Entries Tagged 'Industry News' ↓

“I Make US Fly”…Well YOU Make Me Sick

According to a local Pennsylvania newspaper article today, the new US Airways Group (created by the merger of US Airways + America West) recently launched an internal marketing campaign called “I Make US Fly,” playing off their consumer slogan, “Fly with US.”  The campaign stresses that in order to set the airline apart from the competition, employees need to provide friendly and helpful service to customers and each other “all the time.”

Many employees have responded to the ”I Make US Fly,” with “You Make Me Sick.”  Given the severity of the labor issues at US Airways, it is certainly no shocker the employees aren’t having any of it: 

If anyone thinks for one minute that whitewashing serious labor unrest with cosmetics will cover up deep-rooted problems, this airline is in serious trouble,” said Capt. Jack Stephan, spokesman for the US Airways pilots group.

New Marketing 101
Know your audience and (slightly newer thinking) - don’t ever try to make them force down a plate of bullshit.  We applaud the fact that US Airways seems to realize the effect that customer touch points (especially with their employees) will have on their brand.  But, if you have seriously disgruntled employees, this is not the foundation upon which to build an effective brand.  Every customer and employee interaction is critical to your success.  This is a lesson not just for building the overall company brand but for Employer Branding as well (i.e. every interaction management has with their employees). 

Our favorite thinking about this is an example of a company that truly gets what effects their brand: Scandinavian Airlines System.  SAS had 10 million customers last year that came into contact with at least 5 SAS employees for an average of 15 seconds.  The SAS CEO called these touch-points: “50 million moments of truth.”

Some interesting side points - the US Airways campaign was actually funded by Coca-Cola, which beat out Pepsi to sell its products on the new US Airways’ flights.  AND - this campaign maybe hated so much that I was already able to find employee lanyards and pins up for sale on eBay, and yes, they have bids.

technorati tags: employer branding US Airways Internal marketing

It has officially become Job Search 2.0 - sorry to add another silly 2.0 label Heather ;-).

Candidates and prospective employers are increasingly connecting in the blogosphere and popular Blogs are beginning to add job posting offerings for their readers. Blogs and Online Communities are becoming the new “niche job boards.”

While the trend is still mainly being felt in IT and New Media, I predict that soon Peter Weddle will begin adding blogs to his 2007 Guide to Employment Web Sites. BTW…why doesn’t he blog?

From a recent post on netimperitive:

Specialist recruitment websites, social networks, community forums and blogs, are replacing the traditional channels as they get to the heart of the communities sought by employers.

Some of the most obvious examples of this trend can be seen from the advent of 37singals job board and CrunchBoard. According to a recent post by Om Malik, Niche Boards are Rising:

CrunchBoard, 37Signals and PaidContent - they are all bringing attention to the fact that narrow niche sites work, and the job boards don’t seem to have the necessary impact or perhaps get the right kind of users. These three sites have very strong communities, and as a result their job boards work and will continue to work.

The value of these sites will not be felt in their user friendly tools and features as there are often no search boxes or even geographic categories. The boards are more of a Craigslist type of presentation of listings, except that they aren’t free or organized by city and they are coveted jobs. Further, while these sites aren’t all that much cheaper than Monster, CareerBuilder or even Dice ($250 for 30 days) - they have highly targeted and devoted readerbases that makes the cost well worth it.

Update: Just found this great quote about how job postings can become “viral” within online communities from the ChinWag jobs blog:

For the bootstrappers, a good starting point is to ask how existing staff found their current and previous jobs. If, as is likely, word of mouth figured prominently, try to discover which websites, communities and mailing lists played a part. It may be a pleasant surprise to discover how viral a job post may become if placed on the right niche website, especially those that appeal to those active in the blogosphere and other online communities.

technorati tags: job boards Recruiting blogs Niche Job Boards Jobsearch 2.0 Job Search 2.0

According to AdAge, Federated Department Stores is poised to drastically change their Marketing Media Mix in the coming years.  In a move that reminded me of major beer brand Foster’s recent media eviction - Federated will move as much as $425 million away from local print media.  At first glance, I read the newsclips to say that they were pulling out of local newspaper completely.  Much like what I think about Fosters’ move - my opinion is that putting all of your eggs in one marketing basket is a mistake; however, according to the article:

The most dire prediction calls for as much as $425 million of the retailer’s ROP newspaper advertising to disappear by 2008. More conservative estimates, such as the Deutsche Bank research report “Federated Impact May Be Greater Than Papers Expect,” by Paul Ginocchio, forecast a still-stinging $200 million blow for the already ailing medium. Federated’s annual newspaper spending currently totals $830 million.

The headlines I saw everywhere today sensationalized the potential loss in revenue for local newspapers.  Many stories alluding to the end of the Newspaper industry are like the headlines we read in the supermarket check out line.  But really, Federated is just having a go at promoting a national brand, with national media tools.  That changes the equation for local newspapers and will certainly equate to lost revenues.  On the up side - local online newspaper sites continue to grow at a strong pace and although articles tout TV advertising and national magazines as the NEW vehicles for Federated, few are talking about the role of online.   According to the article:

“Federated’s bevy of historic and beloved department-store brands will be officially reborn as Macy’s, backed by the company’s first national branding campaign.” 

“Our media selection will be driven by where our customers’ eyeballs are going,” said Jim Sluzewski, Federated Spokesman.

“Newspapers will continue to be a very important medium,” he said. “The fall launch is one point in time, and what happens longer term is something we are still going to be working on,” added Federated Spokesman Jim Sluzewski.

In my opinion, Federated is completing a loop that began when they started acquiring regional brands like Burdines and Foley’s.  Having started my career with the online advertising teams for two prominent newspaper groups,  I had the chance to pitch one of the major Federated brands back in 2000.  At the time, Burdines was one of the original department store brands in Florida.  Just 6 years ago, Burdines still actually needed a transactional web site to (as they put it) “help drive additional foot-traffic in to their stores”.  In addition, they were just starting to look for media outlets for online recruitment advertising.

Today In just 6 short years times have changed, Burdines is gone, consolidated under Macy’s.  Federated has brought much to the table as far as online recruitment goes and is often touted as having one of the best online careers sites on the web @ Retailology.com. 

In Federated’s opinion, consolidating under the Macy’s brand was really the logical next step in consumer minds. It follows that Macy’s as a national brand will now be promoted nationally. For now, the hype, and reality is that local advertising will suffer in the short term but Federated isn’t shy about adjusting a marketing strategy that isn’t working out.  Abby Clark VP of Sales for The Columbus Dispatch made the following point in AdAge:

…despite Macy’s national brand ambitions, newspapers remain relevant. “It’s going to be risky. People go to newspapers and look for sales and shopping, and if they don’t, they may not think to go to Macy’s as often.” Ms. Clark said Macy’s experimented two years ago by pulling back on coupon offers in ROP ads. “They backed off quickly from that because it hurt them,” she said.

And who said national brands don’t benefit from local newspaper advertising?  Just ask Best Buy, Target, Home Depot, Office Depot … the list goes on.  As a local consumer, where you are is where it’s at, so local consumption of products and services goes hand-in-hand with consumption of like-focused media and tools.  Federated, THE single largest print advertiser, has been advertising in local newspapers forever.  I think that Federated’s move will do more to prove some of the value of local print advertising than crush it.  No doubt the print revenue that was enjoyed by local print publications will never be the same but the power of local comsumers will crop up in future Federated media buys… as they said, they will put their money - “where our customers’ eyeballs are going.”

I believe that Federated’s new Chief Marketing Officer, Anne MacDonald is just dealing with the reality of managing her marketing budget. You don’t often get carte blanche to take a $1 billion dollar ad budget and just double it (OK, that actually NEVER happens) - in the real world, you rob from Peter to pay Paul.  MacDonald, a former Citibank marketer is no doubt a national brand expert (and believer) so the national focus is no shock.  And don’t forget that Citibank and Anne MacDonald’s peers have won most of their accolades in the last 5-10 years for their progressive work in online advertising, an area where local media outlets could surely make back some of their losses.

technorati tags: local advertising online advertising newspapers

UPDATE:

Great overview of TechCrunch’s new Job Board, CrunchBoard, from Phil Bogle of Jobster.

technorati tags: TechCrunch CrunchBoard Job Board Jobsearch 2.0

Popular Geek blog, TechCrunch, which posts profiles and reviews of the latest Internet products, companies and news has started what it is describing as the electronic version of the ultimate insider’s job network.

“CrunchBoard” is a job board that promises to connect employers with programmers, designers, entrepreneurs, executives, venture capitalists and others who are deeply interested in as they call it the “new web”.

According to the site:

CrunchBoard gives you access to millions of technology and business savvy readers of TechCrunch, MobileCrunch and other top technology blogs. CrunchBoard is permanently linked from these sites.

Here are the basics:

• Job Postings are $200.
• Job seekers browse positions by category - with a search box conspicuously missing.
• You can subscribe to an RSS feed for newly posted jobs.
• Applications are submitted via published email addresses.

Here is the TechCrunch blog posting announcing the launch of CrunchBoard.

Interesting niche site and one of the first to launch from a blog. One to keep an eye on.