ThinkingSparks

TNT's can do attitude towards social media

When working with TNT Post in 2008 en 2009 on employer branding we often talked on how to work social media. Frank van Os's tweet announced that TNT has formulated excellent guidelines for the employees. I am impressed.

What impressed me is that the guidelines are based on the values on which not only the corporate culture is based, but also the TNT brand. This organization is in so much turmoil and has so many employees that there are many moments of truth and a lot of things to say that may not be positive for the company. There is no way you can or should want to control it.

Any other good examples of such guidelines out there?

The psychological dimension of The Voice of Holland

The Dutch tv show The Voice of Holland is causing a commotion. Not only because there are some real exciting talents on the show, but also because the show is causing a controversy.

The idea behind the show is that it is all about the voice. When candidates were auditioning, the jury sat with their back towards the talent. They could just hear the voice and could not see them. In the remainder of the program they can see the talent.

That sounds like a good idea but if singing talent is all that is needed to become a popular singing brand, Madonna would never have made it and Susan Boyle would have been a star years ago. The proof is in the show also. Beautiful Jennifer Ewbank has a lot of fans, but also a large following of "anti-fans". I must admit I am one of the latter. So far she has ruined "Can't get you out of my mind" by Kylie Minogue and a Burt Bacherach classic. Jennifer Ewbank in my opinion could be an Idol but not The Voice of Holland. And I think that this is why such a large part of the Dutch audience think there is some major conspiracy going on behind the scenes.

It can be explained by the Dimensions of Customer Value (Dipak Jain, p. 137). These dimensions are the dimensions by which customers select a new product (or service, or artist):

• economic
• functional
• psychological

When liking musicians, writers, or actors it never really is about the economic dimension. You do not like an artist because the music is cheaper.

The functional dimension is about prefering a product that has the most sophisticated set of features. When it comes to singing this could be applied. I would translate it as being able to sing as the most basic feature. The ability of timing, high notes, different genres and all kinds of other musical technicalities rank higher on the dimension (and is only for the few). The Voice of Holland is looking for someone who scores high on the functional dimension. In my opinion Jennifer Ewbank scores very low on this dimension.

The psychological dimension is generally "driven by several intangibles such as service, brand name, trust, relationship and reputation. Customers seeking these benefits care about total satisfaction with the product and desire peace of mind." (Direct quote from Kellogs on Marketing, p. 138). This is Idols, where the search is on for a person with the x-factor. The search for a performer that has many attributes rolled into one; not only singing talent. With her good looks and sense of style Jennifer belongs in this category.

The problem with The Voice of Holland is that the audience gets to cast a vote. But the "functional dimension" program is watched by an audience of which a majority is a "psychological dimension" customer (read: viewer). The result is a disgruntled group of "functional dimension" viewers.

So there is a disconnect. I think the flaw in thinking is on the side of the makers of the show. Firstly, they should know that most of the audience will look at the total package and not just listen to the voice. It is naive to think otherwise. But not including the audience is from an era gone by. Besides they are making money when including the audience through all the phone calls and texts when it is voting time. And if only the voice were the object of judging it should be a radio show. Secondly, Madonna has proven that you don't have to have a great singing voice, other aspects factor in also. Madonna is a strong personal brand. She could teach not only Branding 101 but the Masterclasses too.

So who is going to win The Voice of Holland? The person that can sing and has the x-factor too. Fortunately there are some who can beat my unfavorite. And with all that it is just another "psychological dimension" talent show.

Toot!

Some time ago I started receiving emails from different organizations. The emails paid a lot of compliments to my expertise and my great knowledge. The first email I clicked away. More emails followed. And the more they came the more I started to believe what they said. Being Dutch and having had a calvinistic upbringing can be somewhat of an obstacle to overcome in tooting one's own horn.

Always being the critical one, I wondered how all these people all of a sudden had come to the conclusion that I had such a wonderful mind. The answer came with the umpteenth email. Apparently my blog was listed in a Top 1250 english-language marketing blog list at Advertising Age.I checked it out and indeed I was an position eleven hundred and something. I never checked it again until today. And I am happy to say that today my blog is moving up and now ranked #822.

The method of ranking can be found here. I am proud to say that I score high on Todd Points (11 out of 15) and high on Collective Intellect (27 out of 30). The latter calculates the author's authority on the topic. Toot!

I'am happy.

And just a little bit proud.

And ambitious.

And for the moment a bit less Dutch and calvinistic.

Employee led

An interesting Tweet by YoxaTweet about research done in The Netherlands by the Hay Group (in Dutch). The outcome of this research is that companies start rewarding their employees according to the Anglo Saxon model. At Hay Group they aren't surprised. According to them it is a logical consequence of:

1. the trend of individualisation,
2. the fact that the reward system is more and more determined by HQ's in other countries, and
3. The Netherlands is turning into a services economy in which the individual makes the difference.

I must say I was surprised by these results. I follow the logic, but I was under the impression that with the financial crisis this whole short term stimulating behavior was not acceptable anymore. I cannot speak for other countries, but I sense that in The Netherlands the public speaks out against (high) individual bonuses and the culture that goes along with it. I also felt that the Anglo Saxon model has received a lot of criticism lately and seen as the root of all evil of the financial crisis. Read this, this, and check out the criticism in the Google search result.

Even greater my surprise when reading an interview with knowledge management expert Mathieu Weggeman yesterday in Management Scope (Dutch only) who states that the new generation of knowledge workers has an attitude that is more congruent with the Rhineland model. He even goes as far as to say that he believes that this new generation will not blossom in organizations with an Anglo Saxon business model.

I find this contradiction between the outcome of the research of the Hay Group and the statements of Mathieu Weggeman very interesting. Intuitively I side with Weggeman and wonder if this whole Anglo Saxon based rewarding model is a question of organizations failing to connect with a new generations of employees. In other words are these organizations not enough "employee led" and implementing a reward system that will not jive with a new generation? It is similar to organizations failing to be customer led. I also wonder what the employer branding strategies of the organizations that participated the Hay Group research are.

Please let me know what you think.