HR Communication: It’s Time to Rally
Posted on Monday, April 6, 2009 by Frank RocheI saw this General Motors ad last night during the baseball game. I love ads, but this one really got me. The ad, called Total Confidence, uses the tagline, “It’s time to rally” and shows images of heartland Americans wearing rally caps. I love it.
Here’s what’s so great about this ad: It goes right at its audience. A rally cap is something teams wear in baseball when they are behind but surging to win. (For our non-U.S. readers, a rally cap is a hat worn inside-out.) They ran the ad during a baseball game. They appealed to pride. And they did it with emotion.
If you want to really get through to your people with your HR communication, there’s a lesson there: Know who they are. Appeal to emotion. And if you’re down, there’s nothing wrong with saying you’re going to rally to win.
Chris Ferdinandi – Renegade HR
Apr 6th, 2009
Frank, this reminds me of a lot of the recent info I’ve read on how people make decisions. Basically, they decide on emotion and then “validate” their decision with facts. Yet so often, communication operates the other way around (if it includes emotion at all).
Nice post!
-Chris
Frank Roche
Apr 6th, 2009
Chris, it’s exactly that. And once a belief is held, people will filter out information that doesn’t reconcile with their beliefs. (It’s why people often vote against their own self interests in elections, even when faced with overwhelming evidence.)
My take is that way too little emotion is put into HR communication. We try to put it in as much as we can.
Ron Ulrici
Apr 7th, 2009
Frank, Going for the heart instead of the head always has a bigger payoff. You would think us folks in HR would know that! Ron
Frank Roche
Apr 7th, 2009
Ron, it seems sadly forgotten too often.