When Employer Branding gradually receives more attention from leaders, many businesses have been making efforts to utilize modern Marketing tools and approach new communications trends with an aim to effectively approach target talents. How's about Word-of-Mouth Marketing? Talent Brand Vietnam had a great discussion with Mr. Robert Tran about the essential values of this tool applying to Vietnam labor market.

1. former companies, or encourage commu-
nities to discuss about operation within a
company…
2. Share customer reviews: candidates
share their feelings after interviewing,
employees share about their business in
programs such as the best working places
for partners outside the organization, or
speeches from employees who have
worked with the company for 5 years, 10
years, 20 years…
3. Get product rated on your site: get
product rated on your site: rating an
employer conducted by a third party in
term of specific criteria such as compensa-
tion & benefits, growth opportunities,
training programs… An employer just
needs to choose as an core positioning and
focus on raising awareness with a unique
keyword towards a purpose, it means
employer brand of company A is
mentioned, people with think of the
keyword of “X”.
4. Create a referral program: building
candidate referral programs, connecting
with external organizations, universities,
research institutes… or collaborate with
experts in order to conduct researches
supporting the society.
5. Connect with Key Opinion Leaders
(KOL): KOL are the people own a large
numbers of followers, therefore, their
updates and activities tend to create
significant impact with large coverage. An
example of connecting with KOL in EB is
inviting outside guest speakers to share
about effective working methods to
employees in the company. Guest speakers’
experience might not be as much as some
employees’, however, the chance to share
in a business not only helps them build
their personal brand, but also helps
introduce employer brands to their
followers.
1. Encourage user-generated content
2. Share customer reviews
3. Get product rated on your site
4. Create a referral program
5. Connect with Key Opinion Leaders
(KOL)
An effective tool for Employer
Branding that might be forgotten
In the past few years, Employer Branding
has become an indispensable part of
Human Resource strategies of business.
Regarding the potential Marketing tool
“Word-of-mouth”, Talent Brand had the
chance to discuss with Mr. Robert Tran –
CEO of RBNC in Asia, the US and Canada,
with more than 20-year experience in
business consulting for many corporates
in the world, and more than 10 years in
Employer Branding strategic advising &
training for business owners from many
different countries.
When Employer Branding gradually
receives more attention from leaders,
many businesses have been making
efforts to utilize modern Marketing
tools and approach new communica-
tions trends with an aim to effective-
ly approach target talent pool.
Among that, there is Word-of-Mouth
Marketing (WOMM), a familiar tool in
Marketing strategies with an excel-
lent result as well as low costing,
however, it is still unfamiliar in
Employer Branding and still has not
been included by Vietnamese busi-
nesses in their plans.
In the highly competitive market nowa-
days, customers have a lot of information
and well acknowledged; based on the most
recent research of RBNC about customer
and consumer behavior, it says that there
are up to 75% customers no longer believe
in advertisement. Thus, what brings
integrity or “back to basic” will gain
positive reactions from customers thanks
to its ordinality and sincerity.
WOM Marketing has existed for a long
time, but still works in modern trend of
consumers, it is a very power tool with low
cost.
To make it simple, the definition of WOM is
sharing consumer idea, comments about a
product or service , WOM is applied by 5
actions (applied to social media as a tool):
Employer Branding is using Marketing
tools to build employer brands, users are
HR and target customers are candidates,
employees, communities… Therefore,
WOM could totally be applied with specific
actions as above:
1. Encourage user-generated content:
encourage employees to share their
current feelings, or previous employees to
share about their experience in their
Mr. Robert, based on your experience
in Business Avisory for many enter-
prise around the world, which role is
WOM Marketing playing in Marketing
strategies?
If WOM brings significant values to
Sales & Marketing, then can it be
applied to HR activities and for
targeted talents?
An interview by Talent Brand Viet Nam

2. With the right mindset from business leaders about the importance of Employer Branding in general and the essential values of
WOMM tool, promisingly there will be a lot of communication campaigns in the labor market that will influence new approaches in
the near future. I hope the people who are in charge of Employer Branding strategies will continue to listen in order to understand
the need of target talent pool, as well as be open to welcome new communication trends to build effective strategies that work in
Vietnam market.
Thang Huynh - Talent Brand
Everyone can be a touch-point when
applying WOMM into Employer Branding.
Based on segmented and targeted
audience that we focus on a specific
touchpoint, it can future candidates
(potential candidates), current candidates,
employees, former employees, employees’
relatives, field experts, partners,
business’s customers…
From consulting experience for compa-
nies, if they need a touchpoint using for all
groups of audience, RBNC usually bases
on traditional habits in society, CSR
activities, signature characteristics of a
region or cultures of a country…
There are 4 Bs that I believe business must
notice when applying WOMM into
Employer Branding, which are:
1. Believe: employer must aim towards
building trust in all related groups of
audience, do not exaggerate or just
broadcasting slogans.
2. Behave: if you already believe, then all
levels in the organizations have to live and
demonstrates those values. Do not just
talk but does not follow, or just communi-
cate outside but unclear within internal.
3. Belong: when you already believe and
showcase in the whole organization,
naturally employees and candidates will
feel belonged to the organization. Your
company should organize employee
engagement activities such as:
• Teambuilding but not just outdoor fun
activities but also activities that engage
business strategies.
• CSR but not just few sponsorship or
donation but a long-term strategy
connected to main strategies.
4. Be Brand Ambassador: when employ-
ees already believe in actual values,
demonstrate them every day and feel
belonged to the organization, they are the
ambassador for employer branding.
Who can be WOMM touch-point that
employer needs to pay attention to if
they want to apply WOMM into
Employer Branding?
In your opinion, what does an employ-
er need to take into consideration in
order to successfully apply WOMM
into Employer Branding strategies?
As I have shared above,
WOMM has been an effective
tool in the global as well as
Vietnam, as from customer
behaviors research, RBNC
has defined that:
However, there are still too macro
thinking and over-emphasizing the
matter, as well as inexperience and
unrealistic consulting makes quite a lot of
HR people think WOMM strategy in
Employer Branding rather impractical. I
think in Vietnam, we should start right
from simple, ordinary values, it would be
easiest to touch our candidates and
employees.
62% of consumers search
online for reviews and
information before
purchasing a product and
71% more likely to purchase
based on social media
referrals
75% of people don't believe
advertisements, but 92%
believe brand recommen-
dations from friends
People are 4x likely to buy
when referred by friends
Thank you for your insightful sharing.
Wish you a lot of health!
From your observation, how
is the Vietnamese labor
marker and employers
applying WOMM into
Employer Branding?