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Last week, one of the global employment websites Monster.com rebranded itself to ‘foundit’. The development comes with an aim to add new functionalities and target the new age job market. It aims to use artificial intelligence (AI) and data and analytics to serve related roles to the users.
Currently, the platform serves more than 70 million job seekers, with 10,000 corporate customers spread globally across 18 countries. The new brand name would be reflected in SEA, India as well as Middle-East businesses. The company said that the process had been in the works since Quess acquired Monster, but got delayed due to the pandemic and other reasons.
According to the statistics for websites that use job board technologies, Naukri.com stands as the most popular one in the category. The data provider built with mentions that there are 384 live websites that are using Monster, along with eight websites in India. With the rebranding, Monster surely looks to regain top position in the recruitment and job hiring market.
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Unfortunately, the rebranding backfires
While the intent for rebranding seems legit, the recent Monster India employees posting fake resignation on Linkedin and later announcing a rebranding for the platform did not resonate well with netizens, and sparked mixed emotions.
Citing Marico rebranding from Bombay Oil, Former Ogilvy, Flipkart and Edelman exec Karthik Srinivasan said that Monster.com also went a similar route.
He said when Bombay Oil changed its name to Marico, “this ad screamed “200 employees walk out of Bombay Oil” (agency: Trikaya Grey),” shared Srinivasan, “But the ad quickly goes on to explain that those 200 employees are now part of a new company called ‘Marico’ before anyone could take it seriously.”
Srinivasan asked readers to imagine the 200 Marico employees telling their friends and families that they are no longer employed with Bombay Oil and they also do not respond to concerned, surprised, or supportive questions from friends and family. “The next day, they inform friends and family that they are now employed with Marico, what they said yesterday was just for fun. Sounds nuts?,” concurred Srinivasan, explaining that that’s exactly what Monster/Foundit pulled off in the name of a marketing gimmick.
He said that they need not have gone this way at all. “All they needed to ask employees was to change their current employer to foundit (choose Foundit India as employer) and Linkedin would automatically announce that to their networks. But, the company chose to ask employees to patently lie as a renaming gimmick,” said Srinivasan, calling Monster’s campaign deceptive and unethical, pointing at his blog post.
Monster’s new avatar focuses on AI and Analytics
Similar to LinkedIn, the revamped platform will add more new age offerings, with the help of existing databases for recommendations. Garissa said that foundit will use AI-based recommendations to showcase jobs to candidates—providing personalised services like mock interviews and pep materials—along with curating a list of prospective candidates for recruiters.
Quess Corp founder Ajit Isaac said that the business provider acquired the platform with a vision to transform the white-collar talent. As organisations experienced the Great Resignation and the Great Regret in recent years, it has led to hiring at an unprecedented rate. Isaac believes that as the market is now settling, hiring is going to get sharper, skill-based, and focused.
