Balancing global influence & regional needs to define an effective employer brand

Kao needed an employer brand that would reflect their global influence while appealing to all employee types in their Americas Region. Our partnership created a strategy that will help the company communicate consistently across the entire employee lifecycle, from candidate to retiree.

Challenge

As a global company with tremendous size and consumer influence, Kao is a master at marketing the brands they produce. But when it came to articulating and communicating their regional employer brand for their multiple business fields and company roles, they needed help.

While many clients come to Sanger & Eby with little employer branding baggage, Kao already had a good idea as to what they stood for. But this led to internal teams creating their own homegrown communications with multiple versions of how to interpret brand and content.

The Corporate Communications Team in the Americas Region reached out to Sanger & Eby at a key time internally for the organization. Kao wanted to capitalize on an internal culture transformation initiative that was underway and seize the momentum of employee pride generated during the COVID-19 pandemic to consolidate and optimize their employer brand.

Services:

Stakeholder interviews SWOT analysis Content audit & inventory Employer branding & EVP Communication strategy Content development Digital design

Kao needed an employer brand that would reflect their global influence while appealing to all employee types in their Americas Region. Our partnership created a strategy that will help the company communicate consistently across the entire employee lifecycle, from candidate to retiree.

Services:

Stakeholder interviews SWOT analysis Content audit & inventory Employer branding & EVP Communication strategy Content development Digital design

Challenge

As a global company with tremendous size and consumer influence, Kao is a master at marketing the brands they produce. But when it came to articulating and communicating their regional employer brand for their multiple business fields and company roles, they needed help.

While many clients come to Sanger & Eby with little employer branding baggage, Kao already had a good idea as to what they stood for. But this led to internal teams creating their own homegrown communications with multiple versions of how to interpret brand and content.

The Corporate Communications Team in the Americas Region reached out to Sanger & Eby at a key time internally for the organization. Kao wanted to capitalize on an internal culture transformation initiative that was underway and seize the momentum of employee pride generated during the COVID-19 pandemic to consolidate and optimize their employer brand.

Pages from the new Kao Employer Brand Style Guide.

Strategy

Our team interviewed key stakeholders and dug through surveys and pulse checks for insights. We reviewed a myriad of documents containing values, competencies, The Kao Way and more. Most information contained heavy corporate influence from the company’s Tokyo headquarters — both a strength and a weakness — since this influence was not consistently communicated.

We leveraged this research to create an employer brand that carefully balanced the company-defined culture and the employee experience in the Americas Region. Our work included new employer value proposition, communication strategy, brand voice and style guide as well as a robust set of templates to execute their communications.

Professionally-dressed woman beginning a presentation using the new branded PowerPoint template created for Kao. The template provides consistency while still allowing for customization and flexibility.

Results

The work Sanger & Eby did will help the company communicate consistently and effectively across the entire employee lifecycle — from candidate to retiree — and across the varying roles and responsibilities of their multiple business units and departments. The series of templates will enable the Corporate Communications Team to maintain brand consistency while still providing room for creativity and customization.