While there is a tremendous downsize in media and advertising, I was struck with a poignant article written by Diana Verde Nieto for Advertising Age. Essentially, Nieto was writing that marketing teams had to stimulate client and customer emotional investment in your company.
One such way is to be an environmentally sound company. Going green is a big thing for 79% of those surveys, or so they claim. Honestly, I have seen other reports to the contrary, but green companies do carry a certain appeal. If nothing else, I would think they look smarter. But at the end of the day environmentally sound companies are more energy efficient and just better for…well…the environment.
Nieto writes about what she terms sustainable communications. She writes, “Sustainable communications is not about turning brand green overnight or using natural or typically green iconography in your communications. …Instead it is about creating compelling communications, underpinned by fact, with a clear call to action for consumers.” It is about creating the emotional value of the message while decreasing the physical resources used in creating the communications itself. Nieto believes that those companies who master creating sustainable communications will be better poise to ride out the recession and to excel when the economy finally rebounds.
Her article goes on in detail and is well worth reading. Now the thing is to find the employment candidates who can create sustainable communications. I would think the more creative would need to incorporate a mixed set of skills, ranging from content writing to an understanding about the environmental movement and meaningful green practices. Then it is a matter of integrating all this into one cogent message and projecting it to your consumer base.
Recruiting the right employees means a rigorous set of preemployment screening measures. Besides background checks, your human resource managers and department managers will need to conduct intensive interview and perhaps run various aptitude and potential testing. Of course, you must be certain your human resources department and the relevant marketing management group are themselves are adequately knowledeable, at least enough to ask the right questions.
What is clear, be it marketing, advertising, media, and other industries it is a whole new ball game. the economic downturn may have even served to have hastened the inevitable perceptions that were long overdue. So those that adapt will survive and even prosper. As for your new marketing team, check them out before you hire.
