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July 19, 2006
Over the River and Into the Trees
Just finished a couple of presentations at the Western Benefits conference--a joint annual conference of the Western Pension & Benefits Conference and the American Society of Professional Pension Actuaries.
My panel, which I shared with Franklin Templeton's Nicole Smith and The 401(k) Company's Danny Ischy was, as you'd probably expect if you're a reader of this site, about employment brand, but in a benefits context.
I began with an overview of brand--what it is, what it isn't, how brand and branding differ, etc.--and concluded with the somewhat faded Southwest case study from Libby Sartain's early years.
Danny followed with a discussion of how unlike most of the other providers in the defined benefit space, The 401(k) company works to support the organization's master brand (though in practice this seemed to vary from a real understanding of the brand to an application of the fonts and general design elements of the current ad campaign).
Nicole concluded with a case study of her own making. She'd come over to FT a few years ago and revamped their internal "benefits brand" (note the quote--but no irony intended)to be in alignment with their current ad campaign and actually done a really nice job.
The good news was that each session was really well attended. The bad news? Though folks were clearly interested, I got the feeling that the subject matter didn't connect as well as it should have--and that wasn't a result of any shortcomings in the presentations.
Now, before you get snarky about benefits folks--or with me, for that matter, for trying to move this discussion into the benefits arena--think about this: the two largest cost centers in HR are recruitment and benefits. (I don't count comp for obvious reasons.)
From an organizational standpoint, it makes all the sense in the world to have them on the same page with respect to simple ideas like brand and branding. From a practitioner standpoint, it's an easy way to add strategic value.
But absent a clear mandate from leadership making this connection, I don't see a stampede starting anytime soon. And that's a shame indeed.
Posted by davidkippen at July 19, 2006 03:08 AM