At my last job, I worked on a number of employer branding projects and sales pitches, and at my current gig, our recruitment advertising solutions support and strengthen our clients' employer brands. A question that has spanned both jobs is why there is such a lack of consistency in what companies call "employer branding," with a number of variations causing my confusion.
Here are some of the most common variations that I have seen:
Employer brand, employment brand, recruitment brand, talent brand
To me, only employer brand (and thus employer branding) makes total sense. The employer brand is a relationship between employees and the company, as well as a promise for what the employment experience should be like for both those employees and for job seekers. While the employer brand certainly reflects what it's like to work at a company, it represents the company itself, not the "employment."
The phrase "recruitment brand" refers to recruitment marketing, in which the employer brand is critical, and recruitment marketing campaigns certainly have themes and taglines that could be confused as a brand. But the core of those efforts - on which all else is built - is the employer brand, which sets the expectation for what working at the company will be like. It's a promise to job seekers of what they will experience as employees. If a branding effort is focused on recruitment marketing only, the actual employment experience for new hires likely will not live up to the expectations set in the recruitment process.
"Talent brand" is a newer variation that recently hit my IN box. It seems to suggest that the company's people are the central focus, rather than the employment experience. While people certainly are important to any employer brand and deliver on it every day, the brand represents much more - the company's promises to and relationships with employees, not (just) the employees themselves. And while people likely have more impact on the delivery of a company's employer brand than any other factor, they are still just one factor among many (consider benefits, meaningful work, learning and growth opportunities, work-life balance and the like).
When considering any of these variations as they come up, I always ask what the brand represents and contemplate the object of job seekers' and employees' perceptions. In almost all cases, it's the company, and thus "employer brand" makes the most sense.