inner marketing

Why Reward and Recognition “Communications” Fail

After months of strategic and development work, your shiny new Reward and Recognition program took flight with great fanfare. The CEO endorsed it with a smile. Senior VPs showed up at the launch event for cake. Everybody talked about how important the initiative was.

But here it is, two years later, and nobody’s talking “Reward and Recognition” anymore. Like a lot of Reward and Recognition programs, you may have poured so much into infrastructure that you’ve missed the one thing that will keep your program relevant – a marketing campaign.

Avoiding the “communications” trap.
No matter where you work, the people you target with your Reward and Recognition program are invariably busy, focused on challenges at hand and pelted with email, voicemail and other communications. You’re fighting for mindshare, and it’s a fight that’s no different than that faced by any product deemed “good for you.” Broccoli, health clubs and extra whitening toothpaste will all improve your well being, but producers have to market them to get people to buy them.

The same is true of your Reward and Recognition initiative. To get the attention of your people, you have to consistently market your program. Notice that the last line of this article says “market,” rather than “communicate.” It’s a critical distinction. Thinking about your program as a unique brand that needs to be sold to audiences is very different from simply telling employees that you have a Reward and Recognition program. With this in mind, my colleagues at Blackbox Communications follow three essential rules when it comes to making that distinction.

• Think like an ad campaign. When you create a program that requires marketing, you have essentially become an advertiser – which means you’ve got to act like an advertiser. Build your program’s marketing campaign with the same level of strategy you’d give to the development of a TV commercial. That means doing market research, segmenting your audiences and creating a clear strategy for your marketing.

• Review your ecosystem. Advertisers have a familiar complement of tools to help them build a brand, or move a product – radio, print, TV, etc. That’s the advertising ecosystem. Look at the physical and virtual spaces in which you can market your program. A lunch room becomes a good place to put monthly tabletop cards that advertise a specific aspect of the program. Computer screens are ideal for creating RSS-feed screen savers related that deliver regularly updated messages and promotions about your program.

• Deliver the right mix of tools. Publishing an article in the corporate newsletter as a means to describe your program isn’t enough. Your tools need to be sophisticated and geared towards a specific purpose. If your business is banking, and you advertise to people at the branch level, understand where the opportunities lie to promote your program every day. A hallway wall becomes your billboard. The company intranet serves as your broadcast medium. The branch manager becomes a powerful voice who can spread your message by word of mouth.

You’ve done the work to establish a key business tool for your organization. Ensure it stays important with the type of marketing initiative worthy of your best customer-facing program.

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    © 2010, Blackbox Communications