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Archive for the ‘Integrated Marketing’ Category

Lesson 81 A Culture of “Connection”

Posted in Branding, Integrated Marketing, Internal Politics, Lessons Learned on October 7, 2011| Leave a Comment »

This week I attended a workshop led by the co-founders of E Pluribus Partners about the immense power of developing a “culture of connection” inside every organization. 

The E Pluribus partners have aggregated research findings from psychology, psychiatry, sociology, organizational development, and neuroscience to demonstrate how “a feeling of strong connection between management, employees and customers provides a competitive advantage.”  In fact, they argue that without this strong connection people “will never reach their potential as individuals, nor will the organization.”  I was most especially interested in their reference to connection with “customers.” 

Call them customers, clients, students, donors, or supporters of any kind, as I listened I found myself thinking:  “Whatever happened to customer service?” 

 At one time in our profession we talked abundantly about how a happy customer became repeat customers, attracted other customers, and were the best ambassadors we could ever hope to have for telling and retelling our story.  We demonstrated how cost-effective it was to build strong loyalties rather than to focus mostly on constantly finding new business. Then airlines began to treat us as captive revenue units who needed them more than they needed us, and our banks made calling them on the phone a matter of talking to a whole series of automated impersonal recordings with little chance of ever getting through to a real person. Indeed, organizations of all types drove us to their websites, where even there it was impossible to find the email address or direct phone number of a real person. Alas, genuine connections for the most part have given way to digital, impersonal efficiencies, and human trust and meaningful  relationships have all too often been lost.

In the end, however, I was encouraged during this workshop to realize that all the writing I have been doing here over the past year about the power of integration and the use of group process has been right on the mark. Using orchestrated group interaction to get “everyone on the same page” with respect to vision and values, and inspiring  people to use a common voice in telling the story, is also building the strong “connections” with the customers and constituents we will need to give our organizations a meaningful and powerful competitive advantage. 

Building connections, then, is truly what integrated and relationship marketing is all about. So, I suggest you look into the work and writing of  the partners at:  www.EPluribusPartners.com

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Lesson 78 Meanings Are In People

Posted in Integrated Marketing, International, Lessons Learned, Planning, Strategic Communication on September 17, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Once in a while those of us who work in the field of strategic communication must stop and remind ourselves that we do not ever really send complete messages to audiences.  Rather, we make a “sign,” or “noise,” that pulls a previously established meaning out of each person’s brain.

For example, when I say the word “dog” I am only making a funny noise. The receiver attributes  a meaning to that “noise” out of  prior experience. For dog lovers, that noise will bring a pleasant impression. For those who see dogs as dirty animals, or threatening to their safety, it will be a negative impression.  One of my students offered: “For me today, that word reminds me of a bad date I had last night.”

It is a bit depressing sometimes to realize that each and  every word we use is processed in this way by each individual.  Therefore, it is only where our experiences completely overlap that effective communication can take place.  The further apart our geographic and cultural experience, the less likely we will completely understand each other. No wonder communication across economic levels, ethnic cultures, and nationalities is so complicated.

The lesson here is clear: It is essential for the sender and receiver to know each other as thoroughly as possible before attempting serious communication. “Experience overlap” must take place so that each “noise ,” or “sign,” will have the same meaning to both parties.  Wherever possible, finding opportunities to create this overlap with our target audiences should become a part of our overall strategic communication plan. This reality also underscores the critical importance of  message feedback and repetition, thereby establishing dialogue and giving us an opportunity to correct misunderstandings.

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Lesson 77 Repetition and Management

Posted in Branding, Integrated Marketing, Leadership, Lessons Learned on September 9, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Managers and consultants often face the awkward and frustrating moment in a meeting when staff members or clients seem to have forgotten all they knew about how to make the institution competitive. 

Many times you have identified the message points and design elements essential for advancing the institution’s brand. You have gone over and over the group processes necessary to get everyone on the same page, and working together as a team. You thought everyone certainly understood the importance of staying focused on action priorities.

Then, suddenly, the head designer shows the staff work so far off the mark you wonder where it came from!  Draft copy is circulated for review that goes off on a tangent, and never reinforces the brand identity. You say to yourself: “What can they be thinking? Who are these people?”  

At moments like this you can feel very silly. This is a staff meeting, not a classroom.  You feel that you need to become their teacher more than their manager. Now you must go over all of the fundamentals still another time. Do you work on these issues together, or must you constantly roll out another lecture?  And what’s more, isn’t it actually pretentious of you to keep shifting into a teaching mode with professional colleagues?

I have found that reviewing the basics of marketing and strategic communication with professional staff is much the same as repeating advertisements with audiences.  Just when you are getting tired of the repetition yourself, your audience is only beginning to understand.

Managers and consultants simply must review the basics periodically, whether or not it seems pretentious. Special staff meetings or retreats offer perfect opportunities. Bringing in a resource expert to help you can be effective. Whatever approach you follow, there is no doubt in my mind that once in a while a “marketing and communication 101” inspirational lecture will be required!

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Lesson 76 Education in World Problem-Solving

Posted in Integrated Marketing, International, Leadership, Lessons Learned, Public Affairs on September 3, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Conversations in Washington this week once again had me thinking about the exciting potential of international higher education. I recalled how each time I have experienced the coming together of teachers, students, administrators, and others from various parts of the world, I have witnessed a sincere collective curiosity about cultural, religious, class, ethic, political, and historical differences. And I must say, in these settings I have never seen these differences lead to dangerous hostility and conflict. Rather, they almost always lead to new friendships, projects and ideas.

I therefore firmly believe that international higher education is one of our world’s best forms of public diplomacy.  Public diplomacy, for me, is simply defined as people-to-people communication.  It is the people of one culture coming together with people of another for the purpose of common understanding.  It is the ultimate form of using a “soft-power” strategy as an effective alternative to “hard power” conflict. 

This belief led to some very compelling conversations this week about the potential of bringing together university presidents, scholars, public policy leaders, journalists, ministers of education, corporate leaders, and others to discuss what universities can contribute to solving such world problems as poverty, disease, food production, water shortages, energy, cyber crime, and more.

The anticipation of the aftermath of revolts in Libya, Egypt, and elsewhere, also raises the question of what role  educational institutions might play in nation-building, economic development, and global leadership preparation.  Meeting the world’s workforce needs, as well as our needs for experienced international problem-solving oriented managers and executives, is clearly a big challenge ahead for our institutions.

Higher education is becoming a global enterprise, no doubt about it. Every institution in every country will face the internationalization of its student recruitment, faculty scholarship, research orientation, curriculum content, and financial support.  A “sea change” is coming in this industry, and it is truly exciting to imagine what all this change might mean for world problem-solving, and for the ultimate achievement of peace on earth.

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Lesson 75 Being Misunderstood

Posted in Branding, Integrated Marketing, Internal Politics, Lessons Learned, Strategic Communication on August 27, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Being misunderstood is one of the most frustrating feelings anyone can experience.  It certainly is true for professional communicators. Yet, it happens almost daily. In fact, I have been known to comment that there is no such thing as a communication expert. There are only people who work at doing it systematically every day.

Experience has taught me that as much as fifty percent of every message  is lost.  A receiver can only process so much information, and selective perception determines which fifty percent is remembered.  Noise interruptions, from technical problems to attention distractions, also make it difficult to process entire messages. Based on this same reality, I argued in a previous blog that people only hear what they want. So what can we do to improve understanding?

I suggest thinking about shaping important message content around seven steps: (1) Get your receivers’ attention before sending any message. (2) Tell them your main purpose up front. (3) Limit your message to a few main points. (4) Give an example or tell a story to substantiate each one. (5) Conclude by summarizing your key points and purpose. (6) Build in the most efficient feedback process you can.  (7) Respond to whatever feedback you get, and resend your message.

The closer communication can become actual dialogue, the more effective it will be.  And, the more distance and noise  (including technology) there is between sender and receiver, the less effective communication will be. In these cases, you must keep your message as simple as possible, and repeat it as often as you can. In the final analysis, we all must anticipate breakdown, and just keep going.  The advantage we professionals  have is that we do it everyday, and therefore are able to continually repeat and reinforce our most critical messages.

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Lesson 74 How to Change Minds

Posted in Integrated Marketing, Lessons Learned, Planning, Strategic Communication on August 20, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Lesson 73 is that people generally hear what they want to hear, and that contrary arguments actually reinforce already held beliefs. So when setting out to change how people are thinking, what should professional communicators do?

First, know that it will take time, and will often not  be successful. This is why grassroots politics centers around using those who are already on your side to work with those who are already undecided. Minds rarely change, and when they do it’s at the end of a long process. Most of us have come to our opinions as a result of our interactive experiences at work, with friends, with family, and over time.  We tend to think like those with whom we have been interacting on a regular basis. And today we even tend to make media choices that reinforce what we already believe. Thinking differently almost always requires a substantially changed message environment for a sustained period of time.

But if you are still determined to make the effort to persuade, you must begin by raising provocative questions. The more questions I have to confront the more likely I will become confused.  And when I am confused, I will become extremely uncomfortable.  Psychologists call this state “cognitive dissonance.”   In that state, I become psychologically compelled to reconstruct my belief system. It’s the only way I can regain my sense of well-being.

It will take a deluge of new influences to orchestrate this state of cognitive dissonance. It best happens when new thinking people appear in my immediate environment, and new message points assault me from a new set of media sources.  But even then, not all minds will change. Making the effort,  however, is a legitimate form of strategic communication and honest persuasion. 

This process, admittedly, is a form of brainwashing.  But brainwashing as we sometimes find it in militaries and concentration camps is different. It is accompanied by brutal techniques to wear down resistance by producing physical and mental exhaustion. Changes in thinking produced like this almost always disappear later on.

The type of brainwashing we find in politics today is different, but some of it can also be questionable. Many of the consistently repeated message points are untrue or misleading.  And when misleading messages bombard people repeatedly and consistently, are repeated by influencers in the immediate community, and are accompanied with confusion producing questions, the messages can begin to sound true. This is dangerous and irresponsible.

Our responsibility as professional communicators is to use our mind changing processes and tools cautiously, responsibly and honestly. Then, we must make additional efforts to help educate the public about the new realities of the 24/7 polarized world.

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Lesson 73 People Hear What They Want to Hear

Posted in Integrated Marketing, Internal Politics, Leadership, Lessons Learned, Public Affairs on August 13, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Listening to all of the political rhetoric this week I kept thinking about how often I would tell my undergraduate students over the years about the practical lessons we must learn from communication theory study and research findings. One of the most important lessons is just how selective our perception can be.

One of my favorite examples was to demonstrate that when a committed democrat hears a well crafted speech by a strong republican, the democrat invariably becomes a better democrat.. and vice versa. This is because our natural tendency is to argue in our minds with what we are hearing so as to reinforce what we already believe. Changing our minds rarely happens.  Rather, we end up finding new ways to strengthen our long-held positions.

There was a period of time a number of years ago when several universities ended their debate programs.  Some of the academics felt that communication studies should examine how communication can help solve problems, and that debating mostly ended in polarizing arguments… leading ultimately to communication breakdown.  Today, competitive debate programs have been reinstated in some institutions. But critics will still argue that the most successful debaters are the extreme fast talkers and most polarized thinkers, and that winning the day by taking extreme positions, and making the most noise,  is the wrong lesson to learn.

My experience has led me to think a two-step process is required: First, I suggest that debating is helpful when it is defined upfront as “an exercise” to clarify all the viable positions. When the debate is complete, however, there is another set of collaborative decision-making communication skills necessary for progress to be made. The critical second step, and only way forward, is to use group process facilitation to find the best elements of each position, define an initial step forward, and then make needed adjustments as experience dictates.

Debate, followed by facilitated decision-making, is how the best organizations move ahead. And I believe it is the only constructive way forward for the U.S. political system as well.

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Lesson 70 Adapting Integrated Concepts

Posted in Integrated Marketing, Lessons Learned on July 22, 2011| 1 Comment »

This week I met with a group of boarding school advancement professionals to discuss integrated marketing. I had been looking forward to it because I have become acutely aware of how these schools are facing some of the same competitive and global forces that are facing universities.  Indeed, we all are a part of the same education industry, and greater connection and collaboration between us no doubt will benefit everyone.

These schools come in many types and sizes–smaller, with few staff and other resources, and larger with more of each. Universities come in many varieties as well.  So my presentation premise was that I could cover virtually the same material I do with universities, and that these independent school professionals would be able to adapt  the basic concepts  to  each of their specific situations.

I presented basic ideas about the importance of a clear brand identity, and the need to clarify competitive advantage. I talked about why specific markets must be targeted using each one’s preferred media.  We then discussed how using multiple tactics simultaneously would “converge” on each market target and cut through mass media clutter.  We explored how group process can be used to get supporters inside and out “on the same message page,” and why leaders at all levels must “walk-the-talk” to inspire word-of-mouth support and establish a positive image.

Reflecting on my premise, as well as on my meeting this week, I must say that I believe more than ever that most any kind of organization will find that an integrated approach to marketing is the most effective  pathway they can choose to long-term, sustained institutional advancement.

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Lesson 69 Working with Creative People

Posted in Integrated Marketing, Lessons Learned on July 15, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Circumstances this week caused me to reflect on what I have learned about leading and managing the work of creative professionals. I recalled strong feelings of fear that my peer colleagues might not like what my staff just produced, and would think less of me. Or, important trustees, or donors, or community leaders, might react badly to what they saw, and that my professional judgment would come under question.  Getting comfortable with executive level marketing and communication pressures takes time.

I learned the hard way that creative people cannot be micro-managed.  To do this turns off their creativity, and renders them unproductive.  Likewise, if they work without guidelines, the result will be no results at all.  So, what should you do?

First, you should establish a creative team-building process up front that clarifies general expectations and guidelines. Second, you must accept the challenge of constantly educating your colleagues and target audiences about how your profession achieves long-term results. 

You can give editors and writers a set of branding themes that you want reinforced in feature stories over time.  You can also ask them to give you a heads-up on anything controversial so you can collaborate in advance on “approaches” to the story.  In this way, you build a relationship based on respect.   Then, you should not feel a strong need to edit the editor’s or writer’s work.  Glitches will occur, but even those that seem major will have minor long-term effect.

You should give artists plenty of information about each piece’s communication objective, as well as known expectations of intended audiences. This should be done long before they ever sit down at the computer.  Good designers can then come up with good ideas to consider.  If they start to design too soon, their work inevitably will be off the mark, and not effective.     

You should identify what communication materials exist primarily to promote only positive stories and people. These are referred to as “vanity” publications.  And you should also identify those that require journalistic integrity in order to establish broad audience credibility… usually this list includes the university magazine. It’s important for these audiences to understand that they might not always like what the writer reports, but credibility only comes with a measure of editorial independence.

It is not easy to manage creative professionals. It is not the same as managing a group of office workers. It requires leading by making expectations and guidelines clear in advance, by supporting and explaining the work of creative writers and artists, and by educating colleagues and important audiences on why you go about your work the way you do.

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Lesson 66 Writing and Designing for Innovation

Posted in Branding, Integrated Marketing, Leadership, Lessons Learned, Planning on June 25, 2011| Leave a Comment »

An innovative “look” begins with an inspired vision that is anchored in actual institutional strengths, connected to current market needs and trends, and consistently articulated by all levels of leadership.  That accomplished, imaginative writing style and design play essential supportive roles.

Writing these days must be crisp, concise and adapted to the characteristics of each new technology.  Recent research, commissioned by an association I work with, revealed that even university presidents rarely read lengthy position papers and monographs.  The reality of the way busy people spend time, and the requirements of new media, suggest that crisp bites of information are preferred, and in most cases they are more effective. Thus, writing style must fit the medium, as well as the media behaviors, of each audience.

An impression of innovation is also better achieved when the writer and designer are able to work together. When a designer can hear and see the message develop before they ever go to work, the design is always much more effective. All too often the artist begins with minimal instruction, and then works in a vacuum with disappointing results.  The design may be award-winning, but communication effectiveness is not.

To be effective, the entire process must be guided by a set of minimal standards that guarantee carrying forward the general design “look” of the organization (brand identity), and the design look of  the appropriate program or division (sub-brand identity). Then, talented commercial artists are able to reinforce the brand and sub-brand, while at the same time support the purpose and content of the communication. 

Make no mistake, however, achieving this will require the proper interactive  process between writer and designer. Even those using outside free-lance writers and designers can achieve this result if branding standards and work procedures are defined first. Then, those hired outside can be required to sign on as if they were working inside. 

Organizations large and small are able to achieve an innovative “look” when they have articulate visionary leadership, clear brand standards, and use interactive creative processes. 

 

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