As Craig Fisher moderated a discussion with Jill McFarland and Aaron Strout, it quickly became clear that like it or not, location is the new buzzword of the century.  Personally, I’ve been a bit of a skeptic and have not jumped on using all the location tracking apps that are available on Droid and iPhone.  For example, I was not using Foursquare, one of the hottest apps to come out in the last two years.  I asked Craig why I should use it and he retorted, “If you had asked me why you should use Twitter three years ago, could I have told you how valuable it would be in your daily life today?”  Touche’!

I was schooled in the ways that location based marketing, recruiting and sourcing, and many other applications are now the hottest trends in our market.  Here are a few of the top recommendations from the moderator and speakers:

• Craig Fisher-  Craig detailed how to use Foursquare to recruit as well as how to generate “buzz” with your employees. Check out his article here on How To Generate Employee Buzz on Foursquare.
• Jill McFarland- Jill did a great job using examples of marketing success via location based apps.  I especially like how Jill addresses the fear that many people, like me, have about other individuals knowing where I am.  Check out her article How You Can Avoid LBS Stalkers so that you can feel comfortable using location based apps and have your privacy protected.  She also guest posted on Aaron Strout’s blog with an interesting article called With LBS Announcements Looming, What Motivates People To Check In Anyway?
• Aaron Strout- Check out Aaron’s book Location Based Marketing for Dummies as a great resource to think about your business marketing approach differently.

The real message as it related to location based approaches is to keep an open mind and be mindful of your privacy.  By following that advice, you can begin using it to benefit your candidates, your organization, and your clients. Are you using location based apps?  Let me know the pros and cons in the comments!

*Today I want to share a post that I wrote last spring about social media, new products, and familiar brands.  You’ll have to check out the original here to see the comments (which were pretty good).  The update is that after writing this, I was in fact swayed to use the new product.  I had purchased several types of the new product and figured I’d try it for several months.  I wasn’t convinced at first, but in the end it was more than just a great use of social media that did it.  Kudos to Kimberly-Clark for being on the forefront of developing great products, having a strong brand, using social media, and having a great sense of humor.  Check it out…

___________________________________

I want to tell you a story about feminine products, specifically, tampons.  NOW MEN, do not stop reading this.  It’s not going to be a gross post and I can assure you that every time I read posts about how sports compare to HR, I keep reading even though I don’t always feel completely in my comfort zone depending on the sport or the analogy.

I want to talk to you about tampons for several reasons.  The first is that I recently heard a very odd but interesting presentation at the Social Media Meetup by Andrew Meurrer, Vice President and General Manager at Kimberly-Clark.  In this presentation, he talked about how even discussing tampons is taboo, let alone asking a man to go in a store and buy some.  Kimberly-Clark has learned that once young women find their preferred brand, 70% of them will stay loyal to that brand for life.  Think about that.  Is there any other product that can inspire that percentage of brand loyalty?  Probably not.  I thought of other products I just won’t change and one is toilet paper and the other is my laundry detergent.  I swear by Quilted Northern and Cheer, in case you are curious.

But I digress.  Even something like laundry detergent only has about 55% brand loyalty.  So, you can see that in the feminine hygiene products, getting women interested in your product early in their teenage years is very important.  So since the target demographic is females age 14- 24, Kotex (the brand made by Kimberly Clark) decided to do a couple things to promote their new product line U by Kotex:

• First, make talking about having your period acceptable.  It should not be taboo.  It happens to all of us ladies.
• Then, create an exciting ad campaign that rips on the old tampon commercials of other brands to show that real women do not dance around in waves or with butterflies at that time of the month.
• Create fun new packaging to attract the women and girls.
• Reach out to the target audience via social media. THIS is what will really differentiate how U by Kotex is accepted.  It is reaching the demographic where they are.   Where they spend time.  Where they are comfortable.

So, why do I share this with you?  Because it worked.

I am certainly a lot older than their target demographic because let’s face it, I made my product choice over twenty years ago. I would have never thought about changing even though these ads run on TV all the time.  What caught my attention was that this company is using social media to spread the word.  Bells and whistles went off in my head…I just had to try to support a company that is forward thinking and trying to get REAL and honest about this topic.  If not for me, for my little girl’s sake.

So, I tried it.

I hated it.

I want my old product back.

Why?  I think Kotex spent so much time on what the package looks like, how to tell everyone it’s ok to discuss it, and WOW- using social media and fun new ads to tell about it, that they didn’t really DO anything to make the product better than some of the others. ( *Note on 12/23/10- I learned they actually did change the product makeup and it really is better.  They have information on their site.)

So, forgive me but I’m going back to my old brand.  You know, the one in the plain wrapper.  Now, I need to end this post.  I think I’ll put on some white clothes and go dance around in the rain and pretend that life is full of butterflies.  Goodness knows I certainly don’t want to have to write about my period again.

What do you think?  Can the power of social media make you change some of the tried-and-true products you have used for years?  Tell me in the comments.

Please be sure to leave Felix a comment at the end and tell him what you think of his concept of peopling.  Thanks friends.

_________________________________________________________________

Felix Wetzel

I believe, and have believed for many years now, that HR and Marketing will move closer and closer, eventually overlap and consequently merge. There’s no question about it; it’s a logical outcome, triggered by the behavioural changes that have been magnified and accelerated by social media and mobile and my core belief about business and life: it’s all about people.

I base it on a very simple formula:

people = brand

This common denominator is underpinned by the following:

people = employees = customers = competitors = suppliers = citizens

So HR and Marketing are perfect companions, that share similar goals, approach life in a similar manner and most importantly have skills and talents that complement each other. Let’s now leave the abstract behind and get more concrete:

People are the brand

If you share this belief with me than you’ll also agree with the following statement: The strongest brand ambassadors are your employees. Subsequently, fostering the right culture within the company, influencing employees to participate every day voluntarily within it and communicating the culture externally in a personable but still branded manner, choosing new employees that fit and enhance the culture are areas where Marketing and HR, if working hand in hand, can make a massive difference and can enrich the growth of the brand but also the individuals within it. This becomes even more important as every interaction, every engagement, every mention defines the brand and defines the perception of the brand. That needs an exciting vision, a clear framework and at the same time shared experiences.

Internal and external communication are intrinsically linked

However we portray the brand externally has an impact internally. Jobsite’s CEO Keith Potts always reminds us: “When you choose a name for a brand, just pretend you call a client. How does it make you feel?”

When we created our TV commercial, I always had in mind that I wanted our sales people to be proud about the ad and the brand, to talk about it, to walk into meetings with their head held high, without the chance of being ridiculed. Besides this being an important filter, it also highlights how internal and external communication are linked, how internal and external perception influence each other and how we as a business therefore need to ensure that we have consistency across all communication. It’s another area for HR and Marketing to benefit from each other’s skills.

Everything communicates

Mervyn Dinnen wrote a very insightful blog ‘Is your recruitment partner damaging your bottom line?’ In this post Mervyn refers to potential employees being potential consumers and if treated badly at the recruitment process it damages their perception of the brand. I wholeheartedly agree. People are multi-dimensional and every interaction shapes the impact of a brand. That’s why I advocate replacing the terms ‘employee’ and ‘consumer’ with the term ‘citizen’. They all influence and define the ecosphere of the brand. The brand is alive, has a stable core but is adaptable and subsequently far more resistant. So, if this is the case, the brand values need to be experienced also through the recruitment process and need to be aligned with the overall brand communication. The recruitment experience is as important as the customer service experience. Everything communicates.

Employer Brand

Is it an employee or employer brand? Who cares? The whole discussion about it is misguided. An employee/employer/employment brand is a myth. Ultimately there’s one core brand and the employer brand is just one facet of it, other facets are the product brand, the consumer brand, the supplier brand, etc – so, instead of reinventing the brand, HR & Marketing need to work together to communicate and execute the brand internally (employee brand) and externally (employer brand) within the employment market.  Use the skills across the business to build the best solution, that’s the way to create a world class experience.

At Jobsite, our brand essence is: ‘We help you plan your worklife, so your whole life works better’ – this, combined with our brand values, are at the heart of all our interactions be it internally and externally.

I know of several companies where HR & Marketing (and the entire business work hand in hand). I know even more companies where this doesn’t happen. Maybe one day, the merger will happen, and instead of HR and Marketing it’s called Peopling.