It's time recruitment brands made people feel something

All great branding and advertising starts with the same objective - To make people have an emotional connection with the brand. The best don't sell a product or service. They sell a feeling, a lifestyle, or a way of life because this grows the most loyal customers and brand advocates.

In 2007 Cadbury set a simple brief "Eating Cadbury's chocolate makes you feel good". Advertising agency Fallon pitched the Gorilla campaign, and the rest is history.?

Each year John Lewis try to bring a nation to tears with their latest emotionally charged Christmas TV ad (The Bear and the Hare still makes me cry like a baby).

So there must be potential for recruitment brands to evoke emotions when dealing with people's careers. Allow me to paint a picture. An uplifting ascending song fades in (Hoppípolla could work) as an interview finishes and a successful candidate shakes the hand of their new boss after accepting an offer. Then as the music rises, they return home to hugs and kisses from their family. It sounds pretty easy, right?

The reality is that building brands to connect emotionally need long term strategic backing, big dedicated budgets and the balls to be different. All of which are lacking in recruitment marketing. That being said, a few recruitment brands are taking their first steps to connect with their audience emotionally. These brands have values of empathy, empowerment, inclusivity and diversity at their core and use personal branding and PR to build communities of loyal customers and fans.

What is enabling these early adopters of emotional brand building? They put their brand at the top of the agenda. They ask questions about how their customers actually feel about the service they receive and how staff actually feel about working there. Then they take this insight to build a brand that matters underpinned by values that are the DNA of the business. In every touchpoint, in every conversation, in every hire.

So the next time you’re discussing your marketing strategy, be brave enough to put the brand at the top of the agenda. What are the company's brand values? Do they mean anything? Do you use them? And what do you want people to feel when they experience the brand??