaries to safety and wellness – everything an organization needs to focus on to achieve high levels of employee engagement.
http://www.biworldwide.com/en/white-papers/employee-engagement/2014-trends-in-employee-engagement
http://www.biworldwide.com/en/
I prepared this PPT for adoption in TCG Hamilton, Gurgaon. This work has been appreciated by my mentor and colleagues. It can be implemented in an organization where most of the workforce are youth.
It's more of practical nature than that of theoretical. It can be used in organizations.
Getting your employees engaged in your business is the best way to improve productivity and the easiest way to get them engage is to look out for some employee engagement tips and ideas.
View the full article at http://inside.6q.io/simple-and-effective-employee-engagement-ideas/
Employee Engagement
> Ready-To-Use KITS to Conduct Your Own Employee Engagement Events
> Celebrate Days and Events with Fun Filled Games & Activity Guides
> Ready to Print Posters and Banners for your Events branded with your Company Logo
> Build a Culture that allows Employees to Connect
https://niojak.com/hr-mall/hr-tools/employee-engagement-kits.html
Employee Engagement Best Outdoor ActivitiesFastCollab
Outside office activities have become a latest trend among organisations to engage the employees. When the employees are stressed out, it is better to give them a break from their busy schedule, take them out together, and let them loose a bit through team building activities.
Leadership and Employee Engagement in Tomorrow Organization - InspireOneInspireone
When employees are engaged they lead more fulfilling and rewarding lives. An engaged workforce and distinct leadership behavior can create more organizational succes.
Employee Engagement for a small sized companyRasika Salodkar
This presentation will give you ideas related to employee engagement for a small or mid sized organization. The activities mentioned here are easily doable even in the small area. Medium or big organizations can do many modifications in it so that they can use it.
The entire rights remain with the creator.
Gamification of Employee Engagement & Company CultureD B
Based on a presentation made to a graduate class of students at Northeastern University. Describes how employee engagement evolved since the Taylorism era. Also explains the key role that Gamification can play within a company to increase employee engagement and improve the overall culture. Covers how to avoid the "Dark Side" of Gamification and the main problems associated with its growing popularity.
H.R. Professionals across the world have contributed to this discussion on "Employee Engagement Activities". This document is a Summary of the entire discussion.
For more insighful discussions in the field of Human Resources, please join the LinkedIn Group - www.tinyurl.com/hrprofessionals
Businesses CAN’T afford to have disengaged employees! According to Gallup, a disengaged employee costs a company 34% of their total annual salary. On aggregate 17.2% of a workforce is disengaged.
Since the Dotcom boom of the 90’s, companies have been trying to obtain high standards of employee satisfaction through: company perks, wellness incentives and even subsidized food plans to satisfy the foodies.
Has any of these strategies really helped with employee engagement? How do organizations get their employees engaged and find their swagger?
Employee engagement is very tied to the MAGIC of the company. To capture the magic, employees must have five key elements to help them become successful.
In the MAGIC of Employee Engagement white paper, it'll will break down each element and map out the benefits of each one.
Employee ambassadorship, or advocacy, goes beyond engagement to determine level of commitment to enterprise, value of products and services, and customers
People are the brand - the unity of Marketing and HRFelix Wetzel
Marketing and HR have a lot in common. The success of one depends on the other, but all too often they work in isolation. In this people-centric age where authenticity is everything, this has to change.
This paper outlines how Marketing and HR can help each other in building a consistent brand and how marketing approach and technique can enhance talent attraction.
The Insiders Guide to Employer Branding - 27 Best Practice InsightsKelly Services
Many of the old tools and strategies for building an authentic, globally relevant employer brand have been discarded, and new ones are taking over. Both the challenges and opportunities have grown almost in tandem, and it’s all happening at break-neck speed.
One thing is clear: employer branding has changed, dramatically.
Our Global Best Practice Xchange (BPX) Roundtable on the subject confirmed it. It was 90 minutes of rigorous discussion with eight seasoned professionals leading the way in employer branding innovation for their organizations. They shared their successes, mistakes and thoughts on their plans for the future.
So, if you are wondering if there’s a better, clearer way to lead your organization and practice through this change, this guide is for you.
Branding Your CRM System. Improved UI/UX leads to better employee engagement.Alan Maites
° Creating a branded UI/UX for employees, aligned with the branded UI/UX most companies deploy for customers/consumers, provides a platform for effective internal marketing.
° Employees with a strong connection to their employers’ brand are predisposed to provide better customer service and be a direct extension of brand values and culture.
Stories are great tools that allow people to connect with and assign value to a message or idea. Telling stories about the brands we market is at the core of what we do as impactful communicators. We spend most of our time trying to protect the frame that others attempt to put around our organizations. In this white paper, Ryan Schulz (Director, Brand) discusses how to create a truly differentiated brand - an unbreakable frame - built from the consistent use of identity and character across all communication channels.
We’re in a time of change where everyone is finding their ‘new normal’. Now more than ever, employees are certain of what truly matters to them, while employers require a consistent and clear message which focuses on attracting, retaining and engaging talent.
Building your Employer Brand is crucial not only for recruitment purposes but also to position yourself in the minds of the wider community. Therefore, as a leader, you must create an effective employer brand and employee value proposition that truly reflects your organisation’s perspectives.
How do you go about this? Communication.
The happenings across the business landscape can make it easy to feel overwhelmed and lose focus on what truly matters. However, acting decisively through the right methods of communication – with empathy and authenticity – gives your organisation a competitive edge and presents you as a better short- and long-term solution for lasting connections and loyalty.
In this deck, you will learn why employer brand is a big deal and how intentional you should be about it. You will also learn;
• The fundamentals of an employer brand
• The right ways to communicate your Employer Brand
• What the ‘Communication Hattrick’ is and its importance in projecting your Employer Brand
• Why you should take action now
Growing your business requires investment—but with so many competing priorities, where should you focus your time, money and expertise?
Start with a resource you already have that can drive both profitability and customer satisfaction: your employees.
Studies have proven that companies with engaged employees had 2.6 times the earning per share growth of companies with below average employee engagement and 86% higher success rates on customer metrics.
In our latest white paper, learn the four key requirements of effective employee engagement and how treating your employees like customers can improve your business.
Internal communications in the workplace has undergone tremendous changes. Technology, remote working, globalization, and flat structures have led businesses to rethink how they communicate with their employees.
In these slides, we discuss, what internal communications is, how to put an effective internal comms plan in place, and the latest trends, standards, benefits, and challenges.
Pushed to the Limit, Managing Your Employer Brand in Troubled TimesN. Robert Johnson, APR
Foregoing employee experience in lieu of cost cutting and business survival actions represents a false choice. How employers answer the question of how they treated people during the pandemic will shape their talent landscape for years to come.
A short article that looks at how retail companies sometimes forget that their customer facing employees can be their best brand assets. Written as part of the Luckie & Company newsletter series.
Presentation given at the Digital Workplace Conference in Auckland, New Zealand on May 2nd, 2018 outlining the "secret sauce" in a successful marketing strategy, whether that of an organizational or an individual, and focusing on building a brand.
Presented at the Digital Workplace Conference Australia, held in Melbourne AU on August 15th and 16th, 2018. This presentation outlines the evolution that has happened in marketing, and the components that are necessary for successful brand building and digital marketing.
Similar to Employee engagement ideas and employee alignment best practices (20)
NRF is the world’s largest retail conference with over 38,000 attendees. It’s also a show where some of the largest players in the B2B space come together and show the world what is on the horizon for retail tech.
This year, Jay Menashe, Director of Business Development, looked for the exhibit elements and experiences that stood out most to him. Check out what he thought!
Jack Morton's very own, Jay Menashe (Gold level Certified Trade Show Marketer), shares his favorite moments from CES 2019.
Read more: http://www.jackmorton.com/blog/my-10-favorite-moments-from-ces/
What’s missing from your experience tech strategy?
The relationship between events and technology is a subject of much debate and experimentation; clients are asking for the latest technology and our industry has a rich heritage when it comes to harnessing new and innovative technologies to create ever more impressive, immersive and interactive experiences.
But we risk using it for its own sake, forgetting that it is great ideas – not great technologies – that engage audiences and deliver effective results for brands. So technology can be a great enabler, but it can’t create a great experience on its own.
For most content marketers, sourcing or creating content is their biggest challenge. In our industry, however, we have always been creating killer content. It’s just that we often haven’t had a strategy to share it or to target it as a marketing tool.
Brands are made for and by humans. Their greatest wish is to connect with humans. So why do they find it so difficult? From jarringly chirpy digital, social & mobile experiences to misguided content marketing efforts, brands’ (and, let’s face it, agencies’) attempts to ‘be more human' often make us cringe.
And now, algorithms and big data means brands know more about us than ever before, and with this their opportunities to ‘act human’ have multiplied exponentially. But in many cases, their brand building efforts are failing: either to be convincing or in adopting the right aspects of humanity. And in so doing they become clingy, nosey or just plain creepy.
So brands face a paradox: the more they try to be human, the more they risk alienating the humans they so want to connect with. So can brands be ‘more human’? Or more importantly…should brands be more human?
How pharma and healthcare brands can engage consumers in order to drive growthJack Morton Worldwide
At Cannes Lions Health this year, Ryan Quigley of AbbVie and Jack’s Chief Creative Officer, Bruce Henderson, presented our vision for the future of healthcare brands. It’s not enough for pharmaceutical companies, health insurance companies, and other organizations dedicated to healthcare to merely provide medical or financial solutions. Rather--through content marketing, digital, social & mobile engagement and more--brands must re-connect with people’s needs and revolutionize their healthcare experience. It’s a level of empowerment that could only come from a superhero.
Big data has given marketers an unprecedented view into the attitudes and behaviors of larger audiences than ever before. But as we become increasingly reliant on big-data analytics, we’re also basing our insights on the same data pool—and arriving at very similar ideas. It’s a race to the middle that can dilute brand perceptions and value.
For brands to stand out, big data isn’t enough. That’s where small data comes in.
In our latest white paper, we show how using small data—the tiny clues that can uncover consumers’ drivers and desires—can uncover consumer insights that can't be found through big data alone.
Read the white paper, and find out how small data can lead to breakthrough ideas that transform brands and brand experience.
Employee engagement meetings are powerful experiences.
Done well, corporate meetings can have a transformative effect on an organization, unifying employees and elevating the company’s goals and objectives.
However, meetings that don’t live up to their potential can be damaging, with a negative effect on morale, a failure to deliver key messages, and provide little in the way of ROI.
At Jack Morton, we’ve been elevating corporate meetings and engagements for over 75 years, and we’re sharing our thoughts on four principles that are proven to deliver extraordinary results for our clients.
Read our POV, and make your meetings extraordinary.
Jack Morton's Tim Leighton presented with Cecilia Dahlstrom from Ericsson at the eurobest Festival of Creativity 2015.
How do you challenge and break the way something has always been done?
As an industry, we have to evolve our methods of engagement to survive. A little more conversation and a lot less one-way show and tell.
Yet much of our creative still isn’t focused in this way. In fact, some of our brand engagements are strangely inhuman, inhospitable experiences whereby brands compete not to understand people and offer value, but to simply shout the loudest. One of the worst offenders has to be the trade show. It’s a rare opportunity to waste – it’s where game-changing conversations can happen and multi-million dollar deals can be sealed.
Join our session to find out how Ericsson embraced the trade show, tore up the rule book and created a thoroughly modern brand experience that sits at the centre of its marketing strategy. Hear how its innovative creative approach radically changed the way people connect in this environment and learn what we can take away from this when we approach engaging with people through any channel.
Dr. Paul Frost, a Digital Strategist in our London office, presented at Event Tech Live this year. His presentation is titled "Creating effective digital ecosystems: Amplifying audience footprints through end to end digital enablement."
Best practices for creating a brand experience strategy, presented by one of our Senior Creative Directors, Karen Chui, at the marketing conference Spikes Asia.
From the moment we’re born, our senses make up the fabric of our experiences. They’re entwined with our emotions, anchored in our memories, and according to new research that’s challenging the tenets of Western philosophy, our experience in the physical world has an unconscious effect on how we think, feel and behave.
It’s no surprise then our senses have the power to shape our perception of brands, affecting how intuitively we connect with them, and how credible we perceive their messages to be, whether it’s at a single touchpoint or across the entire customer journey. What is surprising is that many brands quite literally take leave of their senses – and the resulting disconnect between what a brand says and how it feels can leave a bad taste in our mouths.
This eclectic, illuminating and interactive talk weaves together key strands of scientific research, from synesthesia to sensory metaphors, to reveal the three critical drivers of multisensory brand experience – and how you can harness them to create a more impactful, holistic experience that will ultimately change the way people feel – and behave – in relation to brands.
How pharma and healthcare brands can improve their customer experienceJack Morton Worldwide
The SVP and Managing Director of Jack’s Chicago office, Matt Pensinger, presented at Lions Health 2015 with Katie Bang from Eli Lilly and Company about improving the customer experience for patients:
There is growing recognition amongst healthcare brands that understanding the full patient journey is essential for success in today’s healthcare environment. The sheer extent of this both physical and emotional journey, from awareness through to treatment and adherence, opens the patient to many potential experience gaps between their expectations and reality that can lead to frustration, disillusionment and even dropping the prescribed treatment.
So, healthcare companies must understand this journey if they are to improve the customer experience – and offer necessary patient support that extends far beyond a given medication. Being truly effective requires that the entire organisation (from science through to sales) understands the patient journey in order to meet patient needs and effectively engage the many stakeholders that are becoming increasingly important to a therapy’s success.
This is a significant undertaking and healthcare brands and their marketing agencies need to think differently about how they engage with patients and support communications for all the other stakeholders. This talk will examine the experience journey and what it means for the way we market.
Don’t get us wrong—we're not saying that editorial calendars are all bad.
But using one poorly can lead to obscure social media posts, videos and white papers that do nothing to achieve your business goals, and other time- and budget-wasters that have little to no real ROI.
89% of content marketers are focused on creating more engaging, higher quality content now or within the next 12 months. If you’re one of them, maybe it’s time to ditch the calendar (or at least use it better).
Our latest Jack POV, Why editorial calendars make your content suck, was presented by our VP, Strategy Director, Ben Grossman at this year’s SXSW Interactive, and we’re making the insights from Austin available to you.
This 2015 Mobile World Congress showcased the latest innovations in mobile technology, bringing together the leaders and pioneers of the mobile industry, consumer brands, and the growing amount of businesses touched by the mobile market.
Out of over 2,100 companies flaunting their newest and best, only a handful of exhibitors really stuck out for their ability to cut through the noise noise and connect with their audience.
We've taken a look at these standout exhibitors and examined what made them so memorable. Read our POV, and learn the 4 ways to win at the tradeshow that will connect people with your products and services and build your business.
From gold lamé to vin rosé, Cannes is a special place indeed.
It’s home to the world’s largest and most revered awards festival for the best creative work in Film, Creative Effectiveness, and more.
The week’s content includes seminars, forums and workshops presented by creative leadership from around the world — both from inside and outside the marketing industry.
We learned of brand experience examples such as the Google Creative Sandbox and the Ipsos Ladies Lounge provided insight and inspiration in a relaxed environment.
Oh — and of course — there was legendary partying in true industry style.
More and more, brands are realizing the power of integrating tactics like events and digital campaigns into a larger effort to build the long-term relationships with their customers that help them reach their overall marketing goals.
However, budget, influenced by emotion, is all too often the primary factor in deciding how and when to employ these valuable marketing assets.
Enter portfolio planning: a strategic approach that allows companies to make informed decisions on the right number, type, frequency, and cadence of tactics needed to generate an optimal experiential marketing mix. In essence, “brand experience media planning”.
In the latest Jack POV, learn the 6 principles of portfolio planning and how you can incorporate a strategic approach to better engage your customers.
As always, let me know if you’d like to learn more about how brand experience media planning can help your business.
Find out more at jackmorton.com.
Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2015 marketing trends for brands and marketersJack Morton Worldwide
A fresh, no gadget take on the 2015 International CES, this report covers the top trends marketers and brands need to know as they enter 2015. Based on the evolution of the CES show over the last several years, the report also documents the rising in notoriety and popularity of CES within the marketing and advertising industry, now rivaling events like the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and SXSW Interactive.
After 48 years in existence, the event shows no signs of slowing down. 2015 marked the largest CES in history, with over 170,000 industry professionals in attendance and more than 2.2 million net square feet of exhibit space occupied by exhibitors. Today, the show sits comfortably at, as the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) has dubbed it, “the center of convergence among content, services and products.”
Your colleagues and employees are already armed with smartphones and tablets—but how can these devices be transformed into productivity powerhouses tailored specifically to your business and sales needs?
In our latest white paper, apps@work, discover how adding apps to your company’s arsenal can increase productivity, creativity and credibility, and learn how apps can boost employee engagement with tools they can use wherever they are.
Our senses fuel our perceptions of the objects and events that surround us. Yet as marketers we're often limited to just two of them—sight and sound.
How much more compelling could brand experiences be if we used the science of perception to design better, more persuasive interactions—taking into account all of our senses?
In our latest white paper, we explain how an experiential approach harnesses the science of the senses to create more effective, more engaging experiences that amplify your message and brand.
Cannes Lions: Marketing trends and what we learned from Kanye WestJack Morton Worldwide
We collected some of the top marketing trends across brand experience, digital, social & mobile marketing and more from this year's Cannes Festival of Creativity.
Mastering Local SEO for Service Businesses in the AI Era is tailored specifically for local service providers like plumbers, dentists, and others seeking to dominate their local search landscape. This session delves into leveraging AI advancements to enhance your online visibility and search rankings through the Content Factory model, designed for creating high-impact, SEO-driven content. Discover the Dollar-a-Day advertising strategy, a cost-effective approach to boost your local SEO efforts and attract more customers with minimal investment. Gain practical insights on optimizing your online presence to meet the specific needs of local service seekers, ensuring your business not only appears but stands out in local searches. This concise, action-oriented workshop is your roadmap to navigating the complexities of digital marketing in the AI age, driving more leads, conversions, and ultimately, success for your local service business.
Key Takeaways:
Embrace AI for Local SEO: Learn to harness the power of AI technologies to optimize your website and content for local search. Understand the pivotal role AI plays in analyzing search trends and consumer behavior, enabling you to tailor your SEO strategies to meet the specific demands of your target local audience. Leverage the Content Factory Model: Discover the step-by-step process of creating SEO-optimized content at scale. This approach ensures a steady stream of high-quality content that engages local customers and boosts your search rankings. Get an action guide on implementing this model, complete with templates and scheduling strategies to maintain a consistent online presence. Maximize ROI with Dollar-a-Day Advertising: Dive into the cost-effective Dollar-a-Day advertising strategy that amplifies your visibility in local searches without breaking the bank. Learn how to strategically allocate your budget across platforms to target potential local customers effectively. The session includes an action guide on setting up, monitoring, and optimizing your ad campaigns to ensure maximum impact with minimal investment.
Videos are more engaging, more memorable, and more popular than any other type of content out there. That’s why it’s estimated that 82% of consumer traffic will come from videos by 2025.
And with videos evolving from landscape to portrait and experts promoting shorter clips, one thing remains constant – our brains LOVE videos.
So is there science behind what makes people absolutely irresistible on camera?
The answer: definitely yes.
In this jam-packed session with Stephanie Garcia, you’ll get your hands on a steal-worthy guide that uncovers the art and science to being irresistible on camera. From body language to words that convert, she’ll show you how to captivate on command so that viewers are excited and ready to take action.
Digital marketing is the art and science of promoting products or services using digital channels to reach and engage with potential customers. It encompasses a wide range of online tactics and strategies aimed at increasing brand visibility, driving website traffic, generating leads, and ultimately, converting those leads into customers.
https://nidmindia.com/
Top 3 Ways to Align Sales and Marketing Teams for Rapid GrowthDemandbase
In this session, Demandbase’s Stephanie Quinn, Sr. Director of Integrated and Digital Marketing, Devin Rosenberg, Director of Sales, and Kevin Rooney, Senior Director of Sales Development will share how sales and marketing shapes their day-to-day and what key areas are needed for true alignment.
Most small businesses struggle to see marketing results. In this session, we will eliminate any confusion about what to do next, solving your marketing problems so your business can thrive. You’ll learn how to create a foundational marketing OS (operating system) based on neuroscience and backed by real-world results. You’ll be taught how to develop deep customer connections, and how to have your CRM dynamically segment and sell at any stage in the customer’s journey. By the end of the session, you’ll remove confusion and chaos and replace it with clarity and confidence for long-term marketing success.
Key Takeaways:
• Uncover the power of a foundational marketing system that dynamically communicates with prospects and customers on autopilot.
• Harness neuroscience and Tribal Alignment to transform your communication strategies, turning potential clients into fans and those fans into loyal customers.
• Discover the art of automated segmentation, pinpointing your most lucrative customers and identifying the optimal moments for successful conversions.
• Streamline your business with a content production plan that eliminates guesswork, wasted time, and money.
In this presentation, Danny Leibrandt explains the impact of AI on SEO and what Google has been doing about it. Learn how to take your SEO game to the next level and win over Google with his new strategy anyone can use. Get actionable steps to rank your name, your business, and your clients on Google - the right way.
Key Takeaways:
1. Real content is king
2. Find ways to show EEAT
3. Repurpose across all platforms
Short video marketing has sweeped the nation and is the fastest way to build an online brand on social media in 2024. In this session you will learn:- What is short video marketing- Which platforms work best for your business- Content strategies that are on brand for your business- How to sell organically without paying for ads.
Monthly Social Media News Update May 2024Andy Lambert
TL;DR. These are the three themes that stood out to us over the course of last month.
1️⃣ Social media is becoming increasingly significant for brand discovery. Marketers are now understanding the impact of social and budgets are shifting accordingly.
2️⃣ Instagram’s new algorithm and latest guidance will help us maintain organic growth. Instagram continues to evolve, but Reels remains the most crucial tool for growth.
3️⃣ Collaboration will help us unlock growth. Who we work with will define how fast we grow. Meta continues to evolve their Creator Marketplace and now TikTok are beginning to push ‘collabs’ more too.
When most people in the industry talk about online or digital reputation management, what they're really saying is Google search and PPC. And it's usually reactive, left dealing with the aftermath of negative information published somewhere online. That's outdated. It leaves executives, organizations and other high-profile individuals at a high risk of a digital reputation attack that spans channels and tactics. But the tools needed to safeguard against an attack are more cybersecurity-oriented than most marketing and communications professionals can manage. Business leaders Leaders grasp the importance; 83% of executives place reputation in their top five areas of risk, yet only 23% are confident in their ability to address it. To succeed in 2024 and beyond, you need to turn online reputation on its axis and think like an attacker.
Key Takeaways:
- New framework for examining and safeguarding an online reputation
- Tools and techniques to keep you a step ahead
- Practical examples that demonstrate when to act, how to act and how to recover
How to Run Landing Page Tests On and Off Paid Social PlatformsVWO
Join us for an exclusive webinar featuring Mariate, Alexandra and Nima where we will unveil a comprehensive blueprint for crafting a successful paid media strategy focused on landing page testing.With escalating costs in paid advertising, understanding how to maximize each visitor’s experience is crucial for retention and conversion.
This session will dive into the methodologies for executing and analyzing landing page tests within paid social channels, offering a blend of theoretical knowledge and practical insights.
The Pearmill team will guide you through the nuances of setting up and managing landing page experiments on paid social platforms. You will learn about the critical rules to follow, the structure of effective tests, optimal conversion duration and budget allocation.
The session will also cover data analysis techniques and criteria for graduating landing pages.
In the second part of the webinar, Pearmill will explore the use of A/B testing platforms. Discover common pitfalls to avoid in A/B testing and gain insights into analyzing A/B tests results effectively.
SEO as the Backbone of Digital MarketingFelipe Bazon
In this talk Felipe Bazon will share how him and his team at Hedgehog Digital share our journey of making C-Levels alike, specially CMOS realize that SEO is the backbone of digital marketing by showing how SEO can contribute to brand awareness, reputation and authority and above all how to use SEO to create more robust global marketing strategies.
2. TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION: 3
NEW WORDS FOR THE UNTAPPED
MARKETING OPPORTUNITY OF ALL TIME
WHY EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT 5
PROGRAMS RARELY WORK
BRAND TO EVERYONE 7
EMPLOYEE ALIGNMENT: 9
A COOL WAY TO MAKE MORE MONEY
LESS YAMMERING, MORE HAMMERING 11
DON’T ASK ME, I JUST WORK HERE 13
WHY BRANDS THAT ACE SHOPPER 15
MARKETING WILL BE HUMAN
(NOT DIGITAL)
IN PRAISE OF STORYTELLING 17
/2
3. INTRODUCTION:
NEW WORDS FOR THE
UNTAPPED MARKETING
OPPORTUNITY OF
ALL TIME
Liz Bigham
We live in a marketing world of explosive own those physical brand spaces where retail and other staff
change: new channels, newly empowered interact with customers.
consumers and a new commitment by brands But isn’t it all one brand? And isn’t it all dependent on creating
to re-write old rules. a distinctive and great experience—with employees at the core?
So why is it so much still hasn’t changed about how brands We think so. It’s time for new words to describe employee
engage their own employees? engagement—words that speak to a new approach to the field.
Instead of employee engagement, how about Brand Experience
Aligning employees behind brand and business goals is the most
Alignment?
fundamental thing that companies can do to improve their brand
experience. This human element of brand-building is arguably the Brand
great untapped marketing opportunity of our time. What’s at stake is your brand. Customers don’t vow revenge
on Debbie in customer service—they take it out on your brand.
Yet most companies struggle.
Brand is what you do, how you behave and interact; it’s a
One reason may be fragmentation of ownership in client verb, not a noun.
organizations. Inspiring employees around mission, vision and
Experience
culture is often owned by Internal Communications, Corporate
What really matters is the experience. If you strive to create
Communications or Human Resources. Meanwhile, capital “m”
positive and differentiating experiences for your staff and for
Marketing and Brand Management types own defining and
your customers and consumers, your brand will gain an edge.
communicating the brand’s values and stories to customers and
consumers. And yet a third group of corporate decision-makers
/3
4. Alignment
Where it starts is alignment. Align your staff so that they
understand and believe in what the brand stands for and can
relay that to customers and consumers. Align your organization
so that your people (and agencies) are working together.
Words matter. It may well be that a rose by any other name would
smell as sweet—but we don’t think there are many organizations
that can afford to risk confusion among their staff or their customers
about what they stand for and what their experience is.
To be a successful people-driven brand in the 21st century, your
thinking about brand and your thinking about people need to be
perfectly aligned.
To be a leading experience brand of the 21st century, you have to
ban talk of “internal communications,” you have to move beyond
language like “building a strong employment brand,” and you
need to accept that mere “employee engagement” is not enough.
It’s time for Brand Experience Alignment.
Liz Bigham is
SVP, Director
of Marketing
and lives in
Brooklyn.
/4
5. WHY EMPLOYEE
ENGAGEMENT
PROGRAMS RARELY
WORK
Britt Bulla
Almost every organization holds their
employees up as a core, precious asset.
Especially now, as the economy rumbles back
to life and the job market becomes more
active and fluid, companies will be doing
more to retain their best performers and find
the next generation of talent.
Employee engagement programs are often at the center of those
retention and attraction activities. Nearly every company has some
kind of initiative designed to connect with, inspire and motivate
employees – they’re used as an important form of non-monetary
compensation and are often the key channel for companies to
keep abreast of employee mood and concerns. They’re held up
as silver bullets to differentiate one company from another when
winning the “war on talent” is top of mind for executives.
The problem is that they usually don’t make the difference that
they are intended to make.
Four reasons why employee engagement programs often fail
(and by implication, how to do better):
/5
6. #1: Corporate messaging campaigns are often mistaken of sharing that are at least as useful and natural as the ones in
for engagement programs. use already, they can’t expect to have a seat at the table of frank
discourse.
They’re often used as just another channel for corporate
communications, with the vast majority of information flowing #4: They’re not helpful in the moment.
one way from HR out to the masses. It’s one more email or web
At the end of the day, engagement isn’t about simple conversation.
portal post, more information to read and digest that adds to
It has to be about dialogue or interaction to lead to a useful
the workload, with no real opportunity for dialogue. Instead of
outcome: motivation, productivity, happiness. Usually, engagement
creating an opportunity for companies to engage, we get more
programs cast their utility in macro terms, like overall health and
clutter at best and more frustration and work at worst.
wellness, work-life balance and professional development and
#2: Engagement programs are often misaligned or in progression. These areas are vital, of course, but they’re usually
conflict with the external brand purpose and messaging. driven from a grand corporate level down to the masses.
Lots of effort goes into making sure that the external branding and In the course of an employee’s day, help can take the form of simple
messaging aligns with the corporation’s strategic goals and business things that make the work experience better. Engagement programs
ambition. Internal engagement loses effectiveness when internal often miss the opportunity to empower managers in the middle–those
audiences are either not aligned, or have objectives that are at closest to the people who need engaging with–to take simple, low-
cross-purposes with the messages that are going out to customers. cost, high-perception value actions that can make a difference: for
example, a late-night snack for long hours at the office... a night out
By way of example, Citi’s “Citi never sleeps” tagline may have at a restaurant for a team member who went above and beyond on
been compelling to customers but many employees participating a project… an invitation to completely unplug for a weekend or an
in discussion board conversations visible to the public interpreted offered comp day after meeting a grueling deadline.
that message as “We’re going to work you to the bone.”
Gestures like this take the onus of engagement away from human
#3: Companies try to control the topics in which resources and corporate communications departments, give
employees engage—ignoring the conversations that managers more tools to engage and inspire, and ultimately provide
employees are already having. employees with a richer, more useful and appreciative experience.
Social connectivity has blended the lines between work and
personal life, and employees are sharing and conversing about
issues relevant to work in forums like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr,
YouTube and more traditional online discussion boards. That’s Britt Bulla is
VP, Director
where real issues (and yes, dirty laundry) have a habit of surfacing. of Strategy,
Companies can’t expect to control the agenda of true person-to- based in
person engagement, because employees have access to forums Jack Morton’s
that they already see as effective and genuine, and have already New York office.
self-identified the issues that are most pressing. When engagement
programs don’t incorporate these issues and don’t offer channels
/6
7. BRAND TO EVERYONE
Ben Taylor
People often talk about “B to C” (business
to consumer) versus “B to B” (business to
business) marketing. We’re passionate
believers in something different: “B to E,” or
brand to everyone.
Significant brand equity resides at home with employees. Leveraging
this equity requires so much more than just communicating the
company vision, values and mission—the passive “employee
best practices” box that most companies tick without thinking.
Organizations that inspire and activate their staff base to live their
brand are more successful—by “live” we mean that they actively
deliver the brand promise to customers and fully understand and
embrace the brand’s personality, voice and culture.
Of course the value of employees living the brand is particularly
important to service-led organizations: The Ritz-Carlton Hotel
Company is a famous example. There’s no cookie cutter to
what the Ritz-Carlton experience looks like: décor, guests
and lobby designs around the world are diverse. But there’s
absolute congruity in what the brand experience feels like: utter
consistency in the service and culture of staff—and that’s a big
reason guests have allegiance to The Ritz-Carlton brand. It took
/7
8. extensive training, communication, meetings, the famous daily
line-ups, and indoctrination in what The Ritz-Carlton brand means
(e.g., a wallet-sized “credo card” that constantly reminds staff of
what the brand stands for). As a consequence, Ritz-Carlton has
one of the most loyal and motivated workforces any organization
could wish for. They create sales and save money (staff attrition is
minimal compared to many of its competitors).
But it’s not just service brands that gain by aligning employees.
Product-based organizations benefit when their employees are
evangelists of the brand: in a digital world, everyone potentially
has a voice directly to customers and consumers. Beyond sales,
the value to an organization of having a happy and engaged
employee community and a great brand culture and personality
is priceless. We have helped leading product-based companies
develop employee engagement strategies specifically with this in mind.
One in particular applies a similar planning approach to staff
brand alignment as it does its significant customer advertising
program. On an annual basis we help map out a communications
portfolio that combines digital communications, brand experiences
(segmented to the different employee stakeholder groups), awards,
and incentives. The result is an evolving program that allows the
company to develop its products through feedback to management,
and critically to measure how aligned its workforce is to its brand,
how better informed they are to do their work and how motivated
they are to do a better job (and stay with the organization).
By “everyone” we mean all the people who have an impact on or
a stake in your business—and that includes employees, not as an
after-thought but as an integral and prioritized audience.
Ben Taylor is
President
of Asia-Pacific
and lives in
Beijing. /8
9. EMPLOYEE ALIGNMENT:
A COOL WAY TO MAKE
MORE MONEY
Steve Mooney
Zappos says that culture is more important
than technology.
JetBlue says it hires comedians rather than train employees to be funny.
When Google learned that the middle managers who created
compelling internal culture outperformed those with greater
technical expertise, it undertook a comprehensive study to
uncover performance drivers.
What do these front-running companies know that we don’t?
For starters, all three are focused on creating dynamic internal
brand experiences that match their external brand promises. They
are passionately focused on their internal brand—and they “get”
that aligning their employees is way to be more profitable.
Indeed, Towers Watson has shown (through research it has been
gathering for over a decade) that companies with “exponential”
levels of employee engagement outperform those with low levels
of engagement in clear financial terms, delivering operating
margin that is three times higher.
Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, is dogged in his focus on culture
as a strategic weapon—with financial impact:
/9
10. “…By promoting the perks of a highly social company where
workers get free sodas and popcorn, decorate their cubicles, are
invited to share their ideas and can climb the career ladder from
inside, Zappos is able to pay below market salaries for its more
senior workers. ‘We want them to work for us for reasons other
than money,’ Mr. Hsieh said …The company rejects qualified
applicants who don’t buy into the corporate philosophy…Mr.
Hsieh’s success has been built in part on his ability to anatomize
the way people crave connections with others, and turn those
insights into a business plan.” (Source: The New York Times)
All three of these companies market to their employees as they
market to their most important customers. After all, aren’t employees
as important as customers? Would you ever consider sending a
single unformatted email to your most coveted customers informing
them of a new product or service—and then expect a return? So
why do so many executives do just that? Applying the most basic
of marketing processes to your people will result in superior results.
Segment your audience, profile them and then be creative with
communication and culture initiatives.
Using a closely related strategy, JetBlue focuses on recruitment
and onboarding to drive brand inside the company. At what rate
are your employees turning over? At 15% attrition, a company
replaces its entire staff in seven years, and half in three-and-a-half
years. Hire for culture; you can train for skills.
And remember: Zappos plays up the perks and saves a ton on
the salary line. In fact, they claim that it’s harder to get a job at
Zappos than it is to get into Harvard.
Cool!
Steve Mooney is
SVP, Managing
Director
of Jack’s
Boston office. /10
11. LESS YAMMERING,
MORE HAMMERING:
EMPLOYEE
ALIGNMENT IS
ABOUT DOING,
NOT TALKING
Tom Michael
Have you noticed how cynical many
people are about “employee engagement”
programs? On the face of it, they have
ample reason.
There’s the money problem: it’s hard to fund one-time, all-
out efforts to “engage” employees. There’s the fragmentation
problem: “the employee team” (as distinct from “the customer
team”) might brainstorm programs that will engage employees
around some factors that should transcend—like the brand, or
its values, or a great new product. Then there’s the “is that it?”
factor: the blitz of internal marketing and messaging, posters
and signs, maybe a celebration moment or a beer bash… all
of which immediately fade into the background as life returns
to normal.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Your employee engagement
doesn’t have to be expensive, episodic and isolated.
“Good” employee engagement is led by doing, not talking, and
it’s integral to the culture and behavior of the organization. Brands
that do a great job of employee engagement bake it into their very
essence. It’s not a program or a goal; it’s simply how they operate.
Here’s a very tangible example. Google provides employees a /11
12. unique culinary experience. It didn’t just happen: Sergey Brin and There will always be a place for the large employee programs.
Larry Page interviewed 25 candidates before selecting Charlie But the big opportunity for the rest of us is to find ways to extend
Ayers as Head Chef. Setting aside the possibility they were only what we’re already doing to employees—to turn well-funded
after the samples, they devoted the time to selecting the right chef customer programs into employee engagement opportunities as
so they’d ensure employees would be well fed, feel well taken care well. The experiences created feed on themselves–employees
of, and devote their energy to innovation and advancement. This experience the brand and the message, become better brand
small example is repeated often at Google: the head of HR went ambassadors themselves, and improve the experience through
through 14 interviews before he was hired. This is a company their participation.
that takes its time to hire the right people for key jobs (and yes,
Head Chef apparently is critical).
An even better approach to employee engagement—and one we’re
seeing more of—doesn’t focus on employees in isolation but views
Tom Michael is
employees as integral and integrated in the customer conversation.
VP, Senior Strategist,
These programs break down the traditional silos of marketing and currently residing
the internal organization, using a program intended for customers to in Texas.
also engage employees, or using the technology built for customers
to empower and engage employees.
A great example is Dell’s EmployeeStorm, their online community for
employees to ask questions and brainstorm about virtually anything,
from café menus to product innovations and business strategy.
It was born not from HR or a desire to improve the employee culture,
but from a consumer-facing program: IdeaStorm. Four months after
launching the customer-facing community, Dell launched the same
concept internally.
Another example is a health care organization that was launching
a customer-facing website to drive engagement, spark conversation
and get people to think about the organization in a new way. They
launched the program with their employees first, to give them a chance
to experience the organization’s new voice, and to participate in the
conversation. So when the program went live to consumers, it was
already a thriving community of dialogue, discussion and debate.
And the employees themselves had an opportunity to embrace and
experience the essence of the new brand.
/12
13. DON’T ASK ME,
I JUST WORK HERE
Tim Leighton
In the UK, Mary Portas—a popular retail
guru dubbed “Mary Queen of Shops”
(thanks to her expertise, not her credit
card bill)—recently presented a primetime
television series focusing on how leading
retailers are letting their customers down
with bad in-store experiences.
You might be surprised that anyone would bother to make a TV
series about this. After all, the UK is surely a byword for bad
customer service. It’s all part of the olde worlde charm, right?
Wrong. In an age of demanding consumers and failing brands,
the need to create compelling and rewarding retail experiences
has come into sharp focus. Even here in the UK.
During the “Secret Shopper” series we saw a number of stores
that were failing to provide anything close to a good customer
experience, from cell phones to estate agents (AKA realtors) to
fashion. And it seemed pretty clear that one factor, above all
else, always determined the outcome.
/13
14. Employee alignment. So here’s the inescapable truth folks: In an experience economy,
like it or not, your employees hold nearly all the chips.
One example—a fashion chain store—was particularly memorable
and surprising. You've probably been somewhere just like it at And that’s not just in retail. It’s just as true in utilities, healthcare,
some point in your life and witnessed for yourself the unenviable travel or manufacturing. Frontline or not frontline, these people
formula of disinterested staff, frustrated customers and poor sales. ARE your brand; their every action and interaction can add value
to or, indeed, destroy your brand.
Well, it turned out that the training these particular employees
got was a scrappy sheet of copier paper stuck to the back of the Your employees are your brand equity.
staff washroom door. It contained a less than inspiring blend of
customer service platitudes and tips on how to deal with shoplifters. But you might just have to let them know.
Perhaps this was not going to help them live the brand. And set them free.
But then Mary worked her magic. She devised an inspiring vision Thanks Mary.
of how the in-store experience could be transformed and, central
to the concept were... you guessed it... the staff themselves.
And, boy, did they respond. Tim Leighton is
VP, Creative
They weren't given a rule book. They weren't even briefed on a Strategy Director,
based in
set of carefully tuned brand values, pillars or pyramids. They were
Jack Morton’s
inspired and empowered to become part of a vision they cared London office.
about; something exciting and transformative.
Their once sullen faces lit up. They got involved. Their passion and
enthusiasm became infectious and, yes, sales went up.
We've seen it time and time again with our own clients, like when
we helped one of the world’s great automotive brands redesign the
experience customers have when they visit the dealership, armed
with the simple insight—that the dealership experience should
match the quality of the cars themselves. And it’s not limited to
our clients’ own employees: we’ve helped mobile device makers
engage their retail partners’ staff to convey excitement about the
brand’s products (not always easy when that brand isn’t even
their employer, but essential to both brands’ success).
/14
15. WHY BRANDS
THAT ACE SHOPPER
MARKETING WILL BE
HUMAN
(NOT DIGITAL)
Matt Jones
So the smart, technology-enabled, reality-
augmented era of digital automation is
upon us. And CEOs everywhere can breathe
a long sigh of relief. Because the performance
of their brands no longer relies on an
endless and expensive search for talent.
Instead, it will now be driven by servers
and clouds, apps and algorithms, user
interfaces and voice recognition software.
Or so they wished.
In fact, success is as reliant as it ever was on people—only
more so. The best-known paradox of our age is that despite
living in a hyper-connected age, the most influential medium
for brand-building is word of mouth (case in point, The Thank
You Economy). We’re living in a marketing-saturated, product-
commoditized world where experiences are the only reliable way
to cut through and differentiate (see The Experience Economy).
And the power of “Thank You + Experience” means that brands
that deliver differentiated experiences will be rewarded more
than at any time in history.
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16. Now surely there are great experiences that don’t rely on great Because in a world where everything else is the same (and
people? Yes—to a point. Google’s genius lies in its algorithms. anything different is copied, rapidly) it’s your people’s behavior
Amazon’s in its user experience and logistics. And Netflix’s in its that makes the difference. Brands have been saying it for years,
pricing and ease of use. Their people are essential, but they’re but now it’s time to do it. So what was employee and customer
behind the scenes—the brand experience doesn’t overtly rely on service training now needs to become brand behavior alignment.
how employees interact with customers. In short, no more service; now the focus must be experience.
But these brands are the exception. For every Google, there are
ten consumer electronics brands whose products are sold and
serviced by (at best) their employees or (at worst) some else’s. For
every Netflix, there are ten service providers whose customers Matt Jones is
seek out support from real people. And for every Amazon, there Global SVP,
Strategy &
are a hundred retailers, banks, airlines, and hotel groups whose Creative,
customer service is delivered by uniformed (and often uninformed) based in Sydney.
people, not by failproof digital platforms.
In the past, the people behind these brands have gotten their fair
share of focus. But now they need to receive their unfair share.
Because the front line is where shopping decisions are made,
where sales are closed, where experiences are delivered, and
where brands are built.
The front line is where shoppers, overwhelmed by advertising
and empowered by reviews and word of mouth, make their
final decisions about a new phone or a new TV. And traditional
shopper marketing tactics, focused on point of purchase displays
and punchy retail promotions, are not enough. Instead, the new
shopper marketing needs to be focused on the alignment of the
retail representative around the brand and product story. All the
more so if that representative works for a third-party retail group
selling multiple competitor brands. In short, no more sales; now
the focus must be experience.
The front line is also where owners return for support, for upgrades,
and for rewards for their loyalty. It’s where occasional buyers
become brand loyalists (or not). And it’s where the behavior and
decisions of the people who represent your brand are shaping the
future right now.
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17. IN PRAISE OF
STORYTELLING
Helen Graney
It’s easy to be overly cerebral and intel-
lectual when discussing the subject of
employee alignment. After all, it’s a serious
business with big potential impact (positive
or negative) on the brand and the business.
But let’s never underestimate the power of emotion, especially
when it comes to brands and building a strong internal brand
with employees.
Let’s be honest: one of the pitfalls of what used to be called
“internal communications” has always been the potential to
inspire not understanding and belief but cynicism and dismissal.
That’s especially true of messages delivered via one-way, top-
down, executive to the masses media—emails, memos, one-way
webcasts and the like.
Storytelling—both as a genre and as a medium of employee
engagement—helps brands avoid the potential pitfall of
communications-induced skepticism and distrust. Storytelling
can humanize messages and make them meaningful on a
personal scale—adding authenticity and relevance that mean
the messages are more likely to be heard and acted on.
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18. What do we mean by storytelling? First-person narrative.
Personifying a process through a colleague’s or customer’s
experience. Giving employees the means to share stories and
personal observations. Opening up channels and platforms—
from internal blogs to physical environments—where staff can
bring strategy and culture to life. Stories that connect people with
people on an emotional level, humanizing business concepts and
helping to shape behavior.
Storytelling that works has the potential to build understanding and
evangelism inside an organization in a way no CEO email is likely
to do. And in this digital age, it can spread like wildfire online.
A delightful recent discovery was a YouTube video featuring an
employee in the service department of American brand RedWings
Shoes—which captured more brilliantly than any corporate
mission statement ever could what the brand truly stands for.
Of course the opposite can also happen: negative stories can
also spread like wildfire online. So it’s all the more critical for
brands to work hard to create the channels and the inspiration for
employees to tell positive stories to each other and to customers
and consumers.
It will pay dividends for your brand.
Helen Graney is
SVP, Managing
Director
of Australia.
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