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May 17, 2006
To Tell the Truth
I often hear clients say "we have a great internal brand--we just need you to help us get the message out." From a client perspective this makes perfect sense. They're the experts in their organization. We're the advertising experts. What could be simpler?
Unfortunately, nothing's simple.
While our clients typically are experts in their corner of the organization, once that organization has multiple locations or thousands of people "who we are" becomes a study in "who I know" (or hang out with).
And that internal brand position? It's typically a values statement, one that relies on many of the same tired words as every other organization uses. (I've written about this before.) Though everyone may mean the same thing when they say "we pride ourselves on our integrety," it means absolutely nothing in the talent marketplace--who would advertise the opposite?
Fortunately, understanding what's intended by words like these requires a simple question: "what behaviors demonstrate that value in action?" But asking questions often uncovers the thoriest problem of all: many values are so aspirational they're unattainable to the point of being untrue. (How many organizations messge to the central importance of diversity to their business strategy? How many walk their talk?)
Whether or not the client knows this appears to be a function of both how long the person we're talking to has been in the organization and how strategic his or her role happens to be. But even if the client doesn't get out much, if s/he doesn't have a chance to compare "how we do it here" to "how you do it there," one fact remains: the agency must tell the truth or both client and agency will fail.
Should the agency should uncover the difference between what the client organization would like to be (but isn't) for the whole world to see? Of course not. But any messaging the agency puts out into the talent marketplace must be true to the experience of the workforce. And sometimes, that requires sharing painful truths with clients first.
Posted by davidkippen at May 17, 2006 08:45 PM