Business leaders at large companies know this truth: creating impactful, long lasting change within your organization is easy in theory, yet difficult to achieve in real life.
As Dr. Nadya Zhexembayeva writes in her recent article for Harvard Business Review:
We are massively failing at change. According to research from Gartner published last May, employees’ willingness to support enterprise change collapsed to just 43% in 2022, compared to 74% in 2016. And Gallup’s “State of the Workforce 2024” report, which came out this June, highlighted significant frustration: While 23% of employees are thriving and are fully engaged at work, 62% of employees are ”quiet quitting,” employed but disengaged. The report also included data that just broke my heart: A whopping 15% of employees worldwide are ”loudly quitting” — “directly harming the organization, undercutting its goals and opposing its leaders.”
Blindspots in leadership, bureaucracy, siloed departments, unexpected market disruptions and even rapid business growth leave teams baffled and slow to respond.
We’re talking:
That's where Change Marketing comes in - a process we’ve developed here at LOCAL to help organizations market their vision for change internally among their employees.
We coined this term because we came to the realization that you can’t just mandate change. For authentic, long-lasting change that resonates with your employees, you need to get their buy-in before, during, after, and always - you have to market the change.
Change Marketing is the strategic approach to promoting and facilitating organizational change by engaging and inspiring employees. It's about creating a narrative that resonates with your workforce, aligning the change with their values, and encouraging their active participation. By making employees feel heard and involved, Change Marketing turns them into advocates of the change process, ensuring smoother transitions and more successful transformations.
Moreover, Change Marketing emphasizes the importance of continuous engagement and communication. It’s not a one-time effort but an ongoing process that adapts and evolves with the organization's needs and employee feedback. This approach helps build trust and transparency, making employees more receptive to change and reducing resistance. It recognizes that change is not just an operational shift but a cultural one, requiring a holistic strategy that incorporates emotional and psychological factors to drive genuine buy-in and lasting impact.
A common mistake leaders make is they think their company has employees…
But your company doesn’t just have people, your company is your people.
That means that business changes aren’t just a change in process and strategy, but a change of hearts and minds as well.
Here’s how to apply a Change Marketing initiative that sticks.
You gather your leadership team, devise a vision for change, finalize the details, then present a finished strategy to employees. Sound familiar?
Unfortunately, this approach inevitably results in change-as-an-imposition, rather than a process that truly makes employees feel heard or involved. It’s natural for employees to question, “what’s in it for me?” when new changes are proposed, and they may fail to adopt these changes as intended.
Understanding that you don’t fully know your employees' priorities opens the door to discovering said priorities through inquiry. It’s the very first step: listening.
Lean into your bond with your employees, and hear them out to get a true sense of what they want. Make time to hold regular conversations with your employees, and draw insights that shape a change strategy in line with their actual motivations and concerns. Promote an environment of psychological safety by incorporating employee feedback.
Organizations aren’t just assets, procedures, or intellectual property. Organizations are the people.
True change occurs only when the culture within the company shifts, and this happens when employees take ownership and become proactive agents of change. Unfortunately however, apathy is an all-too-common reaction to proposed changes.
Leaders, here’s the hard truth: It’s not that your employees are lazy. It’s just that you’ve given them more work (and you haven’t explained why).
In consumer marketing, the starting assumption is that people don’t inherently care about products or services. We must tell a compelling story that aligns our offerings with what consumers value. Similarly, in organizational change, leaders should not assume employees already care. By acknowledging potential apathy, you create a narrative that connects the change initiative to employees' existing values and interests.
A change marketing strategy starts from this presumption of apathy and builds a compelling case for change by answering:
Encourage your employees to engage and become active participants in the transformation by contributing ideas and co-creating a change plan.
The execution phase is where many plans falter. Effective storytelling becomes crucial, requiring precision in written and spoken communication, visuals, experiences, and interactions.
Cultural shifts are slow, and modern audiences are discerning, quickly dismissing anything perceived as inauthentic. Crafting and consistently delivering a well-constructed message to the right audiences over time is essential. This involves meticulous writing, editing, filming, production, and promotion.
While consumer marketing routinely incorporates these practices in a go-to-market plan, change management often relies on insufficient methods like town halls and memos. To drive lasting change, we prepare a comprehensive go-to-people plan that:
The cost of investing in a thorough Change Marketing strategy pales in comparison to the losses incurred from failed initiatives. Examine your assumptions about your employees, build a case for change around their values, and weave it into their daily experience. By consistently telling your story to the right people at the right times, you persuade (rather than force) them to embrace change.
This method, though challenging, is the only proven way to truly ensure the success of your change initiatives. Over time, you’ll learn what messaging resonates best, and optimize your delivery too.
Change is inevitable, but the way you manage it can make all the difference. By embracing Change Marketing, you can transform your business from the inside out, ensuring a smoother transition and a more resilient, engaged, and motivated workforce. Start today, and witness the powerful impact of a well-executed change strategy.