Adecco is the world’s largest (temporary) employment agency and one for which I did some account planning a few years ago. In the syndicated research they sent us the attribute “provides candidate that is a good fit for the job” was far and away the key customer care-about. Nothing else came close. Because this was syndicated research, unfortunately, everyone bought it.
So how do you create a brand plan and advertising around a value prop that the big competitors are using? Kelly, Manpower and even all the challenger brands were messaging around “the perfect workplace fit” so how did we make Adecco stand out?
The answer was, and is, in the “proof.” The reason-to-believe. Find something others don’t have that supports the claim and hammer it home. Adecco had a proprietary set of “can do, will do, want to do” questions that each candidate had to fill out and it yielded a better profile and job fit. This became the touchstone of the communications. Our TV spot called “forklift ballet” showed a woman with amazingly fluid forklift skills doing her job to the song “Blue Danube.” It was beautiful and striking. But when she said “’night boys” to her pals and rolled herself out in a wheelchair, the phones lit up. Proof works.
