"Gold! Gold! Gold from the American River!"
Samuel Brannan ran through the streets of Sacramento. He had caught wind that people were paying with gold in his shop. The yellow stuff came from James W. Marshall's lumber mill. On the reportedly crisp morning of January 24, 1849, his workers discovered the precious metal in the river while building a sawmill; 'Sutter's Mill' in California.
The gold sparked the first 'Gold Rush'; in the following months, more than 300,000 people ('forty-niners') flooded to the sunshine state, hoping to strike it rich.
Few succeeded.
The first to get rich from the gold rush? Samuel Brannan. Not because he was panning in the riverbed, but because he sold the tools needed to dig for gold to the feverish prospectors who stopped by his shop; the only one on the route to the area. Pans, shovels, pickaxes.
Another savvy group did the same with pans and picks and sold a handy other product to the workers laboring on the muddy banks of the 'American River' (yes, that’s its real name). What was it?
Trousers.
Their company?
Levi Strauss.
So, the question is: If you want to attract scarce talent, do you go to the river with everyone else to see what you can get there? Do you approach people there? Or do you step back, see where the demand is from all those heading to the river, and position yourself along the route to that goal?
The gold rush of 1848 teaches that the latter pays off. If students are trying their luck in the job market, do they pass by your company on their way? Do you have a unique offer that can help them do even better at their final destination? In other words, is there a sense of 'I must be at that company'?
If you succeed, you might not become instantly rich like a lucky few at the river, nor a broke forty-niner who tries his luck every day with an oxidized sieve at the river. But you will slowly build a strong brand.
So, know what students want, position your company along that route, loudly and clearly let them know you're there, and give students the tools to help themselves. Whether they stick with your company or not, you've given them tools they can use. They’ll remember that; that experience forms the basis for your brand.