What’s Wrong With “Kelly Girls” as a Brand Position?

In a recent Workforce Recruiting article, the author speaks to Kelly Services Execs regarding the company’s desire to separate its brand away from the traditional Kelly Girl image that has stuck to them like Gorilla Glue.   I always find it interesting when companies try so desperately to shed an old image or slogan - spending so many resources in the process – but in the end not much has changed in the customer’s perception.  Why is it we get so scared of that which we’ve created?

Personally, I think it really has a lot to do with marketing departments and egos – and not egos of the marketing department, more to do with egos of the new senior leadership teams that are currently in power, and the marketing department not putting a stop to it.  I can just hear it in the meeting at Kelly HQ – CEO, “We can’t be seen as Kelly Girls anymore.  People won’t see our breadth of services we offer and we’ll lose market share to Manpower, Addecco, Allegis, Spherion, Randstad, Robert Half, et al.”

You might recall the 1990 movie “Crazy People” starring Dudley Moore as a burnt out advertising executive whose mental breakdown lands him in a psychiatric hospital.  With time on his hands, the Dudley Moore character quickly recovers his mental health and is inspired to make truthful advertisements.  These slogan’s are probably the lasting legacy of the movie:

• “Buy Volvos. They’re boxy but they’re good.”
• “Forget Paris. Come to Greece. We’re nicer,” for a Greek travel agency
• “Come… in the Bahamas” for the island nation’s national tourism board
•  For the movie The Freak, “It won’t just scare you, it will f@#k you up for life!”

The movie is a perfect example of what can go wrong with a corporation’s own self examination of its brand and image.  There is nothing wrong with the Kelly Girl image. Heck, I would argue that it might be the one true differentiator that they have.  If Kelly’s executives think that corporate HR Pros don’t know who they are, or at worst still believe HR Pros think they are the 1950′s image of the Kelly Girl’s in these ads: here and here – they are sorely mistaken and not giving credit to HR departments around the world!  I know the staffing industry in general likes to think corporate HR types are idiots, but this is one huge example of a staffing company basically spending millions of dollars to educate people like they are idiots.

Why wouldn’t Kelly just want to give us an updated image and view of what the 2009 “Kelly Girl” looks like?  In my mind it could be a win-win for Kelly and the lasting image.  I don’t know about you, but I work with and have worked for some extremely talented females who have proven over time to be great business leaders and some of the sharpest minds in the world. Couldn’t that be the 2009 version of the Kelly (Girl) Woman?