A while ago I had an idea for explaining the differences between the three historic eras of recruitment advertising.
Think of the Gary Cooper character (Kane) in High Noon. The part where he's trying to recruit deputies to help fight the evil Frank Miller (and shoot him dead, tra la). With all the menfolk in the town gathered in the saloon, Kane can try a number of different approaches.
He can say: 'Who wants to be a deputy?' This is representative of the first era of rec ad (often referred to as tombstone or simple sits vac advertising). It's like a basic ad which just has the job title at the top of it, and no reason for anyone to apply short of being jobless.
He can say: 'Help me fight Frank Miller, and there's a chance he won't take your women and cattle.' This represents propositional advertising. The employer (Kane) is given his audience a reason to apply - a 'What's In It For Me?' message designed to engineer response from an otherwise uninterested (or passive) market.
Or he can hold up a deputy's badge and ask: 'Who wants one of these?' This is employer branding. All the propositions of the role - the status, the worthwhileness of community involvement, the protection of self-interest - have all been bound up in a shorthand form (the badge) that the candidate constituency has already come to understand and respect.
Next time: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the emergence of retention theory.
Nice analogy.
I'll repeat that (and pass it off as my own) at some future point.
Keep up the good work!
Posted by: local_celebrity | September 17, 2008 at 10:33 AM