Strategic Communication

Strategic communication

Agenda

What is Communication?

• Strategic communication

• Corporate communication

• Roles of the company and the agencies

What is Branding?

How to build a Communication Strategy and an integrated Communication Plan?

Strategic communication

Communication strategy is part of the strategy of the company

Using communication effectively, it creates new business

Including the promotion-part of 4 p/s

Corporate communication

It is a message issued by a corporate organization, or institute to its publics. Public can be both internal employees, stakeholders, share and stock holders) or external (agencies, channel partners, media, industry institutes, educational and general public).

Must communicate the same message to all stakeholders to transmit coherence, creditability and ethic.

Help organization explain their mission, vision, values into cohesive message to stakeholders.

A corporate communication structure is a system which enables organizations to strategically orchestrate all types of communication.

Different types of communications

• Management communications

• Communications between management and its internal and external audiences.

• Marketing communications

• Advertising, direct mail, personal selling, promotions, sponsorship...

• Organizational communication

• Public relations, public affairs, investor relations, environmental communications, corporate advertising, employee communication

• = > Corporate communication implies a coherent approach to development of communications in organizations, so communication specialists can standardize communications by creating a common strategic framework

The responsibilities of corporate

communication• Corporate branding: to flesh out the profile of the ”company

behind the brand”.

• To minimize discrepancies between the company’s desired identity and brand features.

• To delegate tasks in communication.

• To formulate and execute effective procedures to make decisions on communication matters.

• To mobilize internal and external support for corporate objectives.

• To coordinate with international business firms.

Communicating with key stakeholders

• Most companies have created specialized departments responsible for

• Internal communications

• Marketing communications

• Investor Relations

• Government Relations

• Public relations

Internal communication

Responsible for communicating with employees, that frequently interfaces with the human resources function in a company ( It is a legal requirement for organizations to communicate with their members)

Tho role is to build a corporate culture on values that drive organizational excellence.

• Efficiency: sharing information about corporate activities

• Share meaning: building a shared understanding among employees about corporate goals

• Connectivity: building connectivity among people

• Satisfaction: improving job satisfaction

Marketing communications

• Responsible for communicating with the company’s customer accounts and often interfaces with marketing and customer service functions in the company.

• Advertising, direct mail, personal selling, promotions, sponsorship, social media...

• Internal marketing

Investor Relations

• Responsible for communicating with investors and analysts who monitor company’s financial performance an prospects.

• The role of investor relations is to fulfill 3 function:

• Comply with regulations

• Create a favorable relationship with key financial audiences

• Contribute to building and maintaining the company’s image and reputation

Government Relations

• Often called ”public affairs”

• Responsible for improving the company’s relationship with regulators, legislators and other government representatives.

Public Relations

• Responsibilities would include interacting with the diffuse of Non-governmental Organization and activist groups by concern over a specific social problem to which the company may be contributing.

• The role of PR-specialists is to communicate with the general public in ways that serve the interests of the company.

• Includes sponsorships, events, issues management an media relations.

• Company/ spokesperson profiling

• Managing corporate websites, publications (annual reports...)

Corporate Branding

• Internal perception of a company that units a group of products or services for the public under a single name, shared visual identity and a common set of symbols.

• The process of corporate branding consists creating favorable associations and positive reputation with internal and external stakeholders.

• The purpose is to generate positive halo over the products and businesses of the company.

• Reputation.

Corporate Identity

• It is the reality and uniqueness of an organization, which is integrally related to its external and internal image and reputation through corporate communication.

• Four types of identity ca be distinguished

• Perceived identity: collection of attributes in the eyes of its members

• Projected identity: the self presentations of the attributes

• Desired identity: ideal identity.

• Applied identity: all the signals that an organizations broadcasts consciously or unconsciously

Corporate social responsibility

• Constitutes a organization’s respect for society’s interests.

• Three levels of sustainability

Crisis Communications

• An organization has to build a crisis communication strategy to protect and defend an individual, company or organization facing public challenge to its reputation.

The relationship between the company and the agencies

(advertising, PR and media)

Company’s responsibilities and

expectations-> What?• Strategic briefing -> business

understanding, objectives, budget

• Campaign briefing

• starting point, background, challenges, objectives, budget, measure

• Confidential relationship, business partner

• Expect value creation

Ad agencies functions - HOW?

• Creating value -> consumer understanding

• Business partner

• Communication/ campaign strategy

• Positioning, Inside, Promise, Big idea

• Production

Media agency’s functions - Where?

• Strategic partner for building media strategy and media planning

• Buying media, where to reach the target audience

• Co-operation with ad agency

PR agency functions

• Strategic partner in public relations

• Training CEOs and managers how to be the spokesmen of the company

• Help to get articles into the newspapers and magazines -> product communications

• Help to build relationship with the press

How to choose an agency?

• Find out the size of the agency.

• To check if they are members of any professional associations.

• To ask what media they specialize in and if they have any particular creative strategies they prefer to use.

• To examine their past campaigns and work and find out how successful they were.

• To look at their types of clients, past and present

• To ask about the main people who will be working on your account and their track record.

• To see if they have any experience of working for your type of business and if they understand the competition in your field.

• To check how they asses a campaign’s effectiveness.

• To get an estimate of their fees and what’s included

• To take up references from their clients if possible

What is branding?

Branding

• Brand has been identified as a method of differentiation in marketing.

• A brand is created by augmenting a core product with distinctive values that distinguish it from the competition. -> the process of creating value.

• Successful brands are those that deliver added values in addition to the core benefits.

Brand Name and Identity

• Name has to be registered -> registered trademarks

• Brand identity is the outward expression of a brand, including its name, trademark, communications and visual appearance.

• Identity reflects how the owner wants the consumer to perceive the brand - this is in contrast to the brand image, which is to the a customer’s mental picture of a brand.

• The brand owner will seek the bridge the gap between the brand image and the brand identity.

Name and identity

• Effective brand names build a connexion between the brand personality.

• The brand name should be conceptually on target with the product/ service.

• Brand identity is fundamental to consumer recognition and symbolizes the brand’s differentiation from competitors.

• Brand identity needs to focus on authentic qualities - real characteristics of the value and brand promise being provided and sustained by organizational and/ or production characteristics.

Brand Awareness

• Brand awareness refers to customers’ ability to recall and recognize the brand under different conditions and link to the brand name, logo, jungles and so on to certain associations in memory.

• It helps the customers to understand to which product or service category the particular brand belongs and what products are sold under the brand name.

• ”Brand love” is an emerging term encompassing the perceived value of the brand image. (facebook fan)

How to measure brand awareness and

notability?

• Spontaneous awareness

• Top of mind awareness

• Assisted awareness

Brand Promise

• The marketer and owner of the brand has a vision of what the brand must be and do for the consumers.

• Brand promise is what a particular brand stands for.

• The best brand promises are relevant for the consumers (create loyalty) and differs from the competitors.

Brand Strategy

• Different firms have different policies on the branding on their products.

• While Nokia puts its brand name on a great diversity of products, Procter & Gamble, on the opposite extreme, maintains a separate brand name for each product.

• Three basic brand strategies:

• Single Brand (Nokia)

• ”Umbrella Brand” (VW Golf, VW Polo)

• Multi brand (Procter & Gamble)

Brand Extension

• In general, the use of brand extensions should be evaluated on the basis of the compatibility of various products - can the same brand name represent different products without conflict or confusion?

• Coca Cola light (saccharin aftertaste - nutra sweet)

• The research shows the consumers are more receptive to brand extension when

• the company appears to have the expertise to make the product

• the products are congruent (compatible)

• the brand extension is not as being exploitative of high quality brand name

A Global Brand

• Reflects the same set of values around the world.

• Sold in international markets.

• Benefits of global branding

• Economies of scale

• Lower marketing costs

• Maintaining consistent brand image

• Quicker identification and integration of innovations

• Increasing international media reach

A Global Brand

• The following elements may differ from country to country

• Corporate slogan

• Products and services

• Product names

• Product features

• Positionings

• Marketing mixes

A Global Brand

• The differences will depend on:

• Language and other cultural differences

• Different styles of communication

• Differences in category and brand development

• Different consumption patterns

• Different competitive sets and marketplace conditions

• Different legal and regulatory environments

• Different national approaches to marketing

Co-Branding

• Involves firms using two or more brands together to maximize appeal to consumers.

• Have to be win-win situation for both brand

• Negotiation is not always easy.

Positioning

• Positioning is a process of designing a company’s offer and image so that it occupies a distinct and valued place in the mind of consumer.

• The objective of positioning a product, is to make sure that it occupies a certain place in mind of the consumer, differentiating it from competition.

• The system is based on the concept that communication can only take place at the right time and under the right circumstances.

Positioning and successful firms

• Operationally excellent firms

• A strong competitive advantage by maintaining exceptional efficiency -> provide reliable service to customer at a significantly lower cost than those of less well organized and well run competitors.


• Customer intimate firms

• They excel in serving the specific needs of the individual customer well.

• Less emphasis on efficiency.


• Technologically excellent firms

• Produce the most advanced products currently available with the latest technology, constantly maintaining leadership in innovation.

Repositioning

• Involves an attempt to change consumer perception of a brand, usually because the existing position has become less attractive.

• It is usually difficult and needs lots of money.

Issues for the successful future branding

• Building emotional connection is and will be a key

• The dialogue between brands and their customer is replacing the traditional marketing monologue

• Brands will focus more on creating the total customer experience and create customer experience with the customer. The role of internet is crucial.

• For larger organizations, customer relationship management will be critical

• Hiring right people, CEOs involved in brand strategy formulation

• Organization mission, vision and core values will increasingly be formulated along with brand essence, promise and personality.

How to build a Communication Strategy and an integrated Communication Plan?

Integrated marketing communication

• IMC is the coordination and integration of all marketing communication tools, avenues, functions and sources within a company into a seamless program that maximizes the impact on consumers and other end users at a minimal cost.

• This management concept is designed to make all aspects of marketing communication such as advertising, sales promotion, public relations, and direct marketing work together as a unified force, rather than permitting each to work in isolation.

Communication plan

• What you want to accomplish (your objectives and budget)

• Ways in which those objectives can be accomplished (your goals or program of work)

• To whom (your audiences)

• How you will accomplish your objectives (the tools and timetable)

• How you will measure the results of your program (evaluation)

Analyzing the present situation

- Markets- The needs of costumers- Own brand- Competition, critical factors for success- Target audience of the brand- SWOT

Target position

- Product/ service description from the consumers point of view, the mission of the brand- Business objectives, the vision of the brand- Relevant differentiation- Positioning- Brand personality

The functions of the company- Objectives- Marketing strategy

Marketing communications- Objectives- Target audience- Conclusion to creative work: Vision, Promise, big ida

PR- Objectives- Target audience

- internal and external communications

Integrated communication plan- what, why, to whom, how, when, where...- Tools: PR, advertising, social media, ...- Budget- Measurement