16 min
Brand Strategy and Its Importance in Keeping Employees Happy ~ with Kevin Walker Happy Employees
-
- Business
An interview with Kevin Walker on Brand Strategy and its role in keeping employees happy.
Kevin Walker (Boardwalk) speaks with Geoff Johansing about the importance of a brand and how managing your brand effectively will be as attractive to your best employee as it is to your best customer. A good brand strategy will be pointing to a healthy corporate culture, meaningful work, high-quality co-workers; and attract the very best candidates, and keep them happy. Everybody wants to work for a good brand. If a company differentiates its brand assets in a meaningful way they will find their true competitive advantage, tell their story, and grow their business.
For more "Happy Employees" insights, join our LinkedIn Group!
About Kevin Walker
Principal and Senior Brand Strategist
Boardwalk
Los Angeles, CA,
Paris, France
Website: Boardwalk
FULL TRANSCRIPTION:
GEOFF JOHANSING: Hello everyone. I'm Geoff Johansing. I run the Pasadena office of Insurance Office of America. I am a property and casualty insurance agent working on companies in the middle market arena from a hundred plus employees with ten million plus in revenue and my focus is to have all of my clients have happy employees. I'm here today with Kevin Walker, who runs Boardwalks Branding, and he's in the Los Angeles area. Welcome, Kevin.
KEVIN WALKER: Thank you.
GJ: You want to tell us a little bit about your company?
KW: Ah, sure. Boardwalk is brand strategy consultancy. We are here in Los Angeles, and have been in business since 1990. We work in all different industries; technology, healthcare, financial services, consumer products, sports, entertainment, municipalities, nonprofits, pretty much everything... and what we do with our clients is we help them differentiate their brand assets and in a meaningful way, find their true competitive advantage, tell their story and grow their business.
GJ: Wonderful. So Kevin, my first question; how does having a strong brand create happy employees?
KW: Well studies show that the top concern of middle market companies is talent. How does an organization attract the best, most capable and most productive employees and then keep the competition from poaching them? In the past, they've only had to worry themselves about two different things; base pay salary structure and benefits package.
GJ: Right.
KW: But now, every job offer has that. And top talent, in fact, will expect offers at the high end of that scale. So if every job offer is, if there's parody in all the job offers, how does a candidate make a decision? And they look at four different things; they look at the purpose and the mission at the prospective company; they look at the meaningfulness of the work there; they look at the quality of the co-workers; and they look at the corporate culture. And if you notice, all those things are branding issues. And in fact, 50% of job candidates who turn down a job offer... do it because they don't like the offering company's brand.
GJ: Okay.
KW: But if you've been managing your brand effectively it will already be as attractive to your best employee as it is to your best customer. A good brand strategy will be pointing to healthy corporate culture, meaningful work, high-quality co-workers; and you'll be in good shape to attract the very best candidates, and keep them happy. Everybody wants to work for a good brand.
An interview with Kevin Walker on Brand Strategy and its role in keeping employees happy.
Kevin Walker (Boardwalk) speaks with Geoff Johansing about the importance of a brand and how managing your brand effectively will be as attractive to your best employee as it is to your best customer. A good brand strategy will be pointing to a healthy corporate culture, meaningful work, high-quality co-workers; and attract the very best candidates, and keep them happy. Everybody wants to work for a good brand. If a company differentiates its brand assets in a meaningful way they will find their true competitive advantage, tell their story, and grow their business.
For more "Happy Employees" insights, join our LinkedIn Group!
About Kevin Walker
Principal and Senior Brand Strategist
Boardwalk
Los Angeles, CA,
Paris, France
Website: Boardwalk
FULL TRANSCRIPTION:
GEOFF JOHANSING: Hello everyone. I'm Geoff Johansing. I run the Pasadena office of Insurance Office of America. I am a property and casualty insurance agent working on companies in the middle market arena from a hundred plus employees with ten million plus in revenue and my focus is to have all of my clients have happy employees. I'm here today with Kevin Walker, who runs Boardwalks Branding, and he's in the Los Angeles area. Welcome, Kevin.
KEVIN WALKER: Thank you.
GJ: You want to tell us a little bit about your company?
KW: Ah, sure. Boardwalk is brand strategy consultancy. We are here in Los Angeles, and have been in business since 1990. We work in all different industries; technology, healthcare, financial services, consumer products, sports, entertainment, municipalities, nonprofits, pretty much everything... and what we do with our clients is we help them differentiate their brand assets and in a meaningful way, find their true competitive advantage, tell their story and grow their business.
GJ: Wonderful. So Kevin, my first question; how does having a strong brand create happy employees?
KW: Well studies show that the top concern of middle market companies is talent. How does an organization attract the best, most capable and most productive employees and then keep the competition from poaching them? In the past, they've only had to worry themselves about two different things; base pay salary structure and benefits package.
GJ: Right.
KW: But now, every job offer has that. And top talent, in fact, will expect offers at the high end of that scale. So if every job offer is, if there's parody in all the job offers, how does a candidate make a decision? And they look at four different things; they look at the purpose and the mission at the prospective company; they look at the meaningfulness of the work there; they look at the quality of the co-workers; and they look at the corporate culture. And if you notice, all those things are branding issues. And in fact, 50% of job candidates who turn down a job offer... do it because they don't like the offering company's brand.
GJ: Okay.
KW: But if you've been managing your brand effectively it will already be as attractive to your best employee as it is to your best customer. A good brand strategy will be pointing to healthy corporate culture, meaningful work, high-quality co-workers; and you'll be in good shape to attract the very best candidates, and keep them happy. Everybody wants to work for a good brand.
16 min