Employer Branding and Diversity Master of Science Thesis
Employer Branding and Diversity How to attract talented females into R&D oriented corporations YAZHUO LIU Master of Science Thesis Stockholm, Sweden 2010 Employer Branding and Diversity How to attract talented females into R&D oriented corporations YAZHUO LIU Master’s Thesis in Media Technology (30 ECTS credits) at the Media Management Master Programme Royal Institute of Technology year 2010 Supervisor was Christopher Rosenqvist, SSE Examiner was Nils Enlund TRITA-CSC-E 2010:087 ISRN-KTH/CSC/E--10/087-SE ISSN-1653-5715 Royal Institute of Technology School of Computer Science and Communication KTH CSC SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden URL: www.kth.se/csc EMPLOYER BRANDING AND DIVERSITY: -HOW TO ATTRACT TALENTED ORIENTED CORPORATIONS FEMALES INTO R&D ABSTRACT The strategic importance of employer brand has been valued both in business and academic world. Employer-based brand has become a crucial asset for companies. Diversity as one of the most important factors which impact the employer brand is troubling most R&D oriented companies. Ericsson as a market leader within the telecommunication industry is also facing the same problem and has proposed this thesis project. The purpose of this thesis is to study how an R&D oriented company could attract more talented females by leveraging efficient marketing communication. The investigation focused on existing and potential employees’ brand perception of the company and also on their preference regarding information content, format and channels. The empirical data are collected via both qualitative interviews and also through a quantitative online survey to potential employees. The finding shows that there is a large brand perception gap between internal and potential employees and they also identifies important factors in becoming an ideal employer. In order to narrow this gap and attract more talented females, Ericsson should first deliver more comprehensive and trustworthy information about the company to provide more encouragement and assistance for female applicants. Furthermore, information should be conveyed in a more vivid way such as through video and through effective channels like the company website. University presence and social media need to be improved in order to support the suggested strategy. Keywords: employer brand, employee-based brand equity, diversity, marketing communication VARUMÄRKESUPPFATTNING OCH MÅNGFALD: - HUR SKA FOU-INRIKTADE BEGÅVADE KVINNOR FÖ RETAG ATTRAHERA SAMMANFATTNING Den strategiska betydelsen av ”employer brand” värderas högt både inom näringslivet och i den akademiska världen. ”Employer brand” som varumärke har blivit en viktig tillgång för företagen. För de flesta FoU-inriktade företagen är det oroande att mångfald är en av de viktigaste faktorerna som påverkar ”employer brand”. Ericsson som marknadsledande inom telekommunikationsbranschen brottas med samma problem och har därför initierat detta examensarbete. Syftet med examensarbetet är att studera hur ett FoU-inriktat företag skulle kunna attrahera fler kvinnliga talanger genom att utnyttja en effektiv marknadskommunikation. Undersökningen fokuserade på befintliga och potentiella medarbetares uppfattning om företagets varumärke och deras preferenser beträffande informationsinnehåll, format och kanaler. Det empiriska materialet har samlats in både genom kvalitativa intervjuer men också genom en kvantitativ on-line enkätundersökning med potentiella medarbetare. Resultaten visar att det finns en stor skillnad avseende varumärkesuppfattning mellan befintliga och potentiella medarbetare och identifierar även de viktigaste faktorerna för en ideal arbetsgivare. För att minska denna skillnad och attrahera fler kvinnliga talanger är en slutsats att Ericsson bör leverera mer omfattande och tillförlitlig information om företaget för att ge mer uppmuntran och stöd till kvinnliga sökande. Vidare bör informationen göras mer levande t. ex. genom video och användning av effektiva kanaler som t. ex. bolagets hemsida. Synlighet på universitet och i sociala medier måste förbättras för att stödja den föreslagna strategin. Nyckelord: employer brand, anställd-baserade varumärkesvärde, mångfald, marknadskommunikation PREFACE By the time I started working on the study, I was hardly aware of the journey lying ahead of me. Linda Schang as my supervisor at Ericsson tried to warn us about being overambitious with our research intention. True, the work has been hard, but we have been convinced by the synergy effect, which is involved with working in a team. This ambition enabled us to accomplish both a quantitative and qualitative research approach within a limited period of time. I have to admit that I faced some serious challenges during the time I was working on my master thesis. But every time I overcame an obstacle, new energy was regained, which motivated me and my team members to continue. Now, I am proud of and satisfied with the accomplished work. I hope that reading the thesis will be interesting and pleasant, since either most readers are about to graduate and will soon be in a situation, where Employer Branding might play an important role or are dealing with these concepts in a professional setting. However, I would never have been able to complete this master thesis without the contributions of many others. Therefore I would like to express our appreciation to all, who have played a role in the realization of this thesis. In particular I would like to appreciate my supervisor at Ericsson Linda Schang for her expertise, valuable insights and support throughout the writing process. I would also like to thank the interviewees from Ericsson and its collaborative universities. Furthermore, I express my gratefulness to the respondents of our survey: Master Students at KTH, as well as the other ones from Chinese universities. I would like to thank my supervisor at SSE, Christopher Rosenqvist for his feedback, meanwhile, Christer Lie from KTH for his patience and help. In addition, I would like to express my appreciation for my thesis team members Han Jie and Maral Kalajian for their inspired and brilliant ideas that motivate me to keep improving. I would finally like to thank my dear parents and friend Cao Zhe for their caring, encouragement and support. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. 2. Introduction .................................................................................................................................................................. 1 1.1. Background .................................................................................................................................................... 1 1.2. Problem discussion and research scope ........................................................................................... 2 1.3. Purpose and research questions........................................................................................................... 2 1.3.2. Research questions ..................................................................................................................... 3 Theoretical and Practical Relevance ....................................................................................................... 3 1.5. Disposition ...................................................................................................................................................... 4 1.6. Chapter summary ........................................................................................................................................ 4 Theoretical framework ............................................................................................................................................. 5 2.2. 2.3. Brand equity .................................................................................................................................................. 5 2.1.1. Customer- based brand equity ............................................................................................... 5 2.1.2. Employee-based brand equity ............................................................................................... 6 2.1.3. Brand Equity and Signalling .................................................................................................... 7 Marketing communication ...................................................................................................................... 8 2.2.1. Strategic planning process ....................................................................................................... 9 2.2.2. Brand awareness VS brand attitude .................................................................................. 10 Chapter summary ...................................................................................................................................... 11 Methodology ............................................................................................................................................................... 13 3.1. Research approaches ............................................................................................................................... 13 3.1.1. An abductive approach ............................................................................................................ 13 3.1.2. A case study .................................................................................................................................. 13 3.1.3. Mixed- methods .......................................................................................................................... 13 3.2. Case selection .............................................................................................................................................. 14 3.3. Data collection ............................................................................................................................................ 15 3.4. 3.5. 4. Purpose and delimitations ....................................................................................................... 2 1.4. 2.1. 3. 1.3.1. 3.3.1. Preparation ................................................................................................................................... 15 3.3.2. Stages ............................................................................................................................................... 15 Research quality ......................................................................................................................................... 16 3.4.1. Reliability ....................................................................................................................................... 16 3.4.2. Validity ............................................................................................................................................ 16 Chapter summary ...................................................................................................................................... 17 Empirical findings ..................................................................................................................................................... 18 4.1. In-depth semi-structured interviews with managers ............................................................... 18 4.1.1. Program introduction and purpose: .................................................................................. 18 4.2. 4.3. 4.4. 4.5. 5. 4.1.2. Recruiting process and time schedule: ............................................................................. 19 4.1.3. Communication channels: ...................................................................................................... 19 4.1.4. Current situation: ....................................................................................................................... 19 Focus group .................................................................................................................................................. 20 4.2.1. Introduction.................................................................................................................................. 20 4.2.2. Employer branding.................................................................................................................... 21 4.2.3. Global Graduate Program’s recruiting process ............................................................. 22 One to one interview with external potential employees ....................................................... 23 4.3.1. Decision making process ........................................................................................................ 24 4.3.2. ideal working place characheristics .................................................................................. 25 4.3.3. Favored information ................................................................................................................. 25 4.3.4. Favored channel ......................................................................................................................... 26 4.3.5. employer brand perception ................................................................................................... 26 Online survey............................................................................................................................................... 27 4.4.1. ideal work place characteristics .......................................................................................... 28 4.4.2. favored information on company’s website ................................................................... 29 4.4.3. favored information formation ............................................................................................ 29 4.4.4. favored channel .......................................................................................................................... 30 Chapter summary ...................................................................................................................................... 30 Analysis and Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................ 31 5.1. 5.2. 5.3. 5.4. Analysis part 1 ............................................................................................................................................ 31 5.1.1. Consumer marketing communication VS. Employer branding ............................. 31 5.1.2. Marketing communication framework in employer branding context ............. 32 Analysis part 2 ............................................................................................................................................ 33 5.2.1. Target group ................................................................................................................................. 33 5.2.2. Target audience .......................................................................................................................... 33 5.2.3. Generation Y ................................................................................................................................. 34 5.2.4. Conclusion of analysis part 2 ................................................................................................ 34 Analysis part 3 ............................................................................................................................................ 34 5.3.1. Ericsson’s benefits and positive aspects review .......................................................... 34 5.3.2. What information attracts Female ..................................................................................... 35 5.3.3. How to fill the brand perception gap ................................................................................ 37 5.3.4. Conclusion for analysis part 3 .............................................................................................. 38 Analysis part 4 ............................................................................................................................................ 39 5.4.1. Media selection strategy ......................................................................................................... 39 5.4.2. Favored Channel ......................................................................................................................... 40 5.5. 6. 5.4.3. Media mix ...................................................................................................................................... 41 5.4.4. Conclusion for analysis part 4 .............................................................................................. 43 Chapter summary ...................................................................................................................................... 43 Discussion & Future research.............................................................................................................................. 46 6.1. Discussion ..................................................................................................................................................... 46 6.2. Further research ........................................................................................................................................ 46 6.3. Chapter summary ...................................................................................................................................... 47 7. References .................................................................................................................................................................... 48 8. Appendix ....................................................................................................................................................................... 51 Appendix 1: ................................................................................................................................................................. 51 List of Interviewees for in-depth semi-structured interviews with senior managers ............ 51 Appendix 2: ................................................................................................................................................................. 51 Interview guideline for in-depth semi-structured interviews with senior managers ............ 51 Appendix 3: ................................................................................................................................................................. 52 Interview guideline for focus group ...................................................................................................................... 52 Appendix 4: ................................................................................................................................................................. 53 Interview questions for external target students ......................................................................................... 53 Appendix 5: ................................................................................................................................................................. 54 Online survey questions ............................................................................................................................................... 54 1. INTRODUCTION In today’s highly competitive market, organizations are increasingly focusing on the concept of the ‘employer brand’ to underpin their efforts to attract, engage and retain talents, which is the key to optimum organizational performance and provide an important competitive edge for organizations.(Mahalingam, 2008) Employer branding has been gaining popularity in the business community over recent years, and there is now widespread recognition of its importance as a potential business differentiator. This thesis is aiming at investigating how to leverage effective communication to solve the problems at first phase of employer branding: attracting talent, especially the female ones, which most R&D oriented organizations are facing now. Through comprehensive research and a case study of Ericsson, the study will try to figure out who the main target audiences are, what the favored and desired messages are to the target and which channels are the most effective and efficient to use for marketing communication. The reason of doing this study is because that it is noticed that there is a strong correlation between brand leadership and the presence of an unyielding diversity commitment. Diversity and branding are both highly linked to employee satisfaction, expanding the talent pool, and increasing market share (Saxon, 2007). Employer branding and diversity do pay off Leading companies are using diversity branding to tap the tremendous growth potential that diverse markets represent. Consumers make purchase decisions based on their brand perceptions and expectations of the brand experience. The importance of diversity issue is not only because that it would enhance and solidify corporate reputation for fairness, inclusion and opportunity for all, but also because that a diversity environment will encourage more motivations and productivities in the work, both of which would hugely benefit employer brand and customer brand.(Tyrer, 2003) Effective employer branding, however, needs more than simply rebuilding the company’s image or launching a short term marketing campaign. Building the brand into something credible begins with identifying actual strengths and weaknesses in the employment experience. This means involving employees at all levels in the development of the brand so that it accurately reflects both the realities and aspirations of the business and its workforce.(Gandhl, 2005) The employer branding process requires an inter-department collaboration especially between the HR and Communication, which brings the new challenges for marketing communication under the situation of Fragmentation of workforce and emerging of new technologies, for example social media. 1.1. BACKGROUND In the autumn of 2009, a global telecommunication firm Ericsson AB, is going to begin its new recruitment for the trainee program. Ericsson AB operates in more than 150 countries and is continuously creating new trends and innovations that shape the telecom industry. To sustain leadership in a dynamic market, Ericsson AB has recognized 1 that it is essential to have a strong intellectual capital, and this is perfect moment for them to start with these trainee programs by proposing a thesis project about how can Ericsson attract talents from diverse backgrounds into its company (in general), and into its four trainee programs (in specific). The project will be accomplished by a team of three KTH students, while we three will deliver three independent thesis, so the topic of the thesis will based on this project but not totally same as the project goal. One of the team members will study on how to leverage web 2.0 technologies to do employer branding, while the other one will focus on employer branding & diversity for ICT B2Bs. Ericsson is in the process of making a leap from a good to a great employer brand by strengthening its image and encouraging diversity into its corporate environment. In my study, I decided to study on how to apply effective consumer marketing communication process into employer branding, in order to increase the diversity and strengthen their employer brand eventually. 1.2. PROBLEM DISCUSSION AND RESEARCH SCOPE It is widely recognized that for corporations to be competitive in today's global markets, they must take advantage of the benefits from the diverse workforce. Further, with increased innovation being broadly accepted as one of the chief benefits of diversity, research organizations must learn not to "deal with diversity" but to embrace it, seek it and turn it into a competitive advantage. However, the problem is that women are significantly underrepresented in the science and engineering (S&E) workforce. For example, women represented only about 23 percent of the S&E workforce in 2005. (PUMS, 2005) The under-representation is particularly acute in R&D where advanced degrees are frequently recruited. Ericsson has identified this problem within their organization, and been aware of using employer branding to improve and encourage more diversity. And actually, the best way companies can attract a diverse and qualified pool of job candidates is to market to them the same way they do their customers. (Barrow and Richard) Therefore, what becomes interesting is to investigate the consumer branding approaches to contribute to employer brand. Seen from the perspective of big R&D oriented organization, how could consumer marketing methods be integrated in employer branding strategy to attract more female into the organization? 1.3. PURPOSE AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS 1.3.1. PURPOSE AND DELIMITATIONS The research will focus on the first phase of employer branding: attract talents from external. The purpose of this thesis is to study how consumer marketing communication approaches could be integrated into employer branding strategy to attract more female into a R&D oriented corporation. The concept of Employer Branding and Marketing Communication are very broad, and there are probably numerous ways of commencing an active work regarding Employer 2 Branding. In order to answer our purpose accurately and due to limitations regarding time and resources, it has been necessary to perform certain delimitations. The first delimitation concerns a need to narrow-down the field of Employer Branding. Hence, due to the reasons described in the problem discussion, the author has chosen to limit the study and solely look at the first phase of Employer Brand: attract talents from external. As the aim is to obtain a comprehensive study on how marketing communication strategy could be integrated into Employer Branding communication area in R&D oriented organization, the time limitation constrained the author only focus on one company. And because of the big scope of the company, the study and research will be carried out based on the specific R&D Global trainee programs at the beginning, and extended a little to larger scope of the company as whole later. The third delimitation concerns the marketing communication planning process. Firstly, as the company is settled as case study unit, all marketing communication strategy planning would be based on the company’s resources and capabilities. And it is also very important to adjust the framework of Consumer Marketing Communication Strategy Planning process to adapt into employer branding context. Moreover, when it comes to marketing communication, there are three main questions in this area: target audience, delivered message and media channels. Although the target group’s profile is also decided according to the company’s requirements, target audience could be a larger scope than target group that company is willing to recruit. Therefore, it is very important to make clear whom the target audiences are. After that the study would focus more on exploring the messages that would attract the target audience, and media channels that could reach the target audience. 1.3.2. RESEARCH QUESTIONS Questions mainly cover consideration of marketing communication: logical process, target audience, main messages and channels To fulfill the purpose, the author will focus on the three main areas discussed previously; resulting in the following four research questions: Q1 what is framework of implementing a consumer marketing communication planning process into employer branding context? Q2 who are the target audiences for employer marketing communication? Q3 what attract females as an employer when it comes to R&D oriented organization? Q4 what are the best channels to reach target females? 1.4. THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL RELEVANCE There are a plethora of theories about marketing and branding, and a large number of articles discussing corporate image and corporate reputation, however, there are only a few theories available concerning employer branding, especially the linkage between employer brand and consumer marketing communication methods. The findings of this paper would hopefully contribute some inspiring insights into the theoretical understanding of employer branding, and some useful explorations of bridging practical experience and the academic world. 3 Research will base on the resource and capability of Ericsson which served as case study unit This research will also provide a thorough understanding to R&D oriented companies who face problem with recruiting female. The research results will Improve their understandings about important factors on female recruitment, and also their effectiveness of employer branding. Useful guidelines for strategic design and action plans can then be developed further base on an employer’s particular circumstances according to this case study. 1.5. DISPOSITION This section introduces the disposition of this whole thesis as the following description: 1.6. CHAPTER SUMMARY This chapter mainly introduced the situation that employer brand has been paid more and more attention among corporations, which is also supported by the fact that employer branding activities did create value for corporations in return. And within this area, diversity is also a popular issue increasingly emphasized by organizations, especially the R&D oriented ones. Ericsson is one of those who are facing a problem about diversity issue within employer branding area and specifically against the trainee programs. And based on the problem, research questions mainly cover three essential elements of marketing communication: target audience identification, communication messages and media channels. 4 2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK The aim of this chapter is to introduce the chosen relevant theories which can enable better research conduction and the theoretical background understanding. Moreover, the theories will also build a foundation of further analysis and aid us to better answer the research questions. 2.1. BRAND EQUITY A brand was defined as: “A name, term, sign, symbol or design, or combination of them which is intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors’. (Schneider, 2003) And with the emerging of concept brand equity, it means both a good and bad news to marketers. It is good because brand equity elevated the importance of brand in marketing communication strategy, while it also brought a little confusion to people due to its too many versions of definition which are based on various purposes. (Keller,2008) Fundamentally, branding is all about endowing products and services with the power of brand equity. Despite the many different views, it is agreed by most observers that brand equity consists of the marketing effects uniquely attributable to a brand. That is, brand equity explains why marketing of a branded product or service make difference. (Keller,2008 ) To better answer the research questions, it is better to look into different perspective of customer-based and employee-based brand equity firstly and then generalize the common framework for further study and research. 2.1.1. CUSTOMER- BASED BRAND EQUITY The definition of brand equity within marketing terms is “a set of brand assets and liabilities linked to a brand that add to or subtract from the value provided by a product or service to a firm and/or to that firm's customers”(Aaker, 1991). Customer based brand equity has more to do with the effect of brand knowledge of an customer and his or her response to the marketing of the product (Keller, 1993). The standard tool for understanding a brand’s association and the customers’ response is the brand equity pyramid (see below). The strongest brands exhibit both “duality” (emotional and functional associations) and richness (a variety of brand associations or “equity” at every level, from salience to resonance) (Keller 2008). 5 Figure 1: Brand Equity Pyramid. Source: Keller(2003) Strategic Brand Management And in the pyramid, salience as the foundation of it, perform huge importantly for the whole brand building process, because it is the first step of establishing relationship between the customer and brand. Merely good awareness of the brand elements could lead to the upper level of understanding a brand. And after identifying, it is the phase of create positive brand attitude towards the brand. Increasing brand awareness and creating positive brand attitude require almost 70% of the whole investment in building brand. 2.1.2. EMPLOYEE-BASED BRAND EQUITY When it comes to employer branding, brand equity applied all the effect and knowledge of brand on potential and existing employees of the organizations. Employer brand equity will motivate and impel potential applicants to apply. Moreover, employer brand equity is also supposed to encourage existing employees’ loyalty to the company in order to gain more support and reduce the turnover. The ideal and desired outcome of employer branding activities is to build up employer brand equity . In other words, “potential or existing employees will react differently to similar recruitment, selection, and retention efforts from different firms because of the underlying employer brand equity associated with these firms”. (Backhaus & Tikoo, 2004) It is common for product or service brand marketers to use some form of brand relationship ladder that starts with basic awareness, and progresses through trial, and repeat purchase to brand loyalty and active brand advocacy (Barrow& Mosley,2005). This is an interesting concept to apply to the employer brand, although it involves a number of additional dimensions. In the context of employment we suggest that it would be useful to have a viewpoint on the answers to the following questions in relation to each target group: 6 Figure 2:Employer Brand Relationship Ladder: Source: Barrow, S. and Mosley, R (2005) The Employer Brand® Bringing the Best of Brand Management to People at Work. . 2.1.3. BRAND EQUITY AND SIGNALLING It is common that almost all brand definitions focus on customers’ perspective rather than on other stakeholders such as employees who are also influenced hugely by brand messages. However, in the context of employer marketing, the employer brand is to be understood as the set of distinctive images of an employer which are manifest in the minds of target groups (Meffert, Burmann and Koers 2002; Petkovic 2004). Marketing scholars studied and researched on concepts which are focused on product or corporate brands' effects on consumers and the associated brand equity (e.g. Keller 1993; Swait et al. 1993). Cognitive psychologists focus on the creation of buyer-based brand equity as the outcome of factors such as performance and personality. And the value of buyer-based brand equity is measured by the perceptions of buyers (Tsao 2002). Keller (1993, p. 1) states that “Customer-based brand equity is defined as the differential effect of brand knowledge on consumer response to the marketing of the brand.” According to Aaker (1991, p. 15) “brand equity is a set of brand assets and liabilities linked to a brand … that add or subtract from the value provided by a product or service to a firm and/or to that firm’s customers.” Brand equity provides value to the uninformed party by facilitating the information process and by increasing confidence. Reductions in perceived risk and information costs are consequences of brand equity. 7 The approach does not explicitly recognize the aspects of information in markets which are determined by interactions among market actors (Erdem and Swait 1998, p. 133). The information economics approach involved strategic interactions among sellers in its model (Tsao 2002, p. 9) which is important in the employment context as an employment contract can have long-term implications. This approach used signalling theory which deals with problems caused by existence of asymmetric information in markets and with the possibilities to defeat those asymmetries (Spence 1973). Signalling theory can also be applied into conceptualizing the dealing with adverse selection (Kirmani and Rao 2000). Signals like guarantees, price, and brands influence quality judgments (e.g. Dawar and Parker 1994; Koku 1995). According to Kirmani and Rao (2000, p. 69) brands can be classified as sale-independent or default independent signals since they exist regardless of a transaction. Brands have been proved that it is capable of communicating unobservable quality (Erdem and Swait 1998). Information asymmetry needs consistency, clarity, and credibility and associated brand investments to fill within employer brand In consumer markets, a wide range of study and research focus on customer-based brand equity and brands as quality signals. While in Wilden’s research of employee-based equity, a conceptual framework for employee-based brand equity implies that “the effectiveness of a brand signal to employees is dependent on its consistency, its clarity, its credibility, and the associated brand investment. Employee as an additional main stakeholder companies should account for brand equity. Accordingly, employee-based brand equity should ultimately be considered as a component of a wider framework of brand equity complementing existing conceptualizations of customer-based brand equity. ” (Wilden, Gudergan, and Lings 2006) 2.2. MARKETING COMMUNICATION Marketing communication are messages and related media used to communicate with market. “Marketing” implies selling and a goal of economic benefit for the communicator, while marketing communication techniques can be applied with divers of purpose. One of the most popular domains for marketing communication is human resource area. The old Laswelian communication research paradigm of “Who says What to Whom through which Channels with what Effect.” Generalize the basic elements of marketing communication, and provide guidelines for communication research. And according to Micheal L. Ray, the research basically covers three key areas: (1) Communication goals— goals are set in terms of communication response of clear target group. (2) Message strategy—given a goal of the communication, how these goals are to be achieved is the next decision? What to say (appeal) and how to say it (format) are the fundamental issues (3) Message distribution—once goals and message strategy are established, the marketing communication manager must decide how the messages will be delivered to the target audience.(Ray, el. 1973) One of the most popular framework for strategic marketing communication, which influences both the academic and business area, is Larry Percy and Richard Elliott’s book Strategic Advertising Management. In this book, they systematically introduced the framework of marketing communication. 8 2.2.1. STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS All marketing communication must be consistent with, and in support of, the overall marketing plan which basically cover the information about products, market size and also the competitive evaluation. (Percy.L & Elliott.R,2009 p.85) Larry and Richard suggest that the strategic planning process starts with a review of marketing plan and analysis of what compose the target market. Although the customer or consumer is at the heart of any marketing communication program in the end, there may be more people and actors who are involved in the decision making process, and they should be considered in the planning phase. After reviewing the marketing plan, a scientific and practical Five-Step strategic planning process for marketing communication should be processed during the project. The five stages are shown as below: Figure 3: The Five-Step Strategic Planning Process : Source: Percy&Elliott (2009). Strategic Advertising Management (3rd edn.) SELECTING THE TARGET AUDIENCE Once marketing strategy and target market have been selected, it is time identify the target audience. Here the only correct segmentation variable is attitude. It is people who hold relatively similar attitude towards category usage and brands within the category we are looking for. The primary concern is to identify brand loyalty group, but it is also important to know how the target market segments generally in terms of other relevant attitudes if we are to optimize communication strategy. UNDERSTANDING TARGET AUDIENCE DECISION MAKING After selecting the target audience, it is very important to understand of how the target audience goes about marking purchase decisions in the category. This involves establishing who is likely to participate in the decision and the roles they play in the process, and developing a Behavioural Sequence Model (BSM) (Rossiter & Percy, 1987,1997) that identifies the likely stages the target audience goes through in making a 9 purchase decision. Once constructed, the model provides important insights into positioning, commutation, and media strategy. DETERMINING THE BEST POSITIONING With an understanding of how target audience makes decisions in the category, we can now address the issue of how best to position the brand within its marketing communication. The target audience decision-making model helps identify the likely connection between category need and the brand, along with benefits associated with the brand. Now it is time to consider positioning the brand, specifically addressing the question ’What is it?’, in order to drive brand awareness effectively, and then the question ‘What does it offer’, to select the benefit consistent with the motivation. Effective positioning will ensure optimum delivery of the two core communication objectives of brand awareness and brand attitude. Moreover, identifying self advantages and competitive edge will also make organization serve the target market more effectively than competitors. (Hooley & Saunders, 1993) DEVELOPING A COMMUNICATION STRATEGY In developing a communication strategy we must first establish our communication objectives by selecting the desired communication effects. In effect, understanding consumer decision making helps answer two fundamental questions which are must asked in developing a communication strategy: what is the brand awareness and brand attitude strategy, and what do we want the target audience to do as a result of our marketing communication? SETTING A MEDIA STRATEGY After fixing the brand awareness and brand attitude strategy, the next step is to select the best communication options to deliver the message to the target audience. The author would choose appropriate media channels based on the basic principles of the brand awareness and attitude strategies. 2.2.2. BRAND AWARENESS VS BRAND ATTITUDE BRAND AWARENESS Studying on decision making process of target could help identify which type of brand awareness strategy is in need When it comes to brand awareness, strategy could be classified into two main patterns depending on the decision making process. When the target audience recognizes brand at point of purchase and remembers need, it requires recognition brand awareness strategy; while when need occurs and target audience must recall brands that satisfy the need, recall brand awareness strategy is in need. (Percy.L & Elliott.R,2009 p.199-201) Brand recognition needs advertising must present the brand the same as it will be seen under purchase occasion, so that brand-category need association is aroused. Being confronted with the brand will act as a retrieved cue, reminding people the need for the product or services.( Tulving,1983) So attractiveness and good visual content, not much time required for processing and even low frequency will do, and therefore television, magazines, posters, the internet, and direct mail could be considered as media channels. And based on recall brand awareness, the brand name and visual logo should be repeated among target audience as often as possible and also inked with the category 10 need. There are no so many limitations when it comes to the media channels. Nearly all the media could function well to achieve the goal without considering the cost. But one critical point is that the brand is always linked to the need. BRAND ATTITUDE Brand attitude strategy is a function of the two fundamental considerations: (1) whether there is low or high involvement with the use decision based primarily upon the target audience’s perceived risk (either in fiscal or psychological terms); (2) whether the underlying motivation that drives behaviour in the category is positive or negative. Combining these two considerations produces the four brand attitude strategy quadrants of the grid: low involvement with negative motivation; low involvement with positive motives; high involvement with negative motives; and high involvement with positive motives. Figure 4: The Rossiter & Percy Grid, Source: Rossiter,J.R. and Percy,L., (1997). Advertising Communication and Promotion Management. 2nd edn. Brand attitude strategy are made based on the products’ position in Rossiter-Percy grid The creative tactics that maximize the likelihood of an effective message are directly linked to the brand attitude strategy that follows from the appropriate quadrant defined by the Rossiter-Percy grid. (Rossiter & Percy,1997)These tactics differ significantly for each quadrant. Strategy associated with negative motives require information to help solve or avoid problem, while those associated with positive motivates must help transform the customer. 2.3. CHAPTER SUMMARY This chapter has introduced the basic theories of customer and employee based brand equity, and also brought in Signalling concept to elaborate how to deal with asymmetric information within employer brand context by emphasizing on consistency, clarity, credibility, and the associated brand investments. In this chapter, it also presented the five decision steps in strategic planning process: select the target audience, understanding target audience decision making, determine the best positioning, develop a communication strategy and 11 set the media strategy. And the following chapters will discuss some stages in depth. The author has also considered how the Rossiter-Percy grid can be used to guide brand attitude strategy and creative tactics. 12 3. METHODOLOGY Methodology is concerning which methods should be used in order to produce a scientific contribution to a study or research. (Andersen, 1994) The aim of this chapter is to introduce and present the methodological considerations which are related to the thesis. 3.1. RESEARCH APPROACHES 3.1.1. AN ABDUCTIVE APPROACH The study will mainly based on the inductive research approach due to it is a process of deriving a conclusion and theories based on empirical findings. However, it also contains some deductive features since the study begins with the existing theories which are also used to test against the empirical data later. Therefore the abductive is considered as the most appropriate method in this thesis, since the author aims at deriving conclusions from both empirical data and existing theories. It is not necessary to see the two classical theoretical approaches as mutually exclusive and most social science research tends to fall within the continuum between the two (Bryman & Bell 2007). A balance between inductive and deductive methods, namely abductive method, is consequently an important aspect in conducting most research (Hyde, 2000) 3.1.2. A CASE STUDY Moreover, there are three main research strategies; case studies, surveys and experiments. Case studies should be used to develop detailed and intensive knowledge in a small number of subjects and the author has thus chosen to base the study on the case study approach (Saunders et al, 1997; Sekaran, 2003). Case studies can provide new insights due to the detailed explanations that for example survey methods usually miss out (Eisenhardt, 1989). The case study approach is suitable when the study’s focus is on contemporary phenomenon in real-life context and when the purpose of the study is to answer the question; “How?” (Yin, 1989). Since these criteria correspond to the purpose of the thesis, the author consequently believes that the case study approach is the most suitable method for the study. 3.1.3. MIXED- METHODS In order to attain a deep understanding of the research questions the author has chosen to use a Mixed- method research, which means using quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques and analysis procedures either parallel or sequential, but doesn’t combine them (Sanders M, Lewis P & Thornhill A 2009). The purpose of the study is to, through an exploratory case study, discover the subject of employer branding as well as its relationship to consumer marketing communication, and therefore contribute to a new understanding of how a R&D orientated company can recruit more talent female through implementing an effective marketing communication. Thus qualitative approach is often characterized by addressing a 13 phenomenon from the inside (Andersen, 1994). The aim is to create a holistic view by increasing the understanding of social contexts and processes (Holme & Solvang, 1997). The approach also gives an inside perspective with a closeness to the individuals which will help us gain a deeper and more detailed understanding of the research area. To be able to answer the research questions and with the scope and purpose of the thesis in mind, the author has hence chosen qualitative research as primary research approach. Qualitative interviews can create trust, leave room for explanations and open discussion, and minimize the risk for misinterpretations. The interviews will further give an opportunity to observe and study the interviewees’ behaviors which will improve the understanding of the logic behind their answers. The advantages of personal in-depth interviews are that answers are not forced out of the interviewees and follow-up questions can be asked and also adjusted accordingly. The disadvantages of the approach are instead that the process is time consuming regarding administration and requires more time and effort from the interviewees (Bryman & Bell, 2003). However, An important way in which quantitative research supports qualitative studies is through identifying respondents with the required characteristics for attach to actions or behavior (Bryman, 2004: 457). Due to their greater universality and ‘apparent objectivity’ (Preece, 1994:44), quantitative approaches can provide background information for qualitative studies to draw on in identifying broader trends, against which to locate in-depth analysis. Some quantification may help to uncover the generality of phenomena (Bryman, 2004: 460). Therefore in order to reach larger range of the research with less time and labor consumption, a quantitive research will also be used as complemented element and cross test tool for the qualitative research. 3.2. CASE SELECTION Through the prior literature research and theory study about employer branding, the author found that the diversity issue was more and more valued among academic and business areas. However, the author also identified a lack of specific research on diversity issue of R&D oriented corporations which face the most severe problem comparing with other industries. Moreover, the corporate and global branding is no longer only a marketing tool to attract customers but also to attract competences in large companies. Business-to-Business companies are challenged to create awareness of their employer-bility to potential talents. A selection of respondents in a qualitative study should be systematically based on certain criteria (Holme&Solvan, 1997). To answer the research questions and keep the purpose and delimitations in mind, the case company should therefore have the following features: An international organization within R&D oriented industry A Business- to-Business company A company that recently identify the diversity issue and have advantages for further improvement The thesis project will explore the influence of employer branding on prospects in the information and communication technology industry, by analyzing and evaluating a global telecommunication leader, Ericsson AB. 14 3.3. DATA COLLECTION 3.3.1. PREPARATION Prior to the interviews, the research team sent e-mail to the targeted interviewees to introduce ourselves and the purpose of the thesis project and also what they could make contribution to this project, in order to build trust and made them better prepared. The interview guide is of crucial importance for the quality of the study (Lundahl & Skärvad 1992). One of the most important qualities of an investigator is to have a thorough understanding of the research topic (Yin 1989). So before designing the questions for the interview guide, the research team did an extensive reading and review of relevant theories and reports to perceive a better understanding of the topic and structure the interviews. Several informal interviews with the current employees provided more comprehensive understanding of the company’s environment. Since the targeted interviewees are various in terms of role, so it is important that the questions are relevant for research questions, but it also should not be irrelevant for the interviewees (Bryman & Bell, 2003). Thus, the research team made adjustments to the interview questions in accordance with the interviewee’s position and role within or outside the organization. Meanwhile, in order to create a atmosphere of trust which is a prerequisite for an in-depth qualitative interview (Holme &Solvang, 1997), the research team made sure that the interviewee were anonymous and the purpose were clear. It was also possible to choose the language they felt comfortable with and record the interview content if it was approved. 3.3.2. STAGES To answer the research questions, there are four stages of primary data collection in this research: In-depth semi-structured interviews with senior managers of Ericsson are analyzed qualitatively. The objective of these interviews is to get essential contextual data for the research. The target interviewees (see appendix 1) are mainly from HR and communication divisions of the company. It normally took 30-40 minutes for a single interview. And the questions follow the interview guideline (see appendix 2) covering their roles, main responsibilities and the their perceptions of employer branding and diversity issue. Focus groups with former and current trainees are analyzed qualitatively. It aims for knowing the issues that are important to employees especially the female ones, and also getting to know the brand perception gap between external and internal (see appendix 3). As they are the group of people who are newly employed, they are able to compare different experience from external and internal, thus they have more say in this employer branding matter. One to one interview with external target students is to gain deeper understanding of their decision making process and determinant factors in choosing employees (see appendix 4). An online survey is structured based on the input of primary qualitative data collection and is analyzed quantitively to obtain and examine conclusions drawn from primary qualitive research. The survey is conducted anonymously and among 15 the students of collaborating universities with Ericsson. It is a general survey among both male and female in order to get more comprehensive understanding of determinants for being an ideal employer. The survey questions (see appendix 5) are finalized after discussion with the thesis supervisor and several experts within this area. A little pilot survey is also conducted among KTH students before the formal one is sent out. In that case, the author could notice possible problems and make necessary adjustments accordingly. 3.4. RESEARCH QUALITY To determine the research quality, reliability and validity are important aspect to consider. Validity can further be divided into construct, internal and external validity. Below these aspects are discussed. 3.4.1. RELIABILITY The reliability of a research study is concerned with the “absence of stochastic errors” in the data (Lundahl & Skärvad, 1992). The objective is to assure that if another investigator later followed the same procedures, he would arrive at the same findings and conclusions (Yin, 2003). The characteristic of good reliability could be described as several independent measurements all producing the same result (Holme & Solvang, 1997). Reliability can hence be achieved through a standardization of the data collection process. Since our study is of qualitative nature, the reliability could therefore be negatively affected (Bryman, 2006). To be able to still obtain a high level of reliability, the author has taken several steps, precautions and measures in the study to prevent and avoid occurrences of biases and errors. All the interviews are recorded and further transcribed. Notes are also taken for each interview to prevent the misinterpretations, which serves as complement to record and transcripts. To avoid misunderstandings due to languages, interviewees would choose their preferred languages. In addition, all the interviews in each stages of study are followed the same interview guide even there are open-end questions asked, which assure all interviews to reach a higher level of standardization in the data collection process. The research team also studied a large range of secondary data and conducted one-on-one interviews with current employees at multiple levels of the organization to improve the reliability of the study. 3.4.2. VALIDITY Internal validity is instead defined as the extent the results from the study correspond with reality (Merriam, 1994). When performing research with qualitative method, the interviewee’s mental construct of reality is studied. Hence, the results do not have to reflect the objective view of reality, but instead it is the perspective that is more interesting than the truth itself. The researcher’s duty is then to present this mental construct in an honest manner (Taylor & Bogdan, 1984). Therefore, one of the strengths with qualitative method is the high level of internal validity (Merriam, 1994). Moreover, several measures are also taken to assure high internal validity. All interviews are guaranteed full anonymity. And in order to create an atmosphere of trust, the research team also introduce ourselves and purpose of this study beforehand in an e-mail. Prior to all interviews , it is further reminded to interviewee of the full anonymity, and recording 16 is only possible if it is approved by the interviewee. These measures are intended to eliminate individuals’ fear of providing real thought (Yin, 2003). All interviews are recorded and noted to assure the validation. Finally, the company has read and approved the empirical findings. They have hence assured that the empirical findings correspond with reality and we would therefore argue that our internal validity is high. Finally, external validity is concerned with to what extent the study could be generalized (Yin, 1989). It is argued that studies with qualitative research method tend to have somewhat weaker external validity (Bryman, 2006). The external validity in this study is hence a matter of case context. Since the study only focuses on one organization and a specific case of employer branding’s diversity issue, the relevance of making generalizations can be questioned. Nevertheless, it is no longer obvious that a limited number of observations cannot lead to meaningful generalizations in the end (Gummesson, 1988). The author believes that the studied case could offer interesting contributions to the research area of increasing diversity, by effective employer branding communication across borders within R&D oriented companies. Moreover, the research ends up with an international survey which intends to check the output conclusions of all the qualitative researches. The respondents imply a larger range of people which could be used to draw more comprehensive and generalized conclusion. And therefore, the author argues that the validation of the research is also high. 3.5. CHAPTER SUMMARY This chapter presented the research approaches that the thesis will use. Abductive was considered as the most appropriate method for the thesis, since the author aimed at deriving conclusions from both empirical data and existing theories. And case study was chosen as research strategies. In order to attain a deep understanding of the research questions, the author chose to make a Mixed- method research, which means using quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques and analysis procedures, either parallel or sequential, but doesn’t combine them. And the data collection could be divided into four stages: In-depth semi-structured interviews with senior managers, focus group with former and current trainees, One to one interview with external target students and an online survey. In the following chapter, the results of the data collection will be presented each by each. 17 4. EMPIRICAL FINDINGS In this chapter, empirical findings will be presented according to four research stages mentioned before in two perspectives: internal and external. In interviews with managers and focus group with trainees, it reveals the current situation and brand perception of Ericsson, which are focused on finding out the merits and problems within the organization regarding the marketing communication. While the one on one interview and online survey with target students will give an external view of Ericsson, which emphasize on significant factors that can determine their decision making process of choosing employer. 4.1. IN-DEPTH SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEWS WITH MANAGERS The interviewees are at manager level, and most of whom are from trainee program project, Global HR and Communication divisions. Linda Schang: Global trainee program director, in charge of three global trainee programs: R&D, multimedia and Finance. Rajan.Nichani: Global trainee program director, in charge of Exellerate trainee program. Sussane Samuelsson: R&D Global trainee program project manager Monica: Global HR manager who is responsible for global recruiting and transaction work of eJob system’s integrating. Anna & Johan: Global communication manager who is in charge of the communication job among different divisions, especially between HR and Marketing departments. Cecilia Bladh: Employer branding Manager of Sweden 4.1.1. PROGRAM INTRODUCTION AND PURPOSE: To secure the future supply of leadership candidates within the R&D organization, Ericsson decided to launch this graduate program for cultivating future managers, project managers and technical leaders within the R&D organization. It has been held four times (GGP2005, GGP2006, GGP2007, GGP2008) since the first launch. 50 (33 male vs. 17 female) people got accepted into this program, and 38 of them already graduated and began working in Ericsson The R&D Global Graduate Program is not only a management provisioning activity, but also an employer branding initiative. The program purpose is to attract students, and to keep the image of Ericsson as the first choice employer, further more to secure the future supply of leadership candidates (managers, project managers and technical leaders) within R&D. 18 4.1.2. RECRUITING PROCESS AND TIME SCHEDULE: Figure 5: Program Recruiting Process and Time Schedule 4.1.3. COMMUNICATION CHANNELS: The program is advertised on the Ericsson Career Site and locally (web, daily press, job fares etc) in the countries where program positions are available at the time. Ericsson also use relationship marketing to propaganda the program by cooperating with local major technical universities and joining job fairs there. Basically speaking, Ericsson‘s marketing activities are conducted through three channel: Advertising in printing Advertising on line Relationship marketing The printing channel may enjoy a broader coverage but might have shortcoming with efficiency. (Sussane) On the other hand, online would be more cost-efficiency but couldn’t be able to attract people’s attention like blockbuster. Job fair at universities is good chance to attract Ericsson’s target group, but the selection of the universities must be conducted very carefully and taking different locally culture into consideration. (Cecilia) 4.1.4. CURRENT SITUATION: In Sweden, Ericsson has a great reputation, and it is in the top 3 list as an employer. In a survey conducted by Universum communications, Ericsson was perceived as a large traditional company. Ericsson was also perceived as a safe place to work with, however 19 lack of entrepreneurship culture was seen as a negative point. (Cecilia) The survey was conducted by Universum communications in a focus group of students from 7 universities. And based on interviews and survey conducted by Universum, a SWOT analysis which was against the competitors among talents market was made, where the strengths and weakness are collected from students and young professionals’ opinions, while the opportunities and threats are concluded based on the internal interviews with managers. Low awareness of brand is the main weakness of Ericsson. The positive brand attitude associated with Ericsson is not enough Recruiting process is an effective way of both increase brand awareness and create positive brand attitude to the potential employees among students Figure 6: SWOT Analysis on Ericsson’s Trainee Program “Although there is no research particularly against female students and young professionals, we could also feel obviously difficulty in attracting female comparing with male into our organization.” (Linda) “The brand image and the messages that were sent out may need some change to re-build Ericsson’s image.”(Cicelia) 4.2. FOCUS GROUP In this section, the report will present the data that was found in the research. 4.2.1. INTRODUCTION From March of 2009, a series of focus groups with formal and current trainees were conducted. GGP4 and GGP3 were chosen as participants to these focus groups. The purpose of focus groups, on one hand, is to investigate the Ericsson’s brand perceptions among trainees. On the other hand, it is to gather some in-depth feedbacks of GGP’s recruiting process which could be used to improve recruiting process in general, no matter concerning to male or female. 20 The format of focus group is just making all participants respond to a series of questions related to their experiences, needs, and perceptions. The participant’s profile is as below: Table 1: Focus group interviewees’ profile Degree Master in Engineering or Science Age Gender 25-28 Female ; Male The following summary of the focus group findings is based upon two main parts which are Employer Branding and Graduate Program. And there will be seven detailed themes under these two big parts: (1) brand perception gap, (2) core values feedback, (3) motivation for applying, (4) advertising for the program, (5) hiring process, (6) assessment center, (7) satisfied degree. 4.2.2. EMPLOYER BRANDING BRAND PERCEPTION GAP Almost all of them had awareness of Ericsson’s brand because of their education background, but only half of them knew what exactly Ericsson’s business was about. But still, there were two cases that people ‘didn’t know Ericsson before really entering the company’, letting alone Ericsson’s business and brand attitude. And for those who knew Ericsson pretty good, even some Swedish people didn’t have positive brand attitude about Ericsson. What they thought about Ericsson was just a ‘traditional and Swedish company’. Good university collaborations promote brand awareness Brand attitude transformed from neutral or negative to positive after becoming an insider Those who are from Sweden or universities that have good collaborations with Ericsson have narrower perception gap about Ericsson. “Ericsson presents a lot in my university and its office lies beside our campus; there are intensive collaborations between my university and Ericsson. And we also have a lot of classmates who already worked for Ericsson. In that case, we could know the company’s environment and culture more according to our classmates”. There was another statement about this situation. “I studied in Kista, as you know, Kista is Ericsson Valley. They do presentations and job fairs all the time, so I knew Ericsson’s story and was kind of loyal to Ericsson already. ” On the other hand, those who are not from Nordic culture’s country, or even from the Nordic country but used to work at the Ericsson’s branch far away from headquarter of Sweden, experiences a huge brand perception transformation. The good news is that all of perceptions’ changes about Ericsson are in a good way, which means people valued Ericsson more, after really getting to know and coming inside of it. Usually, people use words like ’telecom, traditional, Swedish,’ to describe Ericsson before they entering the company, but after becoming an insider, there are more positive responses, such as ’innovative, human oriented, professional, new opportunity ’. 21 CORE VALUES FEEDBACK All of them mentioned the values and culture of the company would vary according to different cultures and personality. People tend to do the business in a more local or their own ways rather than simply copying the headquarter way, which means that the same professionalism would be expressed differently in different culture or even not be followed. To make sure the core values don’t become an empty shell, they have to be adaptable to local culture and the job rotation is necessary so as to enhance the collaboration and core values within Ericsson globally. When it comes to recruiting process, people don’t care that much of core values. Those to them are just the information that needs to be known for the interview. However, these values issues became more and more important for them after they began to work at Ericsson. And most of the people mentioned the core values which Ericsson uses now are a little broad for people to follow in daily work. But if they are break down a little, people can find their values that they appreciate more and use them to motivate their daily work. For GGP3, they use innovation, collaboration, motivation and challenge as their values which are more specific and motivated for them. MOTIVATION FOR APPLYING Due to the educational background of participants, they all knew that Ericsson could be their employer, because Ericsson was the market leader within the Industry, thus most of them applied for this program but with no more preference than other companies. Only two people mention that they preferred Ericsson more when they chose employer. One said according to the description of Nokia from her friends and her own experience with Ericsson, she felt Ericsson is really interested in people and willing to invest in people’s developing, which made her very impressive and determine to work for such a company. The other one’s preference was also because of the words of his friends who worked for Ericsson and the familiarity which was created by high presentence of the campus’s campaigns and lectures. 4.2.3. GLOBAL GRADUATE PROGRAM’S RECRUITING PROCESS ADVERTISING Lacking of effective marketing led to loss of applicants There are lots of HAPPY ACCIDENTS heard when they were asked how the participant knew this gradate program. Two of them applied only one day ahead of the deadline. And one of them was even from the university which had good relationships with Ericsson, but she had no idea about this program at all. Some of them have applied for this program before, so they know the program. But still they admitted that it lacked of enough efforts on advertising for the program, especially in the countries other than Sweden. HIRING PROCESS The schedules for students’ beginning to apply jobs vary in different courtiers. Taking Beijing University of China for example, it normally starts from first week of October and the first round begins with consulting companies and followed by all the top companies like Google, IBM and Microsoft. Ericsson may enter the university during the third round, which means it is too late to get touch with the talent at the best opportunity. 22 And the relatively longer recruiting was the issue mostly mentioned. For locations like UK, students start searching for job a year ahead of graduation and get contract by December, but Ericsson’s recruiting process lasts until April, which means many of students have already picked up decisions. Comparing with other companies’ recruiting process, Ericson has a long duration, which makes applicants go to other offers during the wait time for Ericsson’s results. ASSESSMENT CENTER All of the participants responded that it was the experiences at assessment center that made them fully determine to enter this program and Ericsson. At the assessment center, meeting with other young competitive and motivated candidates and the high quality of the professional assessments impressed them a lot, and made them have a very good team spirit. However, before getting into the assessment phase, there were some bad experiences about contacting issue. The girl who applied from Finland almost missed this program due to the bad performance and cooperation within Adecco which served as third party for recruiting. Meanwhile, there were also some good feedbacks of the third party performance. It mentioned that close contact and fluent informing to the candidates made them stay with Ericsson’s program while leaving other offers along. SATISFACTION DEGREE The satisfaction of the programs was fairly high in terms of program’s content and quality. All of the participants would like to recommend this program to their friends. And they also thought that the inspiring and successful stories from formal trainees would be helpful to the new applicants. 4.3. ONE TO ONE EMPLOYEES INTERVIEW WITH EXTERNAL POTENTIAL According to the profile of the potential employee whom Ericsson is interested in, 20 interviewees are chosen from Ericsson’s target 10 universities all over the world. The interview time ranged between 25 to 45 minutes. The data that was collected in the interviews were aggregated and represented based on the most repeated, vital and relevant information. It is important to notice that the interviewees did not know that the research was done for Ericsson, to be able to keep the answers as objective as possible. Table 2: Criteria of selecting 20 interviewees. Interviewee Criteria Characteristics Age Young: 25-32 Gender Female & Male Engineering background Engineer & non-engineer Country China, India, Sweden, USA, Spain, Italy, UK 23 Universities All the universities that collaborate with Ericsson local branches The objective of having this set of criteria aimed to match the generation Y’s perception of an ideal working place, because it is the target that Ericsson recruit now and in the future. Identifying the thoughts, interests and the needs of this target group can help Ericsson to reach out to this talent pool, and be able to successfully recruit them. The reason why we do it among both genders is because that a comparison research has more value in helping Ericsson better understanding the differences between male and female ‘s interests. 4.3.1. DECISION MAKING PROCESS Normally, the decision making process compose of five-stage components, which needs recognition, search, alternative evaluation, action (purchasing), and outgoings. Such ‘flow’ of thought and action is at the heart of any consumer purchase behavior, and this is what the author wants to capture with a target audience decision making model. After knowing the making decision process, it is helpful to identify the likely connection between category need and the brand, along with benefits associated to the brand. Table 3: target audience behavior sequence model for a job searching. Decision roles Where stages likely to occur Self friends, family, teachers as initiators and influences Company’s recruiter as initiator Home, university, company presentation Stage 2 : Identify possible job opening Self, friends, teachers, family as influences Company’s recruiter, reports and medias as influences Home, university, Company presentation campaign Stage 3 : Self as decider Company or teacher, family as influences Stage 1 : Need arousal More people rather than self are involved in this decision making process Evaluation options and companies People tend to recall the company before they begin to search information Stage 4 : Timing of stage How stage is likely to occur 1-6 months before graduation holidays between semesters Friends, teacher talk, See adverts, At web or campus campaign Immediately need arousal after Friends, teacher talk, See adverts, At web or campus campaign Home, university, company over 4 weeks following need arousal and may keep going on until get hired Self as decider Home, university, company’s presentation Depend on individual case. Self as actor Home Immediately after the decision is made Search online about the information, visit the company’s websites, visit the company directly, talk with friends, teacher or family who are familiar with the company Compare requirement offering, also company’s reputation and work environment, and so on (which would be presented in the next section) Apply on internet normally Self The company which offers the job Depending on the deadline of applying Choose company Stage 5 : Apply for openings Stage 6 : Take the job the is ‘s or 24 Start working experiencing the environment and new Stage 7 : Post job evaluation Self Almost everywhere After beginning work’s Tell friends, family of experience via different possible media channels And what needs to be highlighted here is that female relies on third party’s objective information more than male. They turn to friends, teacher by using social media for job information. They also collect information about the company by using company’s website and job agency website. 4.3.2. IDEAL WORKING PLACE CHARACHERISTICS Figure 7: What makes an ideal working place. Source: one to one external interviews 4.3.3. FAVORED INFORMATION What attracts you most when the job is offered by an employer? The replies by the interviewees resulted as follows, with some repetitions listed on the top 1234567- The job position – type of work The advice of a friend from the company Corporate culture Personal development Salary & benefits Location Inspiring company that contributes to society 25 What kind of information you wish to know from company’s career website? 1234567- Working environment Real employee stories ( through videos, blogs & Facebook) Career path Salary & benefits Recruitment process Tips on getting accepted Job description 4.3.4. FAVORED CHANNEL Figure 8: favored channels for job hunting, Source: one to one external interviews 4.3.5. EMPLOYER BRAND PERCEPTION POSITIVE VIEWS & PERSPECTIVES “Sweden” some said and wrote. The target group thinks of Sweden when they were asked about Ericsson. Sweden has good reputation in the world. It is one a country that provides great social benefits regardless of the high income taxes, and others mention about Sweden as a great country and a great place to live in many times throughout the years. Therefore, Ericsson is associated to Sweden and its humanitarian culture which it brings in to the corporate culture. “Research” is another term associated with Ericsson. Sweden is known as one of the world leaders in R&D investments according to Statistics shown by “Invest in Sweden Association”. Ericsson invests heavily on R&D as part of their core business value, and that is a key attraction to the target audience, in other terms, to be part of the innovation and the future technologies. “Giant Telecom Leader”, Ericsson is a world leader of the telecommunication industry. Regardless of the different European and Asian competitions that Ericsson has, it 26 remains solid and constant when it comes to its lead in the industry. Being an industry leader is an attraction for the target audience. NEGATIVE VIEWS & PERSPECTIVES More negative feedback of Ericsson’s brand perception from external perspective than internal Despite the positive attributes that the target group is associated with, Ericsson as a company in general and in employer branding in specific, has some challenges in its presence in the market. “Old and traditional” was among the major repetitions by the target group. Ericsson is viewed to be a traditional corporation where things happen slowly and change does not come too often. The target group views Ericsson as it lacks the entrepreneurial environment and the creative atmosphere in its culture. “Unemployment”, many of the target group associates Ericsson with Lay-offs. Ericsson is not the only company that has done lay-offs during economical crisis. Yet, many of the target group thinks that Ericsson is not a very stable company and unemployment could hit any time during a recession. “Who” - I have No idea!” The worst perspective is not having any perspective. Many of the interviewees and the survey responders did not know who and what Ericsson was. Ericsson lacks presence on the global market as a brand. Meanwhile it is weak in its corporate branding. “Phones & Sony Ericsson”- This section is related to the previous point, many of the respondents assumed that Ericsson and Sony Ericsson were the same. Although Ericsson has 50% of Sony Ericsson’s share, it is yet considered a cooler place to work for when it comes to working in Sony Ericsson. “Racing Boat Constructors” – although Ericsson is a proud sponsor of the Racing boats, some youngsters think that Ericsson produces the racing boats. The idea behind this sponsorship could be boosted up highly once Ericsson first spreads the awareness of its existence as a telecom leader company and shows clearly the effects of its services and products on society, then it could reach out to consumers through sponsorship of such events. 4.4. ONLINE SURVEY The online survey was conducted from April 6, 2009 till June 3, 2009 as a complement of formal qualitive research. And objective of this online survey was to know both Ericsson and trainee program’s target group more comprehensively, so that the target group would be more aware of Ericsson and attracted by Ericsson as an employer, which is the vital factor for Ericsson’s future competition and sustainable development. Based on Ericsson’s current recruiting criteria for potential employees and the universities that Ericsson collaborates with locally, the research team identified the students who are from Ericsson’s collaborated universities over 6 countries as main target group for this online survey. And the countries are chosen because they are the places of either Ericsson’s current important markets or the markets with huge potential in the future. They are: Sweden, China, India, US, Canada and UK. And the research team 27 reached the target group both through contacting their universities officially and via personal relationships or leveraging the social networks. The online survey was conducted in English and consisted of 13 questions, covering the following issue: Respondent’s background Attitudes towards trainee programs Types of channels used for searching jobs Expected and favored type of information on company’s websites Key expectations of an ideal employer To ensure the results’ objectivity, Ericsson is not mentioned as survey conductor. A total of 210 respondents completed the survey during its opening. 4.4.1. IDEAL WORK PLACE CHARACTERISTICS Figure 9: What makes an ideal working place. Source: online survey 28 4.4.2. FAVORED INFORMATION ON COMPANY’S WEBSITE Figure 10: Information that job seekers want to find on the company’s career site, Source: online survey Besides what listed in the questions, five people also mentioned payments, salary and benefits, while there were people wanting to know more details about recruiting process, like when and how to apply, as well as the information about student relations. 4.4.3. FAVORED INFORMATION FORMATION Figure 11: favored information formation to know about the company and its environment, Source: online survey Pictures and statistical data are also mentioned as other options here. 29 4.4.4. FAVORED CHANNEL Company's website 71.40% Job agency websites 65.70% Friends & family 59.90% University campaigns 57.10% Magazines & newspapers 31.50% Posters&brucher 19.50% Other Tv ads 4.70% 2.80% 0.00% 20.00% 40.00% 60.00% 80.00% 100.00% Figure 12: favored channels for job hunting, Source: online survey To the answers for “other”, school’s BBS, search engine, head hunter and university’s alumni network are mentioned here. 4.5. CHAPTER SUMMARY Based on the results of research, internal perspective was focused more on reality of Ericsson’s merits and problems. On the bright side, it revels Ericsson enjoys the good reputation among customers and actually offers plenty of great career opportunities for employees. People also mention that Ericsson is really human oriented and had good work-life balance plan for employees. All of what mentioned above are the competitive advantages for Ericsson as an employer. However, as a B2B Corporation, Ericsson has disadvantages in reaching out its end users and thus has difficulties to increase brand awareness among some potential employees. Based on the views of external potential target and in accordance with decision making process, it shows that employment is a kind of product whose brand awareness strategy should base on recall pattern. In addition, the research results reflect that comprehensive and trustworthy information are crucial in job hunting for the target, meanwhile a sense of engagement of the environment is also an important factor to consider. Hence, a high – involvement and transformational brand attitude strategy should be implemented here. By comparing internal and external perspectives, there is a huge brand perception gap between internal and external, which lead to lots of misunderstandings of Ericsson’s performance as an employer, for example, Ericsson may not have so many opportunities for young people, Ericsson is an organization full of seiner engineers and not a challenging environment, all of which are actually the opposite. Moreover, Ericsson encounters a severe problem in brand awareness, which means most of interviewees confuse Ericsson with Sony Ericsson, and they have little knowledge of Ericsson’s real business and working environment. The solutions for changing and solving these will be presented in the next chapter in details. 30 5. ANALYSIS AND CONCLUSION The following chapter aims at answering the four research questions, which answers the purpose of this thesis in turn. Every part of the analysis is constructed to answer each one of the research questions and provides the basis for the final conclusions and discussion. The analysis is built on the empirical findings as well as the theoretical framework presented. 5.1. ANALYSIS PART 1 This section of the analysis is aimed to answer the following research question: What is framework of implementing a consumer marketing communication planning process into employer branding context? 5.1.1. CONSUMER MARKETING COMMUNICATION VS. EMPLOYER BRANDING Employer branding is a loop task including attract, recruit, on boarding, train, develop and retain talents. (Barrow & Mosley, 2005) Figure 13: Employer Branding Processes And each phase in this loop needs the assistant of effective communication. What would be highlighted here is the first step, attract. Any communication can be generalized into three main domains: target, message and channel,( Ray, el.1973) and employer branding is no exception. Therefore the classic five step strategic marketing communication processes could also be used as a guideline for implementing an employer branding strategy, since the basic workflow follows the same logics and steps. However, the emphasis might be shifted a little from consumer marketing communication to employer branding area. 31 Unlike consumer marketing focuses a lot on positioning and differentiating themselves, employer branding requires more on trust and credibility, which means the provided information needs to be trustworthy and consistency with the company. Thus the attraction of the message to the target group is no long simply being creative and interesting, but to provide more valuable and relevance information and the feeling of involvement and engagement. To obtain this goal, firstly, the company needs to investigate what are the valuable information for the target, and then by leveraging different channels and types of formation to deliver those information to the target audience. Along the process of doing marketing research, the ways of conducting research, analyzing communication objective and concluding final communication strategy in consumer marketing could also be used within employer branding area. 5.1.2. MARKETING COMMUNICATION FRAMEWORK IN EMPLOYER BRANDING CONTEXT Combining the consumer marketing methods and employer branding theory, a communication model for employer branding comes out as below: Figure 14: communication model for employer branding Instead of focusing on the differences between oneself and its competitor, the employer branding’s positioning should emphasize more on the gap between the offering from the company and expectations of the target. Therefore, filling the perception gap and balancing the information asymmetry become more important, which roots from the Signalling Theory (Spence, 1973). The following analysis will also base on this framework and follow the steps to approach to the final conclusion. 32 5.2. ANALYSIS PART 2 This section of the analysis is aimed to answer the following research question: Who are the target audiences for employer marketing communication? 5.2.1. TARGET GROUP What Ericsson wants to target is more against the external newly graduate students or young professionals who have never joined Ericsson. So the objective is both to generate brand awareness and encourage a more favorable brand attitude. When it comes to the target group, Ericsson is very clear about what kind of people they want to bring into Ericsson. The managers have very specific requirements for each position accordingly. For this project, each trainee program has very clear requirements for its target group. Hence, there is no need to redefine the profile of the target group. Although each program has its own specific demanding, there is one thing in common, which is that they all aim and prefer to recruit the newly graduate students who belong to Generation Y. Therefore, the target group that Ericsson is looking for is highly likely to have characteristics and attitudes that the generation Y has in general when it comes to career. Moreover, female, as a special group within the general target group, needs to be paid more attention to their behavioral habits which reveled through the behavior sequence model. 5.2.2. TARGET AUDIENCE Target audience should be a larger group involving the people who can influence target’s decision making. Normally, it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking only about the specific target group which use the “products or services” when considering a target audience. But a comprehensive strategic planning requires a broader view of the whole marketing communication task. Only communicating with the target is far from enough. On one hand, it is because communication effects will shrink down during its way to the target. Only less than 3% messages would successfully be processed by a target audience as what marketers expect On the other hand, there are more people involved in the decision making process, which means communication should also reach the people who probably not be needed by Ericsson but definitely should be taken into consideration as the target audience, if they could influence the decision making process. The roles that could be involved in the decision making process in this case are initiator, influencer, decider, applicants and employee. The initiator and influencer could be self, family, friends, while the decider and final applicants is more likely to be the self. So the target audiences are the individuals, groups, communities and bodies of decision-makers who can influence the target. Aimed at different target groups, the profile of the family and friends would also change accordingly. For the target group Generation Y, their parents and teachers who are mainly Generation X have influence over them. Also, their friends who are also Generation Y have impact on them. Taking GGP as an example, the main target is newly graduate students, then their friends are also the students in the university, and teachers are another important channel for spreading the news especially the major coordinators. Better understanding of these 33 target audience including demographic info and motivation is of great value of creating comprehensive marketing strategy. 5.2.3. GENERATION Y Generation Y is a generation who concern with their own careers rather than the organization According to a research program ‘Generation Y: unblocking the talents of young managers’, Generation Y are concerned with their own career path rather than the organization. They care about their own interests and are not so loyal to the corporation (Sometimes they are more likely to be loyal to individuals such as their bosses). They are individualists rather than team players and they change jobs frequently in search of new challenges. Generation Y is willing to blend their work and personal lives. They are willing to consider work as part of their personal lives. They like to socialize with work colleagues on unofficial time such as large intervention and social media. Also, they like to work on flexible time. According the research program, Generation Y is regarded as a group who want to work hard and play hard 5.2.4. CONCLUSION OF ANALYSIS PART 2 The target profile in this case study is the newly graduate female students who have a master degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Information Technology or a similar subject. Also it requires the candidates to have leadership potential and genuine interest in Ericsson and R&D. According to the research of target group’s decision making process, the initiator and influencer could be self, family, friends, while the decider and final applicants is more likely to be the self, which implied that the target audience should be a larger group than the target group for the program, due to the fact that it involves more people than self in decision making process. Thus the finding suggests the company that family, friends and teachers are important roles that need to be better understood and taken into consideration while making communication strategy. Moreover, the target group belongs to the generation Y which is a group of people who pursue challenges in their own career and long for more flexible work life. Actively participating in social media is the other significant characteristic among generation Y. A good leverage of all of these is crucial to a successful communication strategy. 5.3. ANALYSIS PART 3 This section of analysis is aimed to answer the following research question: What attract females as an employer when it comes to R&D oriented organization? 5.3.1. ERICSSON’S BENEFITS AND POSITIVE ASPECTS REVIEW The external interview results shows that Ericsson’s brand image is perceived as more negative.. Although internal feedbacks are more positive comparing with the external ones, there are still lots of misunderstandings and blur visions of the brand. It is therefore necessary to rebuild the communication between potential and current 34 employees with Ericsson. And the first step is to review and clarify what kind of values and benefits that Ericsson offers. Based on the focus group and interviews with managers, the benefits and positive aspects of Ericsson offers are listed as below: The core values of Ericsson, “Professionalism, Perseverance and Respect” were repeated by almost all the employees who have been interviewed. The employees have made it clear that there is unconditional respect towards their colleagues, managers and the company, and it is truly practiced in Ericsson. One of the main points that were constantly repeated by the employees was “flexibility & work life balance”. This is a real value that Ericsson provides to its employees across all its branches in the world. There is a flexibility to work from home. Work is more like a valuable part of life rather than a whole life. It is important to mention that Ericsson employees are hard working people, yet they still have the power to balance their lives and work. Other important values that Ericsson provides are “Self-development” and “I learn new things”. According to Ericsson employees, they consider themselves fortunate because all the great trainings that they get for free as part of the work. Ericsson provides individual plan for self-development. Each employee has a unique way to progress and develop his/her skills. And an employee can always choose to have his/her individual career path within Ericsson. “My colleagues” is another term that the employees mentioned. It is without doubt that there are a lot of inspirational people in Ericsson, and they are inspired by one another. What makes Ericsson special according to its employees is working and being around with colleagues who are competent, knowledgeable and helpful. Ericsson employees learn from one another and also learn from their managers. “Global Opportunities” is one of the equally important values that Ericsson provides to its employees. Whether it is the Long Term or Short Term Assignments or whether it is the general internal mobility, the truth remains that Ericsson truly provides global opportunities to its employees. Many of the employees are interested in Ericsson because they can travel to different regions, get to know different cultures and learn a lot from their heterogeneity. “My job position & description” is another value according to Ericsson employees. Ericsson employees like what they do and enjoy their work. They have high interest in their job description and the position they held. The majority of them have said that it is clear on what is expected from them and what should they provide. “Human-oriented – “I” matters”, although many companies say that they are human-oriented, yet in Ericsson, its employees have stated undoubtedly that Ericsson cares for its employees through good and bad times. At Ericsson, employees are not simply employees who get paid, they are considered as part of the main assets of the company and they are very well valued. 5.3.2. WHAT INFORMATION ATTRACTS FEMALE 35 According to the target universities list Ericsson provided, two thirds of them are mainly in science and engineering area, which is reflected from respondents’ gender profile that only 41% of all 210 respondents are female. And to increase the diversity, the proportion of female employees is an important issue. Only 30% female engineer response to the online survey also corresponds with the fact that female engineers account for merely 30% of the entire staffs. To attract this specific group, Percy’s Communication Strategy Making Process is also suitable here. But the target group’s profile is changed. And all the strategy should be made based on this target. Here the author will just highlight some important differences of ideal employer’s characteristics and favored media comparing with the male. FAVORED INFORMATION Figure 15: favored information about employment Career path is the No.1 interested information and even demanded by female than male job seekers. And what need to be mention here is the big differences about how much female eager to know the inspirational and success stories comparing with male. It also shows that female need more clear vision about future work, such as a visible career path and working environment, which could eliminate the uncertainty about the company. And in order to provide more security to female, more encouragements are advocated as well. Some inspired successful stories would definitely be helpful, which is not only mentioned by most of the interviewees, but also shown in the survey results. Since female are more prudent during the job hunting period based on the research, thus the more detailed information a company delivers to the target, the more applicants it is likely to receive. 36 IDEAL WORK PLACE CHARACTERISTICS Figure 16: Preferences for choosing an employer The comparison results are shown in an order based on the female choice, and it is obvious that male and female have totally different interests here. Sense of belonging is the most important thing to female to choose an employer while male consider a good relationship with boss and colleagues as the top one. Although these two seem to be the same thing, feeling of fit in actually requires more factors to realize, and good relationship with fellows is one of those. The interviewees also mentioned the corporation values which they hope to be consistent with their own values. For example, almost every female interviewee mentioned the pursuing of self-identity, self-realization and so on. They are more eager to prove themselves’ valuable to the society, which made them more strict with the quality of the products or services and also the corporation’s social responsibility. All of these would meet the demand of being meaningful person to the female. Besides, they also want to have a happy and easier life experience with the work that they are doing. So the message of fun and work-life balance should be delivered to the target, and also let them know other merits of Ericsson like providing mentorship will also become a plus for female to select an employer. 5.3.3. HOW TO FILL THE BRAND PERCEPTION GAP Benefits and offering meet the demanding of target while the perception dose not According to the results collected from the interviews and focus group, the biggest problem for Ericsson is not that it does not have what target demand, but that it fails to let the target know how good it actually is. The messages with valuable information are not reaching out the target. Brand image to the external is not consistent with the real values Ericsson has. The grid chart below visualizes the situation and points out a direction of changing. On horizontal 37 coordinates, in the line with the internal interviews, it shows Ericsson’s brand’s current performance on the characteristics of being an ideal employer. While on the vertical coordinates, it lists the characteristics which are based on the importance degree sourced from external interview and online survey. The higher characteristics are listed, the more important they are to the target group. Therefore, it suggests that Ericsson should make efforts on moving the up-left grid towards up-right grid by leveraging effective communications. On one hand, it should emphasize on the strengths that Ericsson already had, especially the ones that people have misunderstandings with, such as lacking of career path, not challenging environment, low salary and benefits. On the other hand, it requires some rebuilding work of the brand image on fun place to work. Figure 17: Communication message rebuild The key of formulating the communication message is firstly emphasizing on the benefits that Ericsson already had honestly. In order to achieve the communication goal, High-involvement transformational strategies (Percy.L & Elliott.R,2009 p.217) should be implemented. It is used to deal with final decisions that involve risk and are made to satisfy an underlying positive motivation. The basic idea of this strategy is to deliver the messages as trustworthy as possible to the target group, so as to reduce the uncertainty and risk for the target. In addition, it is necessary for a brand to be liked to some extent by the target; otherwise the final “buying” likelihood would be reduced hugely. And it is the same as Ericsson’s case. The employment offer from Ericsson, as products to the target, requires being fond of and presented with enough information to reduce the risk. 5.3.4. CONCLUSION FOR ANALYSIS PART 3 In conclusion, since the negative associations with Ericsson from the outside world are higher than the positive ones, a reconstruction of brand image is therefore in an urgent need, so as to create positive brand attitude and encourage more diversity. 38 Firstly, in the light of the internal interview results, especially the opinions from female, Ericsson does have a good employment offer for female, such as flexible schedule which contributes to better work-life balance, rich opportunities for self-development through different career paths and locations, challenging and inspired colleagues and also the human oriented principles. Secondly, the empirical findings demonstrate that females are more interested in the information of career path, working environment and corporate responsibility etc. This information could enhance the sense of security and belonging of females. They also have more demanding on work-life balance and fun place to work for. Actually, most of the offers of Ericsson and demands of target are consistent with each other, however, this is not well known by the public. It is mainly because that Ericsson’s unclear public information and poor marketing communication. In order to change the situation, the analysis suggests delivering enough valuable and trustworthy information to the target audience by leveraging High-involvement transformational strategies to implement the communication. Furthermore, the communication should focus on restructuring the message by re-emphasizing on the merits that Ericsson already had, such as career path, challenging environment and salary benefits, meanwhile, re-building the image of high demanding characteristics, for instance fun place to work for, to change all the misunderstandings of Ericsson’s brand. 5.4. ANALYSIS PART 4 This section of the analysis is aimed to answer the following research question: What are the best channels to reach target females? 5.4.1. MEDIA SELECTION STRATEGY Before choosing specific media channels, a clear communication objective and basic principles based on this objective should be taken into consideration and presented. BRAND RECALL MEDIA STRATEGY Brand awareness communication objective focus more on frequency Employment is a kind of product that requires potential buyers to recall the brand at the beginning of the decision making process. And when it comes to brand recall, the communication objective focuses more on frequency (Percy.L & Elliott.R,2009 p.233). Good repetition of the linkage between category need and brand name is necessary, and this requires high frequency. Since it is different with consumer marketing after all, thus the frequency here is not expected as such high as most consumer products have. The frequency here emphasizes more on the presentence in front of target group, so as to remind them now and then that Ericsson is one of the best employers all over the world, even when it is not the period of mass recruiting season. To achieve the goal, television, radio, newspaper, and the Internet offer the potential for high frequency,(Percy.L & Elliott.R,2009 p.233)and the social media is the most cost efficient option. 39 HIGH-INVOLVEMENT AND TRANSFORMATIONAL MEDIA STRATEGY Well designed visual content help create more trust and favorable attitude of the brand To make sure the correct selection of medias, brand attitude strategy should focus on the following: (1) the message’s visual content; (2) the message’s processing time; (3) the message’s frequency. (Percy.L & Elliott.R,2009 p.234) For the media that makes sense for high-involvement, transformational brand attitude objective, visual content is very critical. It is not only because of arousing more emotional favorable feeling, but also because that seeing is believing. That is why people still tend to know and get basic impression of a corporation’s environment by videos or pictures even after reviewing all the text introduction of the company. In addition, processing time is suppose to be sufficient for the target audience to get through all messages, thus the print media enjoys more advantages in this perspective. 5.4.2. FAVORED CHANNEL Figure 18: favored channel comparison between female and male According to the survey and the interviews to the target group, it shows that the biggest difference between male and female is that female is more interested in job agency website and friends & family’s words. But still, the company’s website is also the first choice for female to do job hunting. The interview results show that female has more rational decision making process when it comes to job hunting. They tend to look into different channels for information collecting, and make comparison. And the survey shows the similar results, which serves as complement to prove the findings in the interviews. It also shows that female is longing for more reference information no matter through the job agency website or the words from family and friends. Moreover, what needs to be mentioned here is that although female needs more objective comparisons and comprehensive information, company’s website is still the vital place to present and deliver the messages to the potential target. Last but not least, friends and family also represent the social media and word of mouth channel to some extent. Based on the interview, female spends more time on social media checking out new events and communicating with friends. It also turns 40 out people tend to believe the words which are even from strangers through social media channels, which because that the sense of belonging to the same community creates the trust among the members. (Thomas, 2010) 5.4.3. MEDIA MIX Based on the communication objective and the research results, the selection of media mix is recommended both with reasoning analysis and improvement suggestions. UNIVERSITY RELATIONSHIP The university relationships are the most cost efficient way to achieve the frequency objective. University is the place where raw talents are, and also the significant battlefield for talent market competition. Organizations either have the talent or lose it. Besides job fairs, there are still many ways to increase brand awareness, such as, guest lectures and presentation, the case study materials, sponsorships for events and campaigns. It is a perfect way to deliver the message directly to the talent and shape the brand image. However, according to the external interviews with students of KTH, especially the international ones, they prefer to work for Google, Microsoft, whose headquarters are far from Sweden, rather than Ericsson. Ericsson should have been alert to its university collaborations and relationships, and make more efforts to improve it. COMPANY’S WEBSITE Company’s website is the most important portal among all channels Company’s website, is the first place where the potential employee and Ericsson meet up and shake hands. It is definitely the best way to introduce and marketing for the company. Moreover, it is a perfect medium for establishing trust with potential employees. That trust, should based on shared values, shared vision, assumed responsibility and always delivering on promise, must be built creatively, intentionally, transparently and with integrity. (Thomas, 2010) Company’s website has all the capability to create the trust, thus should be valued most. Job-seekers will judge a company at least as much by its ‘employer brand’ as by its ‘customer brand.’ The Careers site harmonizes with the customer brand—but it communicates the employer brand. (CNN,2009) Ideally, people could leave the website without any questions and have a positive attitude to the brand. But unfortunately, Ericsson’s website doesn’t provide much basic information, and if Ericsson is not hiring, the website is idle. Comparing with the companies that the team has benchmarked, it is necessary for Ericsson’s website to make tremendous change and improvements. To increase the transparency and attraction of the company, Ericsson should provide more detailed information about the company to job seekers, and deliver the messages in more attractive formation such as video or picture. There is huge room for improvements. The idea is just to let visitors know that how it is like working in Ericsson and what the possible opportunities are within Ericsson. - Have possible Career paths presented which could introduce different main working areas, and also typical job titles and roles with responsibility descriptions. It is also 41 - - - better to have testimonials from current employees, which could take P&G and Microsoft’s websites as reference. Describe and classify the target segmentation clearly, for example: students, newly graduated, professionals, so that the target could identify him/herself, and know where to click on the site. Provide more assistance on applications section of the job post, such as the links of how to apply, recruitment process, tips & hints and FAQs. Show more encouragements on applications by presenting successful stories and testimonials, which are more convincing than the benefits in text, because the female needs to feel that they fit into an organization more than men. Presenting work environment by visual formation, such as pictures and videos. Try to use friendly user interface, for instance, nice looking pictures, flash, videos, because they are excellent forms in drawing attentions. However, in order to generate a positive experience and resonation, the content and information must be clear and meaningful to the audience as well. SOCIAL MEDIA Generation Y especially the female target spend more time on social media not just for fun but for valuable and trustworthy information. One of the basic principles of this brand attitude strategy is to be convincing to the target audience, and it requires trustworthy relationship. Therefore, before becoming an employer, it is better to build a friendship with potential employees, which social media is really good at. Moreover, it is also where the target group is actively presented. Additionally, 3 in 4 online women are active Social Media users, they turn to Social Media to share opinions, seek recommendations before making purchase (BlogHer-iVillage, 2010) But unfortunately, Ericsson is far behind when it comes to social media usage. Through the benchmarking, it shows that all competitors of Ericsson are active in social media not because of the trends, but because that social media does provide values to the companies; IBM already started to have formal business meeting with its partners on second life. It is not for show any more, social media plays more and more important role in business area. Social media is the most cost efficient way to reach the largest user base. However, it is also hard to control sometime. Still, it is not an excuse for not being there, thus a well planed communication strategy for social media should be implemented as soon as possible. WORD OF MOUTH Word of mouth is the most difficult yet effective marketing channel Being trustworthy is vital in the job market for an employer. (Collins et al 2002) Now it comes to the biggest untapped treasure of Ericsson, the 80,000 employees. A word of praise from the people you trust is more convincing than thousands words that you read from other sources. Hence, employees are not only able to increase the brand awareness, but also to effectively create positive brand attitudes of Ericsson. Of course, it requires a lot of efforts before employees actually are willing to speak highly about the company. But the sooner it begins, the better it is for Ericsson brand image. Ericsson employees need to bring the brand to life, and to live the brand. Thus, it is necessary to have internal marketing to motivate employees becoming brand ambassadors. 42 5.4.4. CONCLUSION FOR ANALYSIS PART 4 Based on the recall pattern of catalog need, the primary communication objective of brand awareness should be set as frequency, which make sure that the target have Ericsson in their minds when the job hunting process begins. In accordance with the Rossiter-Percy grid, an employment is actually a kind of high-involvement and transformational product. For generating a positive brand attitude of the target, Ericsson should not only deliver high credible and trustworthy information, but also create emotional favorable feeling of the company. Comprehensive text introductions and attractive visual pictures and videos are the best combination as message carriers. Based on the research, company’s website is the most important channel both for men and women, which deserve to be valued and improved with big efforts. Moreover, social media and word of mouth, as female’s favored channels for searching recommendation, are the channels with biggest improvement potential. In addition, job agency website serves as an important tool for female to make comparisons among employers, thus shouldn’t be neglected. At last, university relationships are the most efficient way to reach potential employees face to face, and therefore require careful maintenance. In short, Ericsson should leverage these channels to communicate with the target by delivering more detailed and attractive information of the company. 5.5. CHAPTER SUMMARY This chapter gave analysis based on the empirical findings and answered research questions as below: 1. What is framework of implementing a consumer marketing communication planning process into employer branding context? The employer branding’s positioning emphasize more on understanding the gap between the offers of the company and expectations of the target, and balance this information asymmetry. 43 2. Who are the target audiences for employer marketing communication? Under this case study, according to the in-depth interview internally, the target profile for this research is newly graduate female students who have a master degree of Science in Engineering, Computer Science, Information Technology or a similar subject. Also it requires the candidates to have leadership potential and genuine interest in Ericsson and R&D. Target audiences are the individuals, groups, communities and bodies of decision-makers who can influence the target. In this case study, based on the results of decision making process, it showed the target audience should include the target group who are mostly from generation Y and also their family, friends and teachers. Generation Y, both as main body of the target group and influential role of decision making process, should be studied carefully. Generation Y which is a group of people who pursue challenges in their own career and long for more flexible work life. Actively participating in social media is the other significant characteristic among generation Y. 3. What attract females as an employer when it comes to R&D oriented organization? By making comparison of internal and external perspective, the negative associations with Ericsson from the outside world are higher than the positive ones, a reconstruction of brand image is therefore in urgent need so as to create positive brand attitude and encourage more diversity In the light of the internal interview results, especially the opinions from female, Ericsson does have a good employment offer for female, such as flexible schedule which contributes to better work-life balance, rich opportunities for self-development through different career paths and locations, challenging and inspired colleagues and also the human oriented principles. The empirical findings demonstrate that females are more interested in the information of career path, working environment and corporate responsibility etc. These information could enhance the sense of security and belonging of females. They also have more demanding on work-life balance and fun place to work for. In order to change the situation, the analysis suggests delivering enough valuable and trustworthy information to the target audience by leveraging High-involvement transformational strategies to implement the communication. The communication should focus on restructuring the message by re-emphasizing on the merits that Ericsson already had, such as career path, challenging environment and salary benefits, meanwhile, re-building the image of high demanding characteristics, for instance fun place to work for, to change all the misunderstandings of Ericsson’s brand. 4. What are the best channels to reach target females? Based on the recall pattern of catalog need, the primary communication objective of brand awareness should be set as frequency For generating a positive brand attitude of the target, Ericsson should not only deliver high credible and trustworthy information, but also create emotional favorable feeling of the company. 44 Comprehensive text introductions and attractive visual pictures and videos are the best combination as message carriers Based on the research, company’s website is the most important channel both for men and women, which deserve to be valued and improved with big efforts. Company’s website should have more detailed information about career path, applying and recruitment process, successful story and testimonial from current employees and FQAs section to provide assistance and show encouragement. Social media is the channel that Ericsson hasn’t stepped in yet, and also the female target actively present. Hence, a well planed communication strategy for social media is in urgent need. Ericsson’s employees are the biggest advantages and resources of word of mouth campaign. It would a huge project but also the one that is worthy enough to carry out. University relationship is the most cost efficient way to achieve the frequency objective. Job fairs, guest lectures and presentation, the case study materials, sponsorships for events and campaigns are all the good ways to increase brand awareness and shape brand attitude. 45 6. DISCUSSION & FUTURE RESEARCH The chapter begins with further discussion about the conclusions and the thesis ends with recommendations for further research. 6.1. DISCUSSION In order to encourage more diversity into the organization, the analysis concludes a recommended framework which indicates a course of actions for a company to implement in terms of employer branding. However, the specific results are more against R&D oriented organizations and the target is aiming at female. It may be not possible to apply the same implementation approach to small companies. This is mainly due to the fact that the research is based upon Ericsson’s trainee program. A communication strategy should always base on company’s own recourse and capabilities, which means specific strategy needs differentiating. Hence, the author suggests that the analysis and results have more relevance to big corporations; especially the R&D oriented ones that share the similar problems of diversity issue as Ericsson. Although limited by the research scope, this communication framework for employer branding still has a general value for all company’s employer branding implementation, because the theories of marketing communication and the basic process of marketing research methods can be applied to all communication occasions. Moreover, due to the absence of research focused on female preferences of ideal employer, the results have more values for showing factors that are most influential, relatively influential and less influential for being an ideal employer. In practical, a company could ask itself: “do I have all these characteristics? How should I communicate with potential employees?” Strategic decision and action plan can be made through analysis of situation on a case by case basis. Another issue needs to be mentioned is that the research was conducted without introducing Ericsson’s proposal of this project so as to ensure the objectivity of the results. 6.2. FURTHER RESEARCH Due to the time and resource limitation, the paper only proposed recommendations for communication strategy. The further test of recommended framework of employer branding communication therefore will be interesting to know. Comparison and benchmarking among different companies’ employer branding communication implementation would complement the study of this paper. Moreover, variables or factors that are significant for being an ideal employer could be further investigated within a larger target group for logical explanations, in order to get more comprehensive insights of building ideal employer image. In addition, researches on the usages of different channels for employer branding communication will be very interesting and valuable to know, especially the new media domain. “How to leverage web 2.0 to conduct 46 effective employer branding” has already become trendy topic in both business and academic areas. On the other hand, diversity issue demands more efforts in studying from behavioral and psychological perspective to get deeper understanding on female’s thinking and behavioral pattern. Besides attracting female to apply, how to successfully retain female talent and encourage more productivity is even more crucial and has more practical value for organizations as well. 6.3. CHAPTER SUMMARY In this chapter, it briefly discussed the limitations of the research due to the time and resources restricts. The general applicability was also discussed in this chapter. Finally, the interests of further researches will be open to the direction of web2.0 technology’s applying in employer branding area. Meanwhile, studying of diversity issue from behavioral and psychological perspective would also be valuable to organizations. 47 7. REFERENCES Aaker, D 1991, Managing Brand Equity, The Free Press, New York. Anderssen, H (ed.) 1994, Vetenskapsteori och methodlära- en introduction, Studentlitteratur, Lund Backhaus, K, & Tikoo, S 2004, Conceptualizing and researching employer branding. Career Development International 9, (4/5), 501-517. 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Tulving, E 1983, Elements of episodic memory, Oxford University Press. Yin, R.K 1989, Case Study Research, Rev.Ed., Saga Publications, London. Yin, R.K 2003, Case study research: Design and methods (3rd edn.) Thousand Oaks, CA:Sage. www.Eicsson.com www.Universum.se http://www.kwiksurveys.com/online-survey.php?surveyID=HOKEO_7a74299e&UID=15 61689279 50 8. APPENDIX APPENDIX 1: List of Interviewees for in-depth semi-structured interviews with senior managers Name Role Responsibility Linda Schang Global trainee program director In charge of three global trainee programs: R&D, multimedia and Finance. Rajan.Nichani Global trainee program director In charge of Exellerate trainee program Sussane Samuelsson R&D Global trainee program project manager for 2007 and 2008 Responsible for coordinating between different counties’ stakeholders and global recruiting work. Monica Global HR manager Responsible for global recruiting and transaction work of eJob system’s integrating Anna & Johan: Global communication manager In charge of the communication job among different divisions, especially between HR and Marketing departments. Cecilia Bladh Employer branding Manager of Sweden Mainly in charge of Sweden’s employer branding related campaigns. APPENDIX 2: Interview guideline for in-depth semi-structured interviews with senior managers What are your role & your main responsibilities? What’s the basic process for the trainee program’s global recruiting? Is it centralized globally and locally (they do the same) for all the job levels (managers, thesis worker, trainees…) Is there any third party suppliers involved in this process? How do they position themselves within this system.(responsibility scope – do they have special access and what is their role really ) What kind of employer brand image dose Ericsson would like to build during this recruiting process? What kind of activities or measures has been taken to reach the goal? Which channels did Ericsson use to reach the target group? What are satisfactions and dissatisfactions of the recruiting process? 51 APPENDIX 3: Interview guideline for focus group What was your role (backgrounds) before entering Ericsson? How do you identify yourself as personal characteristics? a. Ambitious b. Creative c. Responsible d. Flexible e. Curious f. Team player g. Leader h. Entrepreneurial What were the leading reasons for applying for Ericsson? And R&D specifically –is there any expectations of this program? What made you finally decide to work for Ericsson? What (Especially when you have other options) – what was the key point in joining the program Where did you know about this program? What was your impression of the recruitment process? How do you describe it - What impression of Ericsson is given by recruitment materials and activities for the R&D trainee program? What was your impression of Ericsson’s people – how did you hear about it What did you think of Ericsson before you start working here? What do you think of Ericsson now? How does your image of the organization change as you become more of insider? Do you think there is a gap between what is inside and what is outside? Would you recommend or advise a friend of a colleague from your university, your network to apply for the program and what would you tell them about the program, how do you present it? What are the top 5 characteristics that an Ericsson’s R&D trainee candidate should have to qualify for the program? How do you define leadership? What is a leader? What traits does a leader have? (according for you) What is your opinion on Ericsson’s core values? And how do you see them used or implemented within the company. Since you have been into different Ericsson branches, is the culture the same everywhere? Besides what you’ve been educated about the core value of Ericsson, is there anything else you feel that could be Ericsson’s core value also? – Do you think it is time to re-define the core values? What makes Ericsson an ideal place to work for? In an economical crisis like this, how would you act as a leader? How do you identify who are the right people to stay and how do you feel as a leader, do you feel de-motivated? Do you work harder to save the company? 52 APPENDIX 4: Interview questions for external target students 1. Country: 2. Gender: 3. Engineer - Non engineer 4. Work-experience: 5. Education: 6. How do you describe yourself as a person? What are your hobbies in free time? 7. In which industries do you wish to work most? 8. How do you describe yourself as an employee? 9. How do you perceive yourself as a leader? 10. What are your career goals? (Female and male) What is your ideal career path? 11. What attracts you most when the job is offered by an employer? 12. What are your main decision factors when receiving several offers? Would you choose a big company that have good reputation or a small company with great opportunities? Why? 13. Please name top 5 ideal employers 14. How much do you expect to earn and how long is your ideal working hours per week? 15. Have you considered applying for any training programs? Do you know that you get paid from the first day of training programs? 16. What kind of media channels do you usually use when looking for jobs? 17. What kind of information you wish to know from career websites? 18. What makes an ideal working place? How important of these points to choose a place to work? Important Work-Life balance International opportunities Contribute to the society Inspiring colleagues Good manager Competitive salary and benefits Innovative environment Rapid career advancement Flexible working time Secure employment Fun & Cool 53 Not important APPENDIX 5: Online survey questions 1. I am a: a. Male b. Female 2. I come from ___________ country 3. I am: a. Engineer b. Non-engineer 4. Where do you look for jobs? a. TV ads e. Job agency website b. Posters f. University campaigns c. Magazines & newspapers g. Friends and family d. Company’s site h. Other: 5. Are you interested in & considering applying to trainee programs or graduate programs? a. Yes b. No 6. Did you know that trainee programs offer full time work contracts from day one? a. Yes b. No 7. What sort of information do you want to find on the company’s career site? a. A typical work day d. Why you should work b. Inspirational/success there stories e. What is expected from c. Career path you? 54 f. Its values, culture and g. Corporate responsibility environment h. Other 8. How do you prefer to know about the company and its environment? a. Videos d. Groups in Facebook, b. Texts MySpace or other c. Blogs e. YouTube channel 9. Please write in ONE word what is the first thing that pops in your mind when you think of these companies a. Cisco e. Intel b. Google f. c. Ericsson g. P&G d. IBM h. Sony Ericsson McKinsey 10. What do you think of these companies as place to work for? Company A dream Great Google Sony Ericsson IBM Microsoft Cisco Intel Ericsson 55 Good Boring Who? China Mobile Accenture GE P&G L’Oreal HSBC 56 11. What do you think are the most important characteristics of an ideal work place? Very Impor tant Statements Having a good relationship with my colleagues and supervisors A company that provides a career path A company that has a challenging environment Fun and happy working environment Working for a company that produces high quality of products and services Working for a company that I feel I could belong to and fit in A company that contributes to society and changes people’s lives A company that has an entrepreneurial environment Salary and benefits – a great compensation package International career opportunities Work life balance Other 57 Impor tant Not impor tant I am neutra l It does not matter TRITA-CSC-E 2010:087 ISRN-KTH/CSC/E--10/087--SE ISSN-1653-5715 www.kth.se
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