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Using Candidate Segmentation To Customize Marketing Messages:

One Size DOeS nOt Fit All

Employers who want to capture prospective employees’ attention should build candidate segmentation into the company’s employer brand strategy.

By Rob Kessler

Copyright 2013 by the National Association of Colleges and Employers. All rights reserved. This article originally appeared in the March 2013 issue of NACE’s Journal. NACE members have the permission of the National Association of Colleges and Employers, copyright holder, to download and photocopy this article for internal purposes only. Photocopies must include this copyright notice. Those who do not hold membership, or who wish to use the article for other purposes, should contact Claudia Allen, callen@naceweb.org, 800/544-5272, ext. 129. Electronic reproduction of this article is prohibited.

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t he number of choices that consumers have these days for any product or service is

overwhelming. Behind the scenes, companies spend millions to research and market to very specific types of customers. Many brands sell more than one kind of product to very distinct segments of buyers that have common wants and needs. In the advertising world, this is called market segmentation.

In today’s customized world, con-sumers expect that products and services will be personalized to their wants and needs. Just turn on your television and look at the number of channels available—all catering to a specific type of audience (I still believe ESPN was created just for me).

This world of customization extends beyond just consumer marketing. It also plays into employer branding and recruitment marketing.

Candidate Segmentation: Why Brand Matters

Branding has a part in what we buy, where we live, who we hire, and where we work. An employer brand is more than just logos, products, or websites: Brands are promises made and expectations set.

Employers need a solid brand that will resonate with the target audience and push key messaging through all the clutter. All branded recruitment marketing should be consistent, reinforced, and repeated, and, above all, authentic. What makes your or-ganization a great place to work is not about what you think—it’s about what your employees think. A great organizational culture is created by finding great people who are the right fit for the company.

In our quest to attract the best people to our organizations, we must find new

and more targeted ways to differentiate our employer brand and attract future employees. One way to do so is to develop a strategy that incorporates candidate segmentation.

Candidate Segmentation: Tell Your Story in Different Ways

The goal is not only to differentiate your organization from your competi-tors for talent, but also to differentiate your messages to the various candidate segments that you target.

These three basic steps will get you started:

• Review your talent needs,• Break them up into distinct

segments, and • Formulate a strategy for reaching

and marketing to the segments according to the unique needs and desires of each.

Contact NACE Research: 800.544.5272, research@naceweb.org

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• Getreportsbasedoncurrentdatafromnearly60,000collegestudentsnationwide,plushistoricaldatafortrendsanalysis.

• FieldyourownsurveywithNACE’sStudentPanel.

Your Target Audience:What Do They Want?

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It is the organization’s responsibility to understand its candidates’ behaviors and preferences, and then tailor the employment marketing strategies to better engage and attract the preferred candidates.

Marketers usually divide up seg-ments based on:

• Geographic segmentation—Geo-graphic subdivisions are created according to geographic criteria, such as countries or regions.

• Demographic segmentation— Demographic segments are based on variables, such as age, gender, occupation, or education.

• Psychographic segmentation—Psychographic groups are developed using psychology and demographics to better understand candidates. These groups would be divided according to lifestyle, personality, or values.

An important thing to remember when doing segmentation is not to go

overboard. There are a few basic rules to follow. To begin with, the segments you choose must be:

• Measurable;• Large enough to make a measur-

able difference;• Stable enough so that they do not

vanish after some time;• Possible to reach via your organi-

zation's marketing and promotion channels; and

• Internally homogeneous (i.e., potential candidates in the same segment have similar needs and/or wants).

You might want to start with geo-graphic segmentation, and then add demographic segmentation based on occupation or position type. Once you have determined the segments, you can do both quantitative (e.g., employee opinion surveys and candidate surveys) and qualitative (e.g., focus groups with each of the segments) research to gauge employee (and former employee)

perceptions of and experiences with your organization.

Also, you should review third-party research to gain further insight into what today’s job seekers are looking for in an employer. (Editor’s note: NACE’s annual Student Survey offers insights on students’ expectations and preferences regarding employers. See www.naceweb.org/Research/Student/Student_Survey.aspx.)

Candidate Segmentation: Employment Experience

Attributes

From your research, create one uni-versal set of employment experience attributes from which all candidate messaging is formed. These attributes would be the same no matter where the employee works or what he or she does for the organization. We found that the universal set that described the employment experiences for all

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Rob Kessler is assistant vice president of employer brand and employee communications at Enterprise Holdings. He oversees global employee communications, employer brand strategy, and recruitment marketing. He has more than 20 years’ experience in marketing communications, advertising, internal communications, public relations, and investor relations. He holds a master’s degree from Northwestern University and a bachelor’s degree from Purdue University.

employees from hourly to executives at Enterprise was:

• Ethics and values• Stability• Teamwork • Benefits• Positive environment • Empowerment• Recognition • Engaging environment • Training and support • Valuable experience But when trying to convey the reality

of experience to a unique segment of candidates, you should amplify those certain individual attributes that are most important to them. What do your

candidates want to hear from you?It’s all about understanding what

resonates with your key candidate segments and creating messaging that will convey specifically for them why your organization is a great place to work. This is especially important for passive candidate sourcing, as they are still determining whether to make the next jump or not.

Candidate Segmentation: Results

If done successfully, you will find that employer brand segmentation enables you to:

• Connect with candidates with deeper, more mean ingfu l messaging;

• Differentiate your organization from other organizations;

• Provide new and existing employ-ees with resonant messages that promote engagement to increase retention;

• Enable your organization to attract candidates based on important brand attributes, and not solely compensation; and

• Provide a unified voice for your organization that brings clarity to recruitment efforts.

In the end, you want to answer the age-old question that job candidates ask, “What’s in it for me?” If you can answer that question and tell your story in a way that is authentic, relevant, and engaging to each segment, you are well on your way to building an employer brand that will attract candidates who are the right fit for your culture and who will help your organization succeed.