Silver lining with recent Wal-mart layoff news

Wal-mart, the world’s largest retailer, recently announced a layoff of approximately 700-800 employees. While they’ve had some challenges with their employment brand, they are still the largest private sector employer in the U.S. (over 1.6 million employees). Coverage of their recent announcement made headline news which focused on the layoff itself. The headline on CNN.com reads:

Wal-mart to cut jobs at headquarters - World’s largest retailer, citing ‘unprecendented’ times says it will cut as many jobs across divisions.

The news is definitely unfortunate - especially for the employees and the families who are directly affected. But there is also some positive news as well. Buried in the article is an important statement about their growth plans. Wal-mart has “no plans to eliminate store level jobs” and “still plans to open between 125 and 140 new stores” which entails the hiring of thousands of store associates. That’s positive news and shouldn’t be buried at the bottom of the article.

Finding the silver lining in the job market

Consumer spending has decreased and there has been a logical shift in where consumers are spending their dollars. Instead of eating out at a sit-down restaurant on a regular basis, more people are opting for fast-food (cheaper) or eating at home. Many of us are looking to stretch the dollar further and are shopping at the grocery store and preparing our meals at home. Instead of the $6 cup of coffee we are brewing our own coffee at home or picking up a cup of joe at the drive-through.

We’re looking to low-cost retailers, not only for our staples, but for additional products and services. Companies like Wal-mart and McDonald’s appeal to consumers in this economy and address the need to stretch the dollar further. It’s seems logical that these companies would put an emphasis on maintaining or increasing staff levels at their retail locations. The economy is driving business to their retail locations because they specialize in low cost products and services.  These companies are in the business of providing the most value for the dollar possible, so it makes sense that they would make adjustments to corporate jobs while putting emphasis on staffing at their retail locations.

This economy is tough and and the impact on the job market has been non-trivial. It may get worse before it gets better, but it’s important to highlight the positives. They may seem few and far between right now but will eventually become more frequent.

Voter turnout in this election was the highest it’s been in nearly 40 years and Obama’s campaign engaged an unprecedented number of voters through new channels including websites, blogs, Facebook, Twitter (165k followers and a reach of 8.3M at last check) and mobile (2+ million voters).  Just like most new technology, it can be challenging to sift through all of the hype to see what’s valuable and what’s just a fad. Twitter wasn’t very interesting when people were just using it to share what they were eating for lunch but becomes much more interesting when used engage an audience interested in a topic, cause, company, etc. In a similar fashion, mobile marketing is evolving in the U.S. (hint: we’re still catching up to other countries).

While it wasn’t perfect, Obama’s campaign set a benchmark for mobile marketing (and mobile recruiting) which included:

Obama Campaign - SMS/Text

Text Messaging: texting (or “SMS” - short messaging service) was a core component for  the campaign. They acquired their own short code (a 5 to 6 digit number used for text messaging) early on and used it effectively throughout. Some highlights:

• The shortcode (62262) also spells OBAMA on a traditional keypad. This may seem subtle, but there are far more mobile users who don’t have smartphones than there are with smartphones. This shortcode is memorable and easy to translate when punching it in on a traditional mobile phone.
• They used SMS/text as an anchor point for raising awareness and engaging voters on their mobile devices. It was promoted during speeches, town hall meetings and whenever the opportunity presented itself. The advantage of mobile vs. traditional channels is the “time and place relevancy” that you can’t get with other channels. People standing in the crowd at an event/speech are easily able to send a text message to join a cause or get more information. An invitation to text “GO” to “62262″ ignited the mobile campaign.
• Call-to-action: most of the SMS/text messages included various calls-to-action including links to the mobile site.

Obama Website Promoting Mobile

Multichannel approach: the campaign leveraged their online presence to promote the mobile offerings, including several ways to join:

• From the website: pretty straight forward and convenient for those who happened to be on the website. Nice tie-in with mobile and a way to stay engaged while not in front of a computer.
• Mobile site: most mobile phones with web access are limited to a bare bones browser which doesn’t do well with the majority of websites out there. Mobile sites are optimized for these browsers including page layout, reduced image sizes and navigation that is conducive for the small screen. These sites are also referred to as “WAP” (wireless application protocol) or “mobi” sites.
• iPhone application: for those with an iPhone, the campaign developed an application tailored for the iPhone. Not only did it provide a pretty slick experience, it tapped into the buzz within the iPhone community as several new applications surfaced for the first time.

Mobile Marketing - Lessons Learned

Beyond the technology of mobile marketing, a big reason for the success of the mobile marketing campaign had to do with the programmatic approach the campaign used. In large part, it seems to have started as one big experiment with no precedence or pre-existing ROI studies to justify it.

IMHO, here are a couple of reasons it was successful:

• Committed Mobile Program: the campaign committed to mobile and thoughtfully put together a program that enabled its success. They didn’t wait for someone else to try it or fall into analysis paralysis to see if they could guarantee an ROI. They knew there were 250 million mobile subscribers in the US, with a majority of age to vote. They didn’t throw out a half-hearted attempt at mobile marketing that was doomed to fail - they stepped up with a plan to get the word out about it, attract voters and keep them engaged.
• Compelling calls-to-action: making the same information available on a mobile device that’s available on a website is mildly interesting. But the Obama Campaign did an incredible job of offering compelling calls-to-action. Time and place relevancy - that’s what makes mobile marketing unique and so different from other channels. Getting potential voters to “join the cause” from their mobile phone while listening to a speech in person captures that moment where an individual wants to take action. Without that immediate call-to-action, how many people would leave the speech intending to join online at some later time but never get around to it? Other calls-to-action included the ability to hear a recorded voice message from Obama as well as mobile downloads including ringtones, videos, whitepapers and wallpapers.
• Viral marketing & recruiting: from every touchpoint, including the mobile site, the Obama campaign fully leveraged word-of-mouth and made it simple for anyone to spread the word. Whether it was forwarding an SMS/text message, sending an email referral to friends or tapping into social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, MySpace, etc.) - the campaign made it extremely easy to spread the word.
• Sense of Urgency: people like to be “the first to know” and the campaign did a great job using milestones in the election process to leverage the value of the mobile channel. Being the first to know the VP pick was a huge success with over 2.9 million voters raising their hands to get a text message with the announcement as soon as it was available. Another text message was sent to registered voters reminding them to vote the week before the nation marched to the polls. Another message went out during President Bush’s farewell address calling for those registered to “renew America w/service projects around the Inauguration” which was interesting timing, but more importantly a continued dialogue with the audience (beyond the goal of getting their vote during the election).

It wasn’t all smooth sailing - there were timing and delivery problems with some of the text messages including the VP Pick text message that didn’t make it out to voters until the middle of the night and after major media outlets started reporting on it. However, the Obama mobile campaign made history and has helped pave the way for others to leverage mobile as an effective marketing channel. It wasn’t conducted on a shoestring budget - much of the technology required customized solutions or a patchwork of different vendor technologies. We’re beginning to see how mobile marketing programs can be successful - and the technology is evolving quickly to make these capabilities available as a cost-effective solution for engaging an audience.

CNN - Army using video games to temp recruits

As CNN reports, the past couple of years haven’t been easy for the US Army to find new recruits. But they’ve developed a way to attract recruits like never before, which has lead to 200 visitors per day at one recruiting station in particular, which is amazing considering the average Army recruiting station attracts 20 visitors per day.

They’ve created what they call the Army Experience Center (AEC) - a 14,500 square foot facility at Franklin Mills Mall in Philadephia Pennsylvania. Strategically positioned between popular retail stores in the mall, the US Army has taken their recruiting efforts right where their ideal recruits are found on any day of the week - the shopping mall.

Further they’ve invested nearly $12 million dollars into the facility with high-tech equipment including a Humvee, Black Hawk helicopter and Apache gunship. They’ve created an immersive environment complete with Army equipment, simulators and video games to attract potential recruits.

Army Experience Center (AEC)

How does this apply to mobile recruiting, you may wonder? This is a great example of an organization (US Army) understanding their target audience and developing a recruiting program that speaks their language. Further, they’ve developed a great online recruiting site that puts a spotlight on the AEC, promotes events, leverages referrals and connects interested candidates directly with recruiters. The US Army is making great progress with their recruiting goals and building a great employment brand along the way thanks to these types of recruiting programs.

Most of us won’t have $12M dollar recruiting budgets for this type of experimentation, but mobile recruiting presents a unique opportunity to engage your target candidates - especially in the hourly hiring sectors including retail, foodservice and transportation. With over 250 million mobile subscribers in the US and 30 billion sms/text messages sent globally every month - your candidates are not only likely to have a mobile device,  it’s probably their preferred means of communication.

Obama Mobile Campaign

Brands are beginning to leverage mobile marketing to engage consumers with offerings ranging from mobile coupons to product information. Military institutions are beginning to experiment with mobile to reach new recruits. A political candidate used it to build and engage a community of voters that helped lead to his election as President of the United States. Mobile is reaching a tipping point as a major marketing channel, and large brands are paving the way with an investment and commitment to fully explore the potential of mobile marketing.

So, why the trend? Well, because there are a lot of people using mobile phones these days. The size of the mobile subscriber market has exploded in recent years. Increasing to more than 3 billion (yes, that’s billion) mobile subscribers globally in 2008, Nielsen has declared critical mass for mobile in the US. Let’s take a look at the numbers:

• 254 million US mobile subscribers in Q1 2008 (source: CTIA - wireless industry trade group)
• 144 million (57%) of US mobile subscribers were data users in Q1 2008
• 95 million (37%) of US mobile subscribers paid for access to the mobile Internet
• 40 million (15.6% in May 2008) were active users of mobile Internet services

Aside from the sheer number of people using mobile phones, there are several other factors that make mobile really interesting from a marketing perspective:

Motorola Brick - 1983

1. Convenience and proximity: unlike a computer or laptop, people almost always have their mobile phones with them. Whether they are shopping, at the movies, at work, in meetings or traveling - mobile phones have evolved quie a bit since the original “brick” from Motorola. In 1983, Motorola introduced the DynaTac 8000x weighing in at nearly 2 pounds and a price tag of $4,000! Twenty-five years later, mobile devices are slim enough to slide into a pocket and cost a fraction of the price. People carry their mobile devices with them everywhere.
2. Voice and data: in the US, mobile phones have been primarily used for typical voice calls throughout the years. However, the majority of mobile devices today are capable of other applications, often referred to as “data applications.” These applications include SMS (short message service, aka “text”), MMS (multimedia message service) mobi (mobile web), LBS (location based services), ring tones and various other applications. Adoption has been relatively slow for these applications in the US compared to the rest of the world - until recently. In fact, Wired recently reported last quarter that the use of SMS (text messaging) has finally surpassed the number of calls received by users in the US.
3. Social and viral: mobile devices and the applications I’ve mentioned above have opened up new ways for people to communicate. Text messaging enables users to send quick snippets of information to each other without having to facilitate a phone call. The easy and quick dissemination of information is not new - we’ve seen it in the online world with email, websites, blogs, etc. However, mobile devices offer something unique and that’s what I refer to as “time and place relevancy.” People are able to share their thoughts and experiences when and where they happen. In the online world, thoughts and experiences are mostly shared at some point after the fact - once the individual is in front of a computer.

The mobile device has come along way since the brick debuted in 1983. Consumers are finding new ways to use their mobile devices and marketers are investing in programs to reach their audience on those devices. In our next series of posts, we’ll take a look at some of the more successful mobile marketing programs and begin talking about how to get mobile in recruiting mix.

Even if you will never be a client of recruit2mobile, this is a resource for any employer interested in learning more about mobile marketing and leveraging what’s quickly becoming the preferred means of communication for a new generation - the mobile device.

We will share…

* Best practices, principles, concepts & terms related to mobile recruiting
* Ideas to build mobile programs, develop mobile talent communities, and how to develop a mobile-ready hiring organizations
* Common questions that arise with prospects and clients regarding mobile recruiting
* Non-confidential case studies, mobile programs and lessons learned

And of course, we’ll facilitate ideas and content from clients, analysts, gurus and wherever else we find interesting ideas.