Too Much of a Good Thing

Here’s an honest (as in not rhetorical) question: do you think your employees really notice the difference between a nicely designed ERP flyer that

• you made on Word (or even In Design for the fancy people) and had printed at Kinkos?

OR

• you sent to an ad agency for professional-level ad copy?

What I’ve seen and heard from employees is this:

• Don’t waste money trying to impress us with slick campaigns; just show us the money and the respect
• If you DO produce a slick campaign we’re going to wonder a) how much money you spent, and b) why you’re so concerned about APPEARANCE

What it boils down to is authenticity. As long as you produce quality collateral that gets employees’ attention, and as long as you’re representing what employees know to be the TRUTH about the company, you’re golden. In fact, collateral produced in-house will almost always ring truer and generate a better response than flashy ad-copy produced by a mega ad firm—and that LOOKS like all the other collateral produced by a mega ad firm.

Of course, you CAN make a mess of your collateral, but then so can an ad firm. So an even better idea is to have your employees help you create the brand. Then they’re invested in it, you’ve conducted a simultaneous focus group, and you can be pretty sure the finished product will go a long way toward representing you in an authentic and effective way.

This raises another question: do you think your CANDIDATES really notice the difference between a nicely designed position profile that

• you made on Word (or even In Design for the fancy people) and had printed at Kinkos?

OR

• you sent to an ad agency for professional-level ad copy?

But that…is the subject of the next post.