In today’s competitive talent market, a strong Employer Value Proposition (EVP) is essential for attracting and retaining top talent. But a poorly validated EVP can backfire, costing your organization time, money, and valuable employees.
In branding, history has a way of repeating itself—sometimes with costly consequences. Back in 2019, we explored the iconic brand Tropicana’s missteps when updating its packaging and logo design. It was a cautionary tale about the importance of thoroughly validating EVP’s before bringing them to market. Despite researching the new package design with consumers, Tropicana notoriously lost an estimated $100 million due to the change, sparking an unexpected revolt by its customers and ultimately leading to the return of its original design.
Fast forward to today—some 15 years after the original incident—and Tropicana has attempted another package update, again with strikingly similar results. In just the first few months, Tropicana’s sales dropped nearly 20%, and it lost an estimated 4% market share to its primary competitor, Simply Orange.
While the lessons from our earlier article still hold true (you can find the revised version below), this recent development offers a new opportunity to explore additional insights about validation, feedback, and the dangers of doubling down on misaligned strategies.
- Collecting employee (and candidate) feedback accurately isn’t easy.
The fact that major brands with the equity and marketing budgets of Pepsico can get it wrong (twice) is a sign that not all surveys are created equal. Most organizations at least pay lip service to collecting employee feedback before making decisions about their EVP’s, but the questions you ask matter, and careful analysis can make the difference a successful EVP launch (or re-launch) and a flop. Careful analysis means going behind the “top line” results you might see in a dashboard and getting granular to see how your EVP resonates with different talent pools and sub-groups. A top line look may suggest you have a home run, when a deeper look could unearth signs of trouble lurking beneath the surface with the talent pools you most want to attract.
- Employer brand measurement over time is critical.
Once you’ve invested in an EVP, one hopefully underpinned by this kind of careful analysis, you’re all set, right? Maybe not.
While a consumer brand like Tropicana received very clear “feedback” from consumers in terms of declining market share and sales, the knock-on effects of a poorly considered EVP may be more subtle. Conducting regular “pulse” surveys to see how your EVP is resonating with the external and internal talent pools closes the feedback loop and provides actionable insights before small issues escalate.
- Know When to Pivot
TA teams often pour their hearts and souls into defining and EVP, and after investing serious time and money in bringing a new EVP to market, it can be hard to take an honest look in the mirror. Here again is why pulse surveys are a critical input. Opinions among leadership about the effectiveness of a new EVP may vary, but a broad survey of employees and candidates will provide clear direction on whether your EVP is gaining traction or flopping. If your eNPS and employer brand pillars show signs of weakening in the months immediately following a new EVP unveil, it may be time for a heart-to-heart within your organization. Mistakes are made all the time, including by major brands. Pivoting early if your EVP isn’t landing can save your organization from even deeper (and more costly) damage to its employer brand over time.
Ready to ensure your EVP resonates from the start? Whether you’re defining or refining your employer brand, Change State can help validate your EVP and implement ongoing employer brand monitoring. Contact us today to set up a free consultation.
If you’ve ever been involved in defining or redefining your organization’s employer brand value proposition (EVP), you know how significant and complex the process can be.
Brand audits. Executive interviews. Site visits. Focus groups. One-on-one team member interviews. Surveys. Team collaboration sessions. Creative reviews. More team collaboration sessions.
By the time the final EVP is ready to unveil, most employer brand teams feel a mix of elation and relief. There’s the excitement of sharing a refreshed employer brand with the world, coupled with the satisfaction of completing what often feels like a marathon effort.
But it’s precisely at this point—the so-called finish line—where organizations often stumble by skipping one of the most critical steps in EVP creation: validation.
Why Validate?
Validation often gets overlooked because it seems counterintuitive. After all, you’ve already consulted employees about their perceptions of your employer brand. You’ve heard their feedback—the good, the bad, and the ugly—and used it to create an EVP that is meaningful, believable, differentiating, and authentic.
So why the extra step?
In our experience, creating an EVP is equal parts art and science. As you near the finish line, the question isn’t just, “Did we talk to our employees?” but rather, “Did we truly hear them?”
What Employers Can Learn from Tropicana
Tropicana’s 2009 redesign of its flagship orange juice packaging is legendary in consumer branding circles—and it holds valuable lessons for employer brand teams, too.
After a lengthy process involving market research, focus groups, and likely many of the same steps used in EVP development, Tropicana launched a sleek new package design backed by a $35 million advertising campaign.
It seemed like a surefire hit. The team had listened to their “customers” (for employer branding purposes, think “employees”), gathered feedback, and created a design that felt fresh while honoring the brand’s legacy.
But there was a problem: Tropicana’s most loyal customers didn’t agree. Within weeks of the redesign’s debut, social media was flooded with criticism. Sales plummeted by 20%, and Tropicana ultimately reverted to its original packaging, swallowing a loss of nearly $50 million.
What went wrong? Tropicana listened to their customers but failed to validate their assumptions before going all-in.
How EVP Validation and Employer Brand Monitoring Go Hand-in-Hand
There’s never a bad time to begin monitoring your employer brand, but defining or redefining your EVP presents a unique opportunity. A baseline survey conducted during this phase can serve two purposes:
- Validate your EVP and creative concepts before launch.
- Establish a clear benchmark for measuring future progress.
Validation can be both direct and indirect. Indirectly, you collect employees’ perceptions of your employer brand across key attributes like compensation, benefits, innovation, or industry leadership. For example, if your new EVP emphasizes work-life balance, yet fewer than half of employees agree your organization excels in this area, it’s a sign more work is needed before launch. Conversely, if the majority agree, you can move forward with confidence.
More directly, you can share the EVP itself within the survey, asking employees for specific feedback: “We think we’ve heard you. How did we do?”
Why Baseline Metrics Matter
Without a baseline survey, evaluating the success of your EVP becomes guesswork. Imagine conducting a follow-up survey three months after launch and finding that 76% of employees agree your organization excels at work-life balance. Is that good?
Without context, it’s hard to say. However, had you conducted a baseline survey beforehand and found that only 68% initially agreed—while competitors averaged 59%—you’d have a clear indicator that your EVP is both authentic and differentiating.
The Details Matter
When conducting a baseline employer brand health survey, it’s essential to present the EVP in a way that resonates with employees and to place it toward the end of the survey. This ensures you gather candid, uninfluenced feedback before asking for reactions to the EVP itself.
At Change State, we specialize in validating EVPs and helping organizations monitor their employer brands effectively.
Ready to Learn More?
Contact us to explore how we can help validate your EVP and create a foundation for ongoing employer brand success.
