As I sat on the train/sauna on the way home last night I tried to distract myself from a weirdo staring at me, by reading the Evening Standard. Fortunately something did catch my interest. An article that made me consider the similarity between successful brands and successful people during a recession.
The article was in the Executive Recruitment section, titled 'Stay on the jobs radar' (feel free to insert a joke or question about why I was reading this here) and described the type of person clever companies look to employ during tough times. During a recession smart MD's believe the right skills for the job are important, but the right attitude is more so. They need people that won't just do their job 'they can make a difference above and beyond their roles' (Penny de Valk, CEO of the Institute of Leadership and Management). Showing this positive attitude is clearly not easy for people when times are hard. When people are put under pressure many put there heads down and simply try to get through. The exact opposite of what a company actually hopes for. She goes on to add that "what companies need is people that can help them transform, executives that can be bold and focus externally on the market and the customer". Why? Because now is the time to ensure you remain on your current or prospective employers radar. Companies want people that can be part of the solution, not the problem. In a recession you should 'build your profile - take it as an opportunity to shine", you should not be afraid to remind people of the good work you have done. If you are out of work you need to make people you are familiar with your first port of call, and if you are not getting the same calls from headhunters because you have been forced to diversify your career, you need to pick up the phone and create a dialogue with the people that matter.
Why is this attitude important to companies? Well, during the recession, companies that were forced to downsize that are now coming out the recession are facing a talent shortage, and thus struggling to recover as quick as those that kept their talent.
Now having said all the above, aside from the obvious fact that the advice is useful from a personal perspective and for when considering the type of people we want to be hiring, what I found really interesting was the total parallel with the advice we have been giving brands during the recession. In fact if you changed the article's title to 'Stay on the consumers radar' (ie; nee jobs) and then swapped a few words here and there to we were talking about a companies marketing, rather than people, then we could have written it.
The key to a brands success during a recession, just as it is for people, is to stand up and be counted with the consumer. It is why so many companies refresh their brands during a recession, while the companies that purely focus on costs perform less well. The slide below that I produced for a presentation explains the thinking some famous brands have successfully taken:
To quote Ananda Roy in a paper titled 'Targeting Changing Consumer Behaviour in a Downturn', "a recession offers a significant opportunity to position and sharpen competitiveness as this is one of the few times when consumers are actively considering their choices".
Just like people, the mistake companies can make is to cut back on marketing and stop focusing on their consumer when this is exactly what will help them succeed. For more on this you can read a previous post about the current paradigm shift towards consumer capitalism instead of shareholder value that is going on, here. The issue comes when companies believe that the only solution is to cut costs, but as Professor A Razeghi stated in his paper titled 'Innovating through a recession', "rather than pull back in innovation, you need to consider how you may use this time to create and launch your most disruptive ideas".
A recession is the time when people are doing exactly what you always hoped they would, they are actively considering their brand choices. Not surprisingly therefore, the research from both Millward Brown and our our own Brand Science team show that those companies that are most proactive during tough times come out the other side stronger.
In summary, if you want to come out the recession ahead of everyone else, you personally need to stay on your employers radar, just as your brands need to stay on your consumer's. Rather than sit back and simply weather the economic storm, those that are successful are the ones that stand up and be counted.
- Sam
