Thought Leadership

Clever branding can mean the difference between success and failure for small businesses competing in a crowded market, writes Gerard Tannam Branding is a tool available to every business. Every type of business can compete for their best customers with a strong brand that influences choice.  Because a smaller business can play to the singular strengths of its brand relationships with customers to distinguish it from others, it can level the playing field with its own competitive advantage. A strong brand is good for business. It provides an advantage over competitors by distinguishing a business from them in a way that matters to customers and influences their choices.  Despite its importance, however, this simple business tool, which is available to every business, is often misunderstood, underestimated, and underused, particularly by smaller companies. ‘Brand’ can be defined in many ways: as a mark of origin or quality, as image or reputation, as a proposition or promise, and even as a badge of community or a shared belief system.   None of these definitions is entirely satisfactory, however. While each definition says something true about what a brand is or can be, none captures the part a brand plays in choice. A definition of brand As well as being a tool that businesses use to influence choice, brand is also the tool that customers use to make their choices and reassure themselves that they are correct.  When customers are spoilt for choice or do not have the time or inclination to analyse every buying decision, they often rely on brand to help them choose. And so, the brand tool is used in two different though complementary ways:  a business uses brand to help it become the natural choice of its customers;  its customers use brand to help them make the right choice of product or service.  A brand is a tool that influences choice by reflecting the relationship between buyer and seller and the value they exchange. Marks of quality or identity, such as names, symbols or logos, are means of representing the brand relationship and its value, rather than being the brand. Wedding rings, for example, symbolise a relationship (marriage) between two people – they are not the relationship itself.  The brand bridge To understand brand and how it works, consider the relationship between buyer and seller as a ‘bridge’. Just as a bridge is designed to enable people to cross over safely, quickly, and easily from one side to the other, a brand bridge enables people to exchange value safely, quickly, and easily. The two-way traffic on the bridge of give-and-take between buyer and seller suggests a partnership of equals, both of whom want something the other has and must agree on the value to be exchanged through the transaction. Brand bridges are more handshake than arm wrestle, a basis for good and sustainable business. A definition of branding Defining brand as a tool for business leads to a definition of ‘branding’ as the influencing of choice by building a relationship between buyer and seller based on the value they exchange. A brand relationship establishes a connection between a business and its customers around the value each understands the other is offering.  Branding involves putting the brand relationship to work to build and maintain the commercial relationship with existing customers and turn potential buyers into new customers. Why branding matters to small businesses Success in business comes down to an ability to influence choice. A superior product or service only takes a business so far.  Many hardworking businesses have brought an exceptional offering to market and failed. To be successful, a business must influence enough of the right kind of customer to choose what it brings to market. Brand relationship plays a critical role in the choices customers make. Even in a busy marketplace, where customers are spoilt for choice, a strongly branded business can lead its market and command a premium for its product or service.  Every business has a brand, strong or weak. The brand’s strength or weakness results from actions taken by the business in building the relationship with its customers.  A strong brand is especially important for small businesses, which are unlikely to have the spending power or marketing resources available to larger competitors.  The smaller business can play to the strengths of its brand relationship with its customers to distinguish it from other businesses in the marketplace, and so level the playing field.  Five steps to defining a brand 1. Define the value to be exchanged The value to be realised through the brand relationship is not set by one side or the other but must be agreed. For any relationship to work both parties must continue to see and realise its value.  However, while the brand relationship is defined by the value sought by the buyer and offered by the seller, this must at least match the seller’s asking price for the exchange to work.  The asking price, which the business requires for the exchange to be profitable, is a useful starting point for defining value.  This is typically based on the costs of the resources the business must invest in the relationship, plus its margin or premium.  Then the business considers how the customer is likely to rate the benefits on offer, if this accumulated value matches or tops the asking price, and whether they are likely to  pay it.  2. Identify and target the ‘best customer’ For the brand relationship to work, it is vital that the business carefully chooses the type of customer with whom it and its value proposition are best matched.  When business development lacks focus, a business will attract a wide variety of prospective customers, some well matched with it, but many not.  A business that deals with too broad a mix of customers will struggle to profitably realise the value in many of its individual transactions.  A well-matched or ‘best customer’, on the other hand, will add predictable and significant value to the exchange and deliver the premium that the business needs. Your best customer:  needs what you have to offer, considers it essential;  wants what you are offering, finds it highly desirable; values what you offer, prioritises it above all others; engages fully with all of the elements of your offering, not just its purchase; can pay for it (an ability not confined to affordability). 3. Identify and fix the customer’s ‘key problem’ People buy from other people to fix what they experience as a problem and to enjoy the benefits that result. Potential customers are more likely to be ‘best customers’ when they consider that the product or service offered by a business fixes their key problem. There are two aspects or sides to a customers’ key problems: the practical and the social.  The practical is what the product or service does and the direct, functional benefits it provides, while the social is how the customer relates to others and the world through their choice of that product or service and can be understood in terms of how it makes them feel.   For example, someone is thirsty and buys bottled water. Any bottled water will do. Another customer is thirsty but is concerned that many bottled water products use irreplaceable natural resources.  They choose a brand of water that is carbon-neutral with recycled packaging. The business with the sustainable brand has found its best customer; the customer has used brand value to meet all their needs and fix their problem. 4. Identify and fix both aspects of the key problem More customers are choosing products and services that fix the practical and social aspects of their problems, so it is important that a business identifies both aspects and determines the role that it will play in fixing them. This role must go deeper than the complementary role of seller to the customer’s buyer, and deeper too than the functional role played by the business in fixing the practical problem. When the product or service offered by a business is largely the same as that offered by its competitors, it is the role that the business plays in resolving the social aspect of its customer’s key problem that adds real value, and greater profitability, to the transaction. For example, a business owner seeks an accountant to prepare monthly accounts to support their management of the business. Any suitably qualified accountant can answer this practical aspect of the business owner’s problem.  However, the owner struggles to make sense of how accounts relate to their business and can feel overwhelmed and helpless.  They will choose an accountant that fixes this personal (social) part of the problem, guiding and advising the owner to help them to understand the numbers and the performance of their business. 5. Provide information required for the buying decision When customers are considering which product or service to choose, they will search for some or all of 10 types of information about how a business solves their key problem: Attraction – ‘What is it about this offer that appeals to me?’ Engagement – ‘What tells me that it is right for me?’ Demonstration – ‘How does this offer work?’ Sample – ‘How can I try it for myself?’ Testimonial – ‘Who else has benefitted from this offer?’ Proposition – ‘How do I take up this offer?’ Delivery – ‘How is this offer provided to me?’ Support – ‘How will you help me make the most of it?’ Recovery – ‘What will you do to help me if something goes wrong?’ Feedback – ‘How will I let you know what I think of your offer?’ Final word When the success of a business depends on the effectiveness of its brand in influencing choice, building brand relationships should not be left to chance.  Branding is a tool available to every business. Every type of business can compete for their best customers with a strong brand that influences choice.  Because a smaller business can play to the singular strengths of its brand relationships with customers to distinguish it from others, it can level the playing field with its own competitive advantage.   Gerard Tannam is founder of Islandbridge, a brand planning and strategic development company

A mainstay of Ireland’s financial services landscape for over 60 years, our credit unions are entering an exciting phase with recent developments presenting new opportunities to adapt and change Credit unions are an important part of the financial services landscape. With offices a common feature of cities, towns and villages throughout Ireland, they play a key role in the day-to-day finances of many Irish people and communities. There are more than 3.6 million credit union members on the island of Ireland.  A history of credit unions Credit unions were first established in Ireland in the late 1950s and quickly became a repository for savings and a source of loans for many people. The total value of loans extended by credit unions in the Republic of Ireland is currently around €5 billion, with total savings coming to about €16 billion.  Average sector total reserves, as a percentage of total assets, is approximately 16 percent, which serves to underpin the confidence of their members, particularly in times of uncertainty and disruptive change. These institutions are not-for-profit financial co-operatives. They are owned and controlled by their members and therefore have a different business model to retail banks. Each credit union is independent, with its own board of directors, charged with overall responsibility for running the credit union.  Because they are part of the financial services sector, credit unions are governed by legislation in Ireland, principally the Credit Union Act 1997, as amended, and regulated by the Central Bank.  Significant amendments to the 1997 Act were introduced by the Credit Union and Co-operation with Overseas Regulators Act 2012, and this is the legislative regime under which credit unions currently operate. The credit union sector has been relatively stable in terms of any legislative or government policy changes. However, two recent developments, the Credit Union (Amendment) Bill 2022 and the Retail Banking Review (November 2022), present new opportunities for credit unions to adapt and change their business models and enhance their product and service offerings to members. The Credit Union (Amendment) Bill 2022 The first major legislative change for credit unions since the 2012 Act, the Credit Union (Amendment) Bill 2022 (the Bill) was published on 30 November 2022 following over two years of stakeholder engagement, with over 100 proposals considered. Highly technical and not an easy read, the Bill is currently before the Dáil, where proposals for amendments will be considered.  There is no fixed timeline for enactment and, post-enactment, commencement of sections may occur in phases, with the Central Bank of Ireland having to amend regulations to accommodate the new provisions.  The main provisions of the Bill involve: the establishment of ‘corporate credit unions’; amending the requirements and qualifications for membership of credit unions; altering the scope of permitted investments by credit unions; changes to the governance of credit unions; maximum interest rates on loans by credit unions; provision of services by credit unions to members of other credit unions; and participation by credit unions in loans to members of other credit unions. Collaboration between credit unions The introduction of ‘corporate credit unions’ should support greater collaboration between credit unions, facilitating a pooling of resources and greater access to funding.  A new form of regulated entity, their membership would be restricted to other credit unions, with lending allowed only to those members. Further collaboration is envisaged with a provision in the Bill allowing all credit unions to refer members to other credit unions to avail of a service that the original credit union does not provide.  While such referral is not mandatory, it is a new option for making additional services available to members—for example, a current account facility where the original credit union may be reluctant to provide this service to all members based on cost or other reasons.  Another provision enabling collaboration allows a credit union to participate in a loan to a member of another credit union. This will facilitate risk sharing associated with the loan and will make it easier for an individual credit union to offer larger loans to its members.  Regarding lending to businesses, and other organisations or associations, there is a further key provision in the Bill for “bodies” (incorporated or unincorporated) to be allowed join a credit union with the same rights and obligations as a “natural person” (member).  This is, however, subject to conditions that a majority of the members of the body would be eligible to join the credit union and the body meets the common bond requirement. Ultimately, this will make it easier for credit unions to lend to such bodies and is principally focused on SMEs. While none of these changes are mandatory, they do provide new options and opportunities for credit unions. Governance changes Regarding changes in governance, two provisions stand out: the option to appoint the manager (chief executive officer) of the credit union to the board; and  reduction of the minimum number of board meetings per year to six, down from the current 10.   The extent to which these changes will be adopted remains to be seen, as many credit union boards may be content with the existing practice.   Where a credit union decides to include its manager as a board member, the Bill proposes that this will be done by their direct appointment to the board and not by election at a general meeting of members.  The term can be for any length but cannot extend beyond the individual’s term as manager.  One restriction on the manager as a board member is that they cannot sit on the nomination committee of the credit union, the membership of which is restricted to board members who have been co-opted or elected at general meetings.  Similarly, regarding the frequency of board meetings, the board may be reluctant to change the current practice of having at least one meeting per month, concluding that it cannot adequately carry out its responsibilities with only six board meetings.  Because of the voluntary ethos of credit unions, the historically close involvement of board members with the credit union, and the relatively onerous responsibilities of boards, it may take some time before six board meetings is considered the norm. Other governance changes proposed by the 2022 Bill include reducing the number of board oversight committee meetings, removing the requirement for the board oversight committee to sign the audited annual accounts, and extending from annually to every three years the review of specific policies by the board. The Credit Union (Amendment) Bill 2022 includes substantive policy change in the areas of collaboration, members’ services, and governance. It seeks to give more power to credit unions to determine strategy and, when enacted, will require consequential changes to Central Bank regulations.  To fully exploit the options and opportunities enabled by its provisions will require significant work by the sector. The Retail Banking Review 2022 In November 2022, following its approval by Government, Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe, and Minister of State for Financial Services, Credit Unions and Insurance, Sean Fleming, published the report of the Retail Banking Review (the Review).  Driven by the departure of two major banks, Ulster Bank and KBC, this is a broad-ranging review of the retail banking sector in Ireland, including the credit union sector.  In relation to credit unions, the Review states: “Credit unions have a strong and trusted brand, they are present in communities throughout the country, and have been developing their product offering. The credit unions are already a significant player in consumer credit, and they are making inroads in the current account, mortgages and SME segments of the market. These developments, coupled with their collectively strong levels of capital and deposit bases, leads the Review Team to believe that credit unions could play a greater role in the provision of retail banking products and services in the coming years.” Referencing the Credit Union (Amendment) Bill 2022, the Review recommends that the credit union sector develop a strategic plan to deliver business model changes that would enable it to sustainably provide a universal product offering to all credit union members. Provided directly or on a referral basis, this would continue to be community-based. The Review suggests that such a strategic plan should show how credit unions can: viably scale their business model in key product areas such as mortgages and SME lending; invest in expertise, systems, controls, and processes to deliver standard products and services across all credit unions, while managing any risks arising and continuing to protect members’ savings; provide the option of in-branch services for members of all credit unions. Both the Bill and the Review point to new opportunities for credit unions and demonstrate confidence in their future as part of the Irish financial services sector. For these opportunities to be successfully managed, however, credit unions must continue to maintain high levels of governance so that legislators, the Central Bank, their members, and the wider community can have confidence in the sector.  Credit unions have done much for many people in Ireland for more than 60 years. These developments in legislation and government policy point to their continued and increasing relevance in the years ahead. Gene Boyd, FCA, is a risk management consultant and author of The Governance of Credit Unions in Ireland

(This article by Mary E. Collins is based on Chapter 1 of her book Recruiting Talented People, which is available to buy from our online store.) The fundamentals of recruiting have changed in recent years, and a new set of principles have evolved: Understand the balance of power Respond quickly ‘Graze’ for talent Embrace technology and innovation Network effectively Understand candidates’ expectations Embrace diverse skillsets 1. Understand the balance of power The candidate and hiring manager have always been central to the talent-acquisition process; however, as hiring has grown in importance as a key strategic imperative for organisations, and as the number of people actively looking for new roles has reduced, the balance of power has shifted away from the hiring manager and towards the candidate. Top talent now has numerous opportunities in the current market and employers need to attract desirable candidates with a compelling employer value proposition (EVP). This shift in the power dynamic requires organisations to: clearly identify what skills they need now and in the future; identify who has those skills and how to attract them; define their ‘employer brand’; innovate new ways to attract these candidates, embracing technology and new communication channels; treat candidates well – candidates now expect a ‘white glove’ level of service. Recruiters have had to change the way they perceive talent itself. As a senior Irish recruiter has shared: “Gone are the days when employers posted a role vacancy online to a job board, and a lengthy recruitment process ensued. There is a big difference between receiving CVs and finding talent.” 2. Respond quickly The shift in the balance of power in favour of candidates has resulted in organisations needing to move quickly to secure skilled employees. Candidates surveyed have identified response time to applicants awaiting a hiring decision as most in need of improvement. The days of multiple interviews and stages to a recruitment process are coming to an end. Top talent will not wait around! Hiring processes, therefore, need to be concise and focused. This ‘speed of play’ extends to how candidates will want to interact with you, rather than waiting for you to interact with them. Top talent, particularly among Millennials or Gen Zs, want to be ‘discovered’. Often referred to as ‘Generation Now’, they demand more speed from the recruitment tools used. As digital natives, they expect that technology will be embraced and used effectively in the hiring process. (Employers, of course, face a challenge in meeting this expectation as they have to balance it with the need to select the right candidate.) 3. ‘Graze’ for talent While traditional talent recruitment methods such as graduate hiring, use of agencies and job advertising are still important, new approaches are to be embraced in a market of undersupply of key talent. Smart organisations continually ‘graze for talent’. They are always looking to meet and maintain contact with potential employees as they are being educated, and later, throughout their careers, through networking events, alumni groups, conferences, online forums, and so on. Early contact: ‘co-ops’ and internships Rather than waiting for the annual ‘talent war’ of graduate recruitment, a significant number of employers are identifying talent earlier in the education cycle, e.g. inviting first-year students to experience ‘a day in the life’. Many universities offer work placements in the third year of degree studies. Building these connections early on with potential employees creates a talent pipeline and avoids an over-reliance on the ‘graduate milk round’. Keeping in touch It is important to keep in touch with talented professionals at all stages of their careers. And career stages have expanded and sub-categories within, and in addition to, the pre-existing stages have now emerged: ‘Encore careers’: Older workers reinventing themselves and retraining/studying in new fields. ‘Returnships’: People returning to work following a career break (this can include women who exited the workforce earlier due to family commitments but who are now keen to return). Returnships – similar to internships – are for a defined period, usually six to 11 months with no obligations on either party to continue the contract. ‘Boomerang employees’: People who leave an organisation for a few years to travel, work abroad or in a different industry, but maintain a connection with the organisation and later return, bringing back greater levels of skills and experience. Talent communities Integral to ‘grazing for talent’ is building strong talent communities through which both alumni and potential employees can stay connected to the organisation. Leveraging a network of alumni also requires ‘exiting’ talent in a more positive way. If an employee’s experience with the company is good at all stages of their employment cycle, this will increase the likelihood of their becoming a ‘boomerang employee’. Talent communities are also a source of referrals, in that previous employees can refer candidates from their own networks. As roles become more technical and specialised, having existing or former employees refer candidates from their own networks is gaining in importance. 4. Embrace technology and innovation Recruitment practices have changed rapidly with technology and social media. Organisations competing for talent embrace these innovations and maximise their recruitment potential. Jobs boards Online ‘job boards’ have developed exponentially to become services like ‘Indeed’, a jobs aggregator offering a service comparable to a ‘dating agency for recruitment’, providing jobseekers with access to millions of jobs from thousands of company websites. Professional networking platforms LinkedIn continues to be a major disruptor in the recruitment sector. Its CEO, Jeff Weiner, has announced a goal of “powering half of all hiring decisions” by 2024. LinkedIn’s success has been in breaking the traditional links between employers, recruitment agencies and employees. Previously, agencies had an ‘information hegemony’ over employers, due to their proprietary databases of candidates. Now anyone can search for potential candidates, whether they had applied for a job or not, allowing hiring companies access to the ‘passive talent’ who were not actively searching for a role. LinkedIn’s success is in how it caters for every stage of the recruitment cycle, including employer brand awareness, posting jobs, searching for candidates, making contact with and vetting candidates. Recruitment marketing and solutions services There is a growing number of innovative technology-driven recruitment companies offering to look after organisations’ entire talent-acquisition processes (e.g. Clinch, www.clinchtalent.com). These service providers offer online recruitment software, marketing and CRM to enable hiring organisations to revolutionise how they identify, attract, hire and nurture talent. Disruptive technologies and talent acquisition The effective use of new technologies not only adds to a compelling candidate experience, reflecting positively on the employer brand, but will help to access alternative talent sources. Some of the more disruptive uses of technology in talent acquisition will break down barriers around traditional interview formats, e.g. video conferencing allows hiring managers to conduct interviews with potential candidates who are geographically remote, and with robotic process automation and psychometric testing candidates can be identified who may excel in the role but do not ‘interview well’. 5. Network effectively In my experience, around 80% of all positions in Ireland are filled via word-of-mouth and relationship-based contacts among different personal and professional networks in different sectors. Developing and maintaining a strong network for both employees and hiring managers is therefore more important than ever in an economy experiencing a talent shortage. Of particular importance in networking are employee referrals, where current employees act as ambassadors for the organisation and are incentivised for recommending it to their friends and contacts. Employee referrals are a cheaper, faster and generally more successful way to hire. A good in-house referral programme empowers all employees to help with the hiring challenge. Many firms offer generous incentives to encourage employees to do just that, thereby making considerable savings on expenses that would otherwise be incurred during the recruitment and selection process. 6. Understand candidates’ expectations The younger generations in the workforce (Millennials/Gen Y, born 1980–1998, Centennials/Gen Z, born 1999+) hold the balance of power in recruitment, so employers must be aware of their expectations as candidates. A new approach is required to attract, engage and retain these generations, including providing: good work–life balance; work arrangements with flexible locations and hours; clear personal development routes; clear promotion opportunities; meaning and purpose in work (making a meaningful contribution to society); opportunity for travel; support around personal wellbeing; employability (working with the organisation will make the candidate more employable for future roles). A feature of these groups is a preference for collaboration and a propensity to be heavily influenced by each other, which extends to making similar career choices. This can be particularly evident in large professional service firms where groups of graduates from the same degree programmes all join the same firm, creating ‘a continuation of college life’. Similarly, job seekers from this cohort place huge trust in peer reviews, often basing decisions about where to apply on reviews of companies on websites like Glassdoor (www.glassdoor.com), one of several platforms on which people can anonymously share their experiences of ‘what it’s really like to work here’. Smart recruiting organisations will keep a close eye on activity on these platforms, which continue to grow in popularity. Job seekers from Gen Y and Gen Z say that they trust information on vacant positions in organisations in the order set out in Figure 1: Figure 1 7. Embrace diverse skillsets Employers are looking in new places for more diverse skillsets, away from the traditional sources of talent. Students from diverse disciplines such as data analytics, the sciences and engineering are being actively targeted by professional services firms for a range of roles typically filled by business graduates in the past. This shift is also reflective of the changing skillsets required by firms for their emerging service offerings, cybersecurity being an example of a high growth area. Employers should consider whether their degree-entry requirements for roles and opportunities are valid. There is a growing number of apprenticeships in Ireland. Traditionally, apprenticeships were in craft areas, but the apprenticeship opportunities are growing in professional sectors, with school-leavers entering, for example accountancy, auctioneering and insurance, and working through flexible training programmes. Dr Mary E. Collins Chartered Psychologist, Senior Executive Development Specialist at RCSI Institute of Leadership, and author of Recruiting Talented People (Chartered Accountants Ireland, 2021)