Charlotte Beckett

Merck KGaA is a Germany owned international chemicals and pharmaceuticals group dating back to the 1600s, headquartered in Darmstadt, Germany.  It is very well respected and known to be solid, reliable, thorough, rigorous and scrupulously fair in everything it does. Serono was an Italian family-owned, biotech company headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, with a reputation for being daring, entrepreneurial, creative, innovative and exciting, with a strong pipeline of drugs in development.

As part of an ambitious development plan, Merck acquired Serono at the beginning of 2007, incorporating the pharmaceutical elements of Merck within it and thus creating a division known as Merck Serono, the future focus of the group’s pharmaceutical activities.  Hence, two organisations of widely differing cultures and modus operandi, came together.

No matter how smooth and successful an integration process might be – and this one has been widely lauded as being so – there will always be issues around brand identity and communications – particularly when ‘business as usual’ determines that recruitment needs are ongoing and need to be addressed.

In such a competitive marketplace it is vital to stand out; following a merger/acquisition the candidate marketplace needs to be reassured and encouraged, as do employees.

The brief

To determine, examine and understand the evolving elements of Merck Serono’s employer brand; to identify themes that would accurately convey the brand identity and, through a wide range of communications channels and creative outputs, to manage the delivery of critical messages to a range of candidate and employee audiences.

The solution

This was never going to be a straightforward ‘Employer Branding’ project, if such a thing exists, largely because Merck Serono is a newly-formed division of Merck KGaA with emerging behaviours, values and practices. In addition though, there was an urgent need to produce high-profile attraction materials to attract candidates in a crowded marketplace hence, the deadline for outputs had to be earlier than viable to conduct a lengthy employer branding exercise.

Thus, we concurred that the project needed to be turned on its head, with a view to identifying an Employer Value Proposition (EVP) for the new division, and, a series of ‘Emerging Themes and Messages’ (ETM). This would enable Merck Serono to go safely into the marketplace via a range of communications channels and vehicles, be it to raise and sustain awareness of the company, to reach and appeal to target candidates, or to reaffirm success and promise to employees.

To identify and agree the EVP, ThirtyThree’s research team conducted a five-phase research exercise over an eight week period in the autumn of 2007:

1. Internal Communications Review – 23 monthly newsletters and additional international bulletins.
2. Analysis of the findings of a recent Cultural Survey conducted by Merck Serono shortly after the acquisition had taken place.
3. Review of the Induction Programme delivered by Merck Serono to all new joiners to the organisation.
4. Depth Interviews with identified Recruitment Consultants – 12 preferred partners – in the UK, Germany and Switzerland, all of whom are now working with Merck Serono, having previously worked with either Merck or Serono.
5. Communications Review and analysis of competitor outputs (recruitment marketing and direct attraction materials – eight competitors)

Ouputs

The outputs came in four distinct stages and in each case were presented to and tested by various client stakeholder groups.
Stage One – EVP Development and Emerging Themes and Messages

Research findings, analysis, conclusions and recommendations, led to the presentation  of identified Emerging Themes and Messages (EMTs). EMTs took the form of six distinct themes or platforms, each of which was supported by  a number of different messages, which in turn, could each be substantiated by points of fact, or much-stated views from reliable sources. Prior to any creative development work taking place, it was essential that the Merck Serono Project team agreed with and were enthused by our findings to date and our identification of themes and messages. They were:-

1. Aspiration and Ambition
2. A (very human) force to be reckoned with
3. The whole that’s greater than the sum of its parts
4. Principle, integrity and order
5. Mutual investment
6. Inspiration from within

Stage Two – Creative Development

The clever stuff. At this stage, we needed to devise ways in which the ETMs could be conveyed to the various identified target audiences as and when required. This involved  designing a number of different concepts or creative treatments which would support  and convey those themes imaginatively and consistently via all manner of communications vehicles and channels.  Our creative team came up with five really viable approaches, and were able to demonstrate how each of those would work effectively as a high profile carrier of messages across channels such as press, online job boards, client’s own website, referral programme (materials), airport poster sites, exhibition stands and consultant and/or candidate support materials.

Take a closer look

However, in the final analysis, the selected concept was ‘Take a closer look’ which was universally felt to encapsulate the essence of the employer value proposition. This campaign is all about encouraging people to take a closer look at what Merck Serono stands for – and what it can offer them in terms of their career. We achieve this by finding natural objects that represent one of those core values (eg, a butterfly represents aspiration), and using microscopic images of them. This enabled us to create materials that look visually striking and demand closer inspection.

Stage Three – Employment Communications Brand Guidelines Launched

The selected concept was developed into a variety of internal communications, candidate attraction and recruitment support materials, and brand guidelines were launched to the business in December 2007

Stage Four – Communications Development & Roll-out

The concept has been developed across a range of materials from recruitment advertising to recruitment brochures, from internal communications promoting the employee referral scheme (posters, desk top calendar, intranet banners) to a curriculum brochure and support materials for the Learning and Development team.

Images of collateral created

Geneva recruitment brochure

Employee referral intranet button

Employee referral intranet banner

Employee referral eCard