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Change isn't just inevitable — now it's accelerating at an unprecedented pace. With 96% of organizations currently undergoing major transformation and 75% expecting even more change in the next three years, the question isn't whether change will come, but how successfully you'll navigate it. The sobering reality? Nearly 70% of workplace changes fail, making the stakes higher than ever for getting it right.
In our recent From Day One webinar, “Constant Change in the Workplace: Getting It Right With Change Marketing", LOCAL's Co-Founder and President Neil Bedwell, and Head of Strategy Kathya Acuña, shared our Change Marketing™ approach — a proven methodology that treats every employee as a customer — with more than 300 senior people leaders. Drawing from their decade of experience with Fortune 500 companies that’s impacted nearly 3 million employees, Neil and Kathya revealed why most transformations fail and how to turn that around.
1. Marketing is a Mindset, Not a Department
Marketing isn't advertising or campaigns — it's a way of thinking that puts the customer at the center of everything. As Neil explained, "Marketing means being customer-centric," and this mindset shift is the foundation for successful change initiatives.
2. Employees Are Your First Customers, Not Resources
A paycheck may guarantee attendance, but it doesn't buy emotional engagement. As Neil emphasized, "Paying someone doesn't mean that they'll care. And caring about something is what determines our behavior." You have to earn that emotional buy-in.
3. Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast — And Initiatives for Lunch
Culture isn't created by leaders, but by employees among themselves. It’s what people do when no one is looking. Understanding this existing culture is essential because it's the foundation upon which you build any new initiative. If you haven't assessed that landscape, your house won't stand.
4. Change Happens "With" People, Not "To" Them
Companies want to force change on people, but employees experience it as an imposition happening "to" them. As Kathya explained, the key is flipping this dynamic, saying, “I'm giving you the opportunity to buy in, to participate and co-create this change with me."
5. Focus on What People Care About, Not What Matters to You
Picture everyone having a mental parking lot with only 20 spaces to fit the things they care about — family, friends, community. Your change initiative may not get its own spot, but helping people find purpose and impact at work might. That's your way in.
6. Utilize Change Marketing™'s Three-Step Process: Insight, Story, Craft
Insight means understanding the problem from your audience's perspective. Strategic storytelling involves creating opportunities for people to own the change. Craft focuses on creating content and experiences people actually want to engage with.
7. Think of Your Change as a Product
If your change was a product, you'd ask: “What is it? Why is it good? How does it work?” Apply those same questions to your initiatives, then identify your buyers — who they are, what they care about, and why they would buy it.
8. Find the Bright Spots and Make Them Heroes
People are already talking positively about aspects of your change. Listen to them — they'll tell you what others need to hear, too. Find employees already displaying desired behaviors and make them heroes: "Don't listen to the boss. This is Jeff. Be like Jeff."
9. Meet Your Audience Where They Are
Americans check their phones 344+ times per day. If that's where your employees are, go mobile-first. As Kathya noted about one client's communication approach: "When we actually met the frontline teams in that business, we asked them what they thought of town halls. Their response was, ‘What's a town hall?’"
10. Solve for Specific Pain Points and Acknowledge What You Can't Fix
Listen to both supporters and resisters. Find specific areas of friction and address them in your story. You don't have to solve every problem, but acknowledging real world challenges builds credibility and trust.
Watch the full webinar below to dive deeper into LOCAL's Change Marketing™ methodology and see these principles in action.
These insights represent a fundamental shift from traditional change management to a marketing-driven approach that puts employees first, and it’s one that works. Real client examples — from a learning program that went from ignored to CEO-celebrated, to a leadership development initiative that achieved 12% engagement improvement versus 3% company-wide — show that Change Marketing™ delivers measurable results. Companies with engaged employees see 23% higher profitability, 18% higher productivity, and 51% less staff turnover. When you get employee engagement right, it becomes rocket fuel for every part of your business.
Take the next step:
Remember: most people care a great deal — they just have limited capacity for what they care about. The question is: are you helping your change initiative earn a spot in their mental parking lot? With Change Marketing™, you can.
