How it started…
SEEBURGER Bulgaria approached us in the spring of 2021 with the request tо build an employer branding strategy and a marketing strategy that will make theм a more recognizable and attractive employer within the IT industry in Bulgaria.
It was an interesting case as the company had been present in Bulgaria for 22 years having about 250 employees by the time they reached out to us. Yet, they were facing dificulties attracting new talent despite the great, family-like corporate culture they had (and still have). The main issue they identified was the low level of recognizability the brand of SEEBURGER had within the Bulgarian IT job market. While they could easily attract new employees during the first 2 decades of the company in the country, recently the situation got more complicated due to the rapidly increasing density of IT companies and the fierce competition for talent. Another drawback was that very little was done for employer branding in the past.
Basically, we had to start from scratch…
We started off with a 3-month workshop that included three pahases and then conitnued with the actual implementation and regular sessions including analysis, feedback and improvements.
- Learn
- Define
- Build
- Implement
- Evolve
‘Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.’
Sun Tzu
We kicked off learning all bout the company, it’s history on a global as well as on a national level, what has been done in the past in terms of recruitment and the main pain points the company was facing.
Thereafter, we started defining the employer branding strategy that would address the already identified concerns and challenges, and build upon what had been done in order to specify the main objectives, the core value proposition of the company as an employer (alongside it’s strengths and weaknesses) and the means of communication of the company’s business and the core values that are actually clear and effective. Important step of the brand definition and positioning was also the precise definition of the voice and language of communication. Then we went on to plan how the company’s employer branding and clture would be first manifested within the company by all means, incl. the design of the office, the engagement of brand ambassadors, etc. Furthermore, we specified the environment within which we will be positioning the SEEBURGER Bulgaria Brand – the bulgarian IT job market by various factors such as chracteristics, trends, competitors, competition factors, etc. We also defined our target audience as well as determined the “personnas” of the ïdeal employees we should be after.
After we thoroughly defined the employer branding strategy, we moved to the markeitng strategy that would allow us achieve the set goals and mission. We applied our 360° marketing mix approach by analyzing each lement of it and deciding what needs to be accomplished.
‘“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”
Aristotle
The implementation – The benefits of The marketing synergy
By consistently implementing the full marketing portfolio SEEBURGER will gained synergetic benefits with an overall value much higher than the sum all individual activities.
This integrated 360° approach also empowered the company to take up on more innovative and multi-facet projects and hence reach levels beyond what we could see at the beginning.
Evolving through time
Even after we had all strategic matters set up and marketing fully running, we stayed with SEEBURGER for the whole journey. We regularly communicate with them on the implementation of the marketing strategy, neccessary updates on the brand strategy as well as performance results, new trends and innovation in the market. This way we make sure they are well on track and keep their competitive edges high up in the market.