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Archive for the ‘Strategic Communication’ Category

Lesson 163 Brainstorming Publicity Ideas

Posted in Branding, Integrated Marketing, Lessons Learned, Planning, Strategic Communication on May 4, 2013| 1 Comment »

How many times have I been in meetings with small nonprofits listening to volunteers make long lists of ideas for how staff can improve visibility and recognition?

Most of the time I just wanted to tell them that anyone can think up more stuff to do, and more stuff to send out. Doing that is not even helpful. The key is to know exactly the right messages, the right audiences, the best tactics, and a feasible way to evaluate effectiveness… and then to make sure there are enough people available to do the work, and an adequate budget.

This is not rocket science. For marketing and communication professionals, it’s difficult to comprehend why people in general don’t understand all this. Too many people think more is better, and they really have no idea what professional public relations practitioners actually know and do.

Simply put, it’s never a matter of making lists of things for the current staff to do, and then making assumptions that they never thought of these things! Trust me, they have. Rather, it’s a matter of going through a systematic planning exercise to determine what not to do, as much as knowing what to do. Sending out more stuff only contributes to an already saturated environment, even when your organization has adequate staff and expertise.

First, you need to identify a set of message points that differentiate the organization from other similar ones. Collectively, these points define brand identity. Then, a few manageable priority markets must be identified, along with the media that each of them prefers. A simple survey mechanism also must be identified to assess market needs, as well as communication effectiveness. And finally, any added work needs to match the size and talent of available staff. Volunteers and interns are helpful, but not reliable over time.

It is very important to remember that more is never automatically better in communication. Less communication, well done and focused, can move organizations ahead. Small organizations must settle for baby steps. But regular and persistent baby steps do lead to  growth and recognition. It’s smart planning, rather than just more activity, that produces results.

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Lesson 161 What is “Strategic” Communication?

Posted in Integrated Marketing, Lessons Learned, Strategic Communication on April 20, 2013| Leave a Comment »

In Washington DC everyone seems to understand the term “strategic communication.” It simply refers to the professional practice of helping organizations and individuals become better understood. But in other places I continue to have people ask me “What is strategic communication?”  These people are more accustomed to the terms “public relations and advertising.”

In past posts I have referenced how public relations and advertising as a field of study became strategic communication in my work. Simply put, it was a matter of my concluding that a new and more complicated world required bringing other related disciplines into my thinking and planning.

Over the years I have seen everything about communication become more complicated. Media revolutions changed everything, from the array of tools I used to consumer impact and choices. As technology made the world smaller, the internationalization of virtually every industry added cultural and political complications. And so as institutions struggled to be better understood in a universe of information clutter, earlier promotion and advertising campaigns were no longer sophisticated enough.

And so some of us became “pioneers” in our struggles to cope with this new complexity as we began to look to other fields of study to bolster our work. I experimented with adapting integrated and strategic marketing ideas to communicating academic institutions, and wrote three books about it (www.case.org/books). This changed our thinking from promoting what was there, to getting involved with planning and rethinking programs, price, distribution, and communication simultaneously… realizing that no amount of communication can make a program or institution successful unless it meets a perceived need.

This new way of thinking led to realizing that the field of “group dynamics” provided leadership tools to get everyone on the same page with respect to competitive advantage, and to motivate them to help tell the story.  This added energy to the power of “word-of-mouth,” which in a new media world could become even more powerful as internet “buzz!”  And this led to looking at the field of “organizational behavior” to understand how to deal with various leadership styles and internal political issues which too often became barriers to success.

And so many of us adopted the term “strategic communication” to describe what we believe to be a more substantive approach to public relations and advertising, one that incorporates the study of integrated marketing, group dynamics, and organizational behavior to meet the challenges of a more sophisticated world.

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Lesson 160 Editorial Priorities Committees

Posted in Branding, Integrated Marketing, Lessons Learned, Strategic Communication on April 13, 2013| Leave a Comment »

We have been discussing the role of group process in strategic communication and integrated marketing. Last week’s post described the use of brand clarification groups.  This process not only produces more precise mission, values and vision statements, it also produces lists of competitive advantage characteristics which can then be prioritized into powerful branding themes. The challenge now is to communicate this clarified brand identity to every individual in every constituent group in today’s extremely complex media environment.

My first suggestion here is to have these statements and themes on a single sheet of paper on the desk of everyone on the communication staff.  In this way whenever they are preparing official statements or editing official materials they can make sure they are including consistent brand identity reinforcing messages and stories wherever possible.

My second suggestion is to form an ‘editorial priorities committee” that uses this “branding sheet” as a guide to brainstorm a list of compelling institutional stories that will reinforce these statements and themes. This committee can have both inside and outside the institution membership so that all constituent perspectives are represented. It can then meet periodically to review and refine a master story list. Repeating key reputation defining stores creatively using a current “news hook,” or a new angle, rarely gets old with audiences that have a natural interest, or even potential interest, in a particular organization.

All corporate magazine editors deal with the issue of whether or not institutional “information” publications exist primarily to report the organization’s news, or to focus primarily on promoting positive achievements and distinctions. My experience suggests that the most popular institutional publications achieve readership credibility only by doing both. They report the news, including all sides of controversies… and they rigorously reinforce brand identity.

We live in a world of information clutter. Imaginative repetition is precisely what is needed to cut through that clutter and establish sustained brand clarity and reputation. And this clarity is precisely what is needed to achieve long-term institutional goals.

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Lesson 159 Brand Clarification Groups

Posted in Branding, Integrated Marketing, Lessons Learned, Strategic Communication on April 6, 2013| Leave a Comment »

This post continues a series about the role of group process in planning and managing a strategic communication program. What differentiates strategic communication from traditional public relations and advertising is bringing the subject matters of organizational behavior, integrated marketing, and group dynamics into the field.  And group dynamics tools are key to clarifying competitive advantage, brand identity, and to mobilizing  and motivating people to go out and tell the institution’s story.

The most successful brand clarification projects begin by forming small brainstorming groups within each constituent category. For example, university executives might commission several small homogenous groups of students, faculty, administrators, alumni, donors, community leaders, and parents simply to come together to list those features that make the institution special or unique.  Experience teaches that they will list prominent fields of study, outstanding student opportunities, unique experiences or traditions, internal culture characteristics, commonly held and articulated values, campus landscape features,  colors, textures, and even geographic location differentiators. Brainstorming will produce a long list. The next task, then, is to put them in priority order, and finally to identify the top 4 or 5. Most of the time these groups will produce very similar lists.  It may surprise you how often collegiate as well as other institutional experiences turn out to be very similar.

These priority ordered lists should then be given to a smaller representative committee to review. These people should merge them into a final list of 4 or 5.  A good writer, should now be able to write mission, vision and values statements based on them. These statements, along with the branding points list, can now be officially approved by the institution’s executive committee and board of trustees. They then become the foundation guidelines for all official institutional communication.

This is a widespread institutional listening exercise. Everyone who participates always enjoys it.  It takes time, but the buy-in is critically important. People love to talk about the experiences they had in college, or with any institution where they have been involved. Everyone can end on the same page, and are now in agreement with respect to what makes the place so special.

The final outcome of this project will be accurate positioning statements and brand characteristics that volunteer and professional leaders helped produce together. And the resulting consistent messaging is what eventually will cut though today’s mind-numbing media clutter, and clarify the institution’s distinctive competitive advantage in the marketplace.

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Lesson 158 Using Action Teams

Posted in Branding, Integrated Marketing, Leadership, Lessons Learned, Strategic Communication on March 29, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Last week I discussed the use of task forces in integrated marketing. They are a key part of bringing marketing, organizational behavior and group dynamics into what many people think of as the public relations and advertising field. Action teams are also extremely powerful tools in creating the perception that an institution is stepping out and claiming new prominence as a leader in the world.

Action teams are useful in solving specific problems or in launching new initiatives, especially those with the potential of attracting widespread attention. A university might need to recover from an unfortunate institutional crisis, or is ready to unveil the results of a bold new strategic plan.  In either case, bringing the best thinking and most creative talent in the institution together to address the situation can be very powerful.

An effective action team is made up of the best talent in the institution no matter where they are located. They might be in central administration, or in fine arts, or even in athletics marketing. They can come from anywhere. The key is talent and creative thinking. First of all, it is helpful to have a person on board who knows the current research findings and can design a simple survey if needed.  You will also need an experienced strategic thinker and planner, a writer who can write concise copy after listening to planning discussions, a designer who can produce art that symbolizes ideas they helped develop, and a project manager who can put it all together into a plan of action.

You will also need to be able to pull these highly talented people off the job into a truly integrated and ongoing process. This most often will require the authority and support of the president.  Most action teams will not take up all of its member’s time, but they will need to be able to make this project their top priority for however long it takes.

I have found that well structured and facilitated action teams can be the most powerful tool in the integrated marketing toolbox. So the more you know about how to create them, and the more experience you can get in managing them, the more success you will have in putting your institution on the map.

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Lesson 157 Using Task Forces

Posted in Branding, Integrated Marketing, Lessons Learned, Strategic Communication on March 23, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Following last week’s post, one of my readers said: “Tell me more about how task forces work in integrated marketing. I think most readers least understand the group process aspect of integration, and yet you suggest that it is a critical component.”

I have described the way I view the strategic communication subject matter as bringing the substance of marketing, organizational behavior, and group dynamics into what many still call the public relations and advertising field. And in doing this, the additional skill of group facilitation becomes a key part of professional practice. Where many managers are too impatient to use group process in decision-making, I assert that significant organizational transformation and advancement becomes possible though informed, empowered, and inspired groups.

Institution-wide task forces have the potential to get a critical mass of informed people on the same page with respect to  competitive advantage.  I have found this to be the case even in very large institutions. And when “inside” people are telling the same story on the outside, their “word-of-mouth” impact can be extremely powerful.  Today such messages find their way into social media, and when they go “viral” they become what we call the “buzz.”

An effective task force is made up of representatives from the major program areas inside the institution. These should be people who have some instinct for, and/or interest in, marketing communication, not necessarily the administrative heads. The primary agenda topics should be (1) the identification of the institution’s brand identity, (2) the clarification of how each program’s distinct sub-brand identity connects with the overall brand, (3) keeping each other informed about what the others are doing, and (4) helping each other solve problems and address issues.

Getting people on the same page with respect to competitive advantage requires facilitated group process. Therefore, it is a significant aspect of “integration” in today’s integrated marketing and communication practice.

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Lesson 156 The Power to Transform

Posted in Integrated Marketing, Lessons Learned, Strategic Communication on March 15, 2013| Leave a Comment »

This week I spoke to a gathering of university advancement professionals from the Big 12 Athletic Conference.  Most attending were from the fundraising or alumni relations areas of advancement, and so I was asked to offer an overview of how “integrated marketing” is different from traditional university relations.

I began by asking them if their university claimed to have an “integrated” marketing and communication operation. My question was prompted because I have been noticing lately that many universities using the term are not really providing truly integrated programs.  And in addition, some with the marketing title are only advertising directors. And still more are not actually practicing classic marketing. Rather too many are still merely sending out information about programs and services, just the same as institutions have been doing for years.

My message for the conference was that those professionals in fundraising and alumni relations without the support of a truly integrated marketing and communication operation were not being well severed.  Merely sending out information was only adding to information clutter, and the university was not likely benefiting very much from that.  In this digital age, more information clearly is not better. But the right information managed by a truly integrated operation does have the power to transform, no doubt about it.

So what does true integration require?

Transformative marketing and communication requires integration at three levels:  (1) Following the traditional marketing model of the “4 P’s,” program design and brand identity, pricing and discounting, distribution of the total experience and place, and strategic communication and promotion, must be planned and implemented simultaneously so that they all address the needs of the market.  (2) Preferred media must be used for each market segment and sent simultaneously and intensely in order to cut through the clutter. This multi-platform approach should be a combination of old and new media. And (3) carefully orchestrated group processes must be employed in order to get everyone “on the same page” with a common understanding of the institution’s competitive advantage. This will require using institution-wide task forces, carefully composed creative action teams, and other small groups, to clarify brand identity and test ideas.

This integrated approach to marketing and communication clearly can transform institutions. And for my audience this week it can bring strategic thinking, new technology, and facilitated group process to help improve donor loyalty and recognition, as well as to bring together professional programs, communities of interest, career services, events, enrichment courses, and much more,  into portals providing lifetime total university access.

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Lesson 154 When Words Lose Their Meaning

Posted in Lessons Learned, Public Affairs, Strategic Communication on March 4, 2013| 1 Comment »

The American Council on Education (ACE) is considered the “secretariat” of all higher education associations when it comes to advocacy with U.S. legislators. Much of its annual conference each year is spent on analyzing and discussing the most critical issues facing the industry. This year is no exception. But when the thinking and talking is over, what good will come of it?

My last post reported that I see an assault on all of higher education coming as the result of our totally polarized legislatures. In this totally dysfunctional climate progress on the issues is certainly not likely. But just as disturbing is the fact that polarization can also result in still another major dysfunction. It destroys any consistency in the use of key words. And when that happens, effective communication is also lost. My example… the words “conservative” and “liberal.”

In the world of political science “conservative” generally means a preference for limited government and maximum self-reliance. “Liberal” generally means a belief in the need for effective government and taxpayer supported social initiatives. Both are helpful terms describing legitimate philosophies of governance. But in a polarized world, these words are used to stand for the most extremes of those ideologies, and thus eventually become negative accusatory labels.

What’s interesting about communication dynamics is that when a term is misused consistently it can permanently lose its shared meaning.  And to make matters worse, there often isn’t another term to take its place. In the process, then, civility in dialogue is lost and mean-spirited attacks becomes the norm.

This is the situation we will be facing in legislatures all over the country in the coming months. It has become a nasty game that is fueled by extreme ideology, big money, and imprecise language. Is there a solution? In the short run I don’t see one. For now all we can do is press on and believe that persistence and time will find a way to heal everything.

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Lesson 150 Are Truly Unique Ideas Possible?

Posted in Lessons Learned, Strategic Communication on February 2, 2013| Leave a Comment »

My 15-year-old granddaughter, Page, startled me when she asked, “Granddad, is it possible to ever have a truly unique idea? I stared back, was silent for a moment, and then said, “Gee, Page, you just asked a very profound question.” She went on, “I was watching The Hunger Games and thought to myself,  that was my idea. I could have written that. How come that writer had the same idea I did? How could that happen?”

At 15, Page is already an accomplished artist and a writer. I have been looking forward to many rewarding hours of discussion about all kinds of ideas. But suddenly she put a huge one right at the top of the agenda. And now, how will I deal with it?

When I thought back on 46 years of teaching I was reminded of my own “creative moments.”  Sometimes ideas that felt totally new would seem to jump out of my head. I would be wandering around my classroom reflecting on the day’s topic, and bingo, out came a new insight. I would actually get startled. I remember thinking, “I have no idea where that came from!”

Are such ideas sent from God. Or do the come from somewhere mysterious out there in space?  Or was it someone elses idea, and I don’t remember from whom it came. Or was my brain so stimulated on the topic that it gathered fragments from who knows where?

I confess that much of my work has been putting together ideas in a way that cause people to sometimes say, “I already knew that, but you  put it together in a way that made me think about it differently.”  Could I claim such an insight as uniquely my own?

I think I can confidently tell Page that from my experience I believe truly creative ideas are possible, but I am not sure we can ever really be sure they are truly unique. In my case I am pretty sure that all the bits and pieces came from other people. My brain put them together, however, and the outcome I can claim as mine. Or, is it?

Obviously Page and I  have a lot to discuss as she embarks on a lifelong adventure in ideas and search for truth. I am not likely to have many answers. But I will share with her the deep satisfaction of living a life of ideas and creative thought, and relish every minute of it.

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Lesson 147 Can Debating Produce Solutions?

Posted in Lessons Learned, Media Literacy, Public Affairs, Strategic Communication on January 12, 2013| 1 Comment »

Observing the current debate on gun ownership leads one to conclude that all debating can accomplish is polarize and paralyze situations. 

A CNN promotional message got my attention this week when I noticed one of the reporters featured in it essentially said that encouraging debate was a primary objective of their coverage.  On the surface, that can sound really  positive. Who would not be inclined to agree that the more we debate issues the more informed we become?

But I am reminded of how even mainstream journalists delighted in reporting the extremes of the republican primary debates. They argued they were only reporting what was being said. But admittedly it made exciting copy for the daily news, and so the extreme viewpoints were endlessly repeated.  

Looking at it now, does this not raise the question : Did such reporting play a strong role in creating the very polarization they were reporting? In other words, have we reached a point where we must be extreme in our rhetoric in order to gain the media recognition necessary to succeed?  Do we find ourselves in the classic “chicken and egg” predicament?  

In my younger days I produced both radio and television public affairs programs and found that the easiest way to design a compelling program was to invite two extreme thinking people to debate. I also found that when we examined issues more thoughtfully it simply was not “good television.”  The medium of television likes simplicity and conflict, and with few exceptions makes intelligent discussion feel boring.

I must conclude from this current gun ownership issue that debates certainly do clarify positions! But once clarified, it’s also clear that a much different circumstance is required in order to find solutions. Research tells us that the media determines the topics we talk about. And we now know  24/7 cable is capable of fine-tuning extreme points of view. But we have yet to find a useful medium for taking those viewpoints and moving them to solutions.

The consequence of this polarized atmosphere is that compromise has become a dirty word, when it realistically is the only way to move forward. When are we going to learn that debate is only one important step in the democratic process?  The next is to form a task force to find a compromised way forward, and then to adjust the details later from what is learned. 

We have a big problem with gun violence in the US, so let’s do something… and then go from there.

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