I got back from Austin, Texas recently. My parents live there, and it was part of our vacation route.
Aside from the family bonding, the 100-plus temps and the Tex-Mex delicacies, my favorite part of being in Austin is experiencing the various employment-related advertising. Obviously, Cleveland isn’t quite the hotbed of activity that is Austin, so it’s a point-of-view I rarely get.
The ad that stood above the others this trip was Monster’s message-of-the-moment. In contrast to CareerBuilder’s "monkey business" ads which have been running since the Super Bowl (if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, I guess), Monster seems to be reaching for something that’ll stick.
The latest Monster ads tout … drum roll please … resume postings. Yep, resume postings. Talk about blast from the past.
Job boards haven’t pushed resumes en mass since the ’90s. Remember "Our resume database can beat-up your resume database"?
But soon after the bottom fell out of the economy and everyone was drowning in a flood of candidates, marketing switched from quantity to quality.
So, what’s changed?
Is the economy back? Is Austin that hot? Maybe.
But I have another guess: Competing with free.
With the cost of a job posting quickly going to zero, Monster’s in a position of having to play to its strengths and search engine’s current weaknesses: A huge database of registered users.
By pushing resume postings and user accounts, I believe Monster is looking to build an unparalleled pool of records that can be utilized for building profits that don’t rely so much on job postings. I’m talkin’ targeted, customized e-mails, RSS feeds, mobile technology, new services and the like.
As the revenues from job postings diminish, Monster is going to be all about leveraging that ‘monstrous’ database. As always, what’s past is prologue.
Popularity: 3% [?]
September 28th, 2005 at 7:26 am
I see a link between your post and Google approaching to classifieds.
See PaidContent: http://www.paidcontent.org/pc/arch/2005_09_27.shtml#051569
All the best!
D.
September 28th, 2005 at 10:16 am
As the owner of my own niche job boards I do see value in collecting resume’s. The job seekers who post also become a source of revenue if you can leverage them via job search products like resume services. I still think the value of posting one’s resume is greatly diminished however. Especially in monsters vast database it becomes a needle in a haystack. Employers still crave quality over anything else.
September 28th, 2005 at 12:42 pm
Monster.com does let you post your resume for free, but it is certainly not free for employers to search their database. For example, here is one of their basic packages: $500 provides 2 weeks for the employer to access up to 400 resumes within a 100 mile radius of a specified location.
September 28th, 2005 at 5:23 pm
I was just listening to a memo of mine asking if there are people paying to Use Monster’s database for competitive intelligence. Certainly there is great information there from references to what projects companies are working on to what companies use what technologies in a marketplace. If there is a need, a Monster expert might find themselves hired up to perform competitive intelligence on, well competitors.