Editor’s Note: This five-week series is dedicated to examining the five most common Ps of a typical marketing mix and assessing how they relate to recruitment. Today’s post focuses on placement, and next Tuesday will cover the concept of promotion. For a look at assessments on product, price and people, view my previous posts.

In marketing, placement involves getting your product or service in front of your target customers. This means selecting the right stores and determining the best place to display it – like the end of an aisle or rack, with a special stand-alone display, or within a check-out counter. The act of distributing the product and ensuring consistent supply within key markets is also involved. Marketers must estimate how much demand they can create in a certain area and supply the right amount of product to meet anticipated demand. Often, pricing strategies fluctuate with changes in placement, thereby adding another layer of complexity to strategy. Logistics – the act of physically transporting a good – must also be considered. As demands grow, additional distribution channels and manufacturing sites closer to where the product is sold are often needed to minimize transportation costs and increase speed to market.

In recruitment, talent acquisition strategists employ these same principles to sell their product: jobs. We plan placement strategies to support regional hiring – say when a new location opens or during periods of growth. To hire, a national job advertisement is often posted, along with state and local advertisements, to source talent already residing in a specific market. Other times, if the role is specific or highly specialized, job ads will be placed on niche boards to reach a defined audience of the workforce. Some geographic areas have less supply of specialized talent, so relocation costs are paid to overcome talent shortages and secure the right candidate for a job. Recruiters attend career fairs at colleges and universities known for strong academic programs to put their product in front of graduates who will have skills and education applicable to a role at the company. Other times, recruitment can resemble a commission sales model and a staffing agency is paid to help fill a job. Similar to a rebate offered to reward consumers for purchasing a good, recruitment marketers may also offer a signing bonus to candidates who accept certain jobs.

So how do you put your product in front of the right candidates at the right time?

One way is to rely on outside data. For instance, a tool like the Supply and Demand Portal shows where labor pressure is highest for key positions across the country. It helps recruiters see where the most jobs are posted for that type of position and where the most candidates reside to fill those positions. With this information, you can see where supplemental sourcing is required to successfully fill a job.

For example, say you are looking to fill a position for a software engineer in the Pacific Northwest – specifically Washington. According to data, it is harder to recruit for this job in Washington and Oregon, and the demand for talent there is significantly higher than in the Northeast. Knowing this, you will need to supplement your placement strategy to get your message out in new channels, reach a wider geographic audience, and consider paying relocation in order to effectively compete for top talent. The data also shows it is easier to recruit software engineers in New Mexico, Florida, and Louisiana; therefore, a targeted campaign could be run in those markets to attract qualified candidates to move and meet the need in Washington. Hosting job fairs at relevant universities and working directly with local IT professional groups are two simple ways to take your message straight to the audience you need to reach. Use social networks and display ads to target online messages to people in specific markets, too.

Another way to be successful in this area is to get to know the profile of your target talent inside and out. Most product and service providers know their customer (person who buys the product) and the consumer (person who ultimately uses the product) down to the nuances of their behavior. Marketers use a VALS model to understand the psychographic attributes that impact decision-making within their target audience and place products based on what that analysis reveals. An acronym for values, attitudes, and lifestyles, VALS (according to www.strategicbusinessinsights.com) asks you to bucket your customer into one of eight categories that best describes their motivation:

• Innovators
• Thinkers
• Believers
• Achievers
• Strivers
• Experiencers
• Makers
• Survivors

Recruitment marketers should think seriously about what motivates candidates when shopping for a job – or even better, which deep-seeded switches can turn on a passive candidate’s desire to make a change.

Is it desire for recognition and status, opportunity for greater pay or benefits, emphasis on work-life balance, or an employer committed to activism? Without knowing what is most critical to your ideal candidate, how will you know which qualities of your product (job and culture) to play up?  Collect this information through surveys of staff in a specific role or division. Also, purchase insights from people outside your organization, or gather anecdotal insights from ongoing interactions with candidates.

Try this exercise: Choose any opening and envision your ideal candidate. Which of the eight VALS categories does this person fit into best?  Next, use a site like Pinterest, or cut pictures out of a magazine to create an inspiration board of what specifically defines your ideal candidate. Focus on strong motivators and the characteristics of successful placements you’ve made for a job or location in the past. Think about hobbies, family profile, issues they might support, and pop culture (websites, movies, TV). Understanding what values, attitudes, and lifestyle will be a match for this job and geographic area can help you place your message in the right spot and obtain a hire that is less likely to turnover. Use what you gather to re-write the job posting so it emphasizes what is important about the job or your company. Run that job ad in geographic markets and niche sites where your desired talent lives, works, and plays. Vary the images on your branding so they reflect the lifestyle of the applicant you seek to reach – consider using your own people that fit the profile. Choose the top three defining characteristics and feature those on social media sites when promoting the opening.

Bottom line: Not all positions and the talent needed to fill them are alike. Tailor your message to your audience and play on the strengths you know will appeal to ideal applicants. After all, quality is far preferred over quantity when it comes to sourcing candidates that stick.