Communicating Strategically
Most managers have learned to think strategically about their business overall, but few think strategically about what they spend most of their time doing – communicating.
Communication Theory
The root of modern communication theory goes back to Aristotle’s major work – “The Art of Rhetoric”. This theory talks about three parts of every speech: the speaker, the subject and the hearer. Based on this theory the modern strategy has: organization, messages, and the constituency.
Developing Corporate Communication Strategies
The three subsets of an organization strategy include:
Determining the objectives for a particular communication – what does the organization want each constituency to do as a result of the communication?
Deciding what resources are available for achieving those objectives.
Money
Human
Resources
TimeDiagnosing the organization’s reputation – reputation is based on the constituency’s perception of the organization rather than the reality of the organization itself.
Analyzing Constituencies
In this analysis following facts are determined:
Who your organization’s constituencies are
What each thinks about the organization, and
What each knows about the communication in question?
Delivering Messages Appropriately
It involves a two-step analysis for companies.
A company must decide how it wants to deliver the message (choose a communication channel) and what approach to take in structuring the message itself.
Constituency Response
It has to satisfy two questions- did each constituency respond in the way the corporate wished? And should the corporation revise the message in light of the constituency responses?
Conclusion
By creating a coherent communication strategy based on the time-tested theories presented here, an organization is well on its way to reinventing how it handles communication.
Most managers have learned to think strategically about their business overall, but few think strategically about what they spend most of their time doing – communicating.
Communication Theory
The root of modern communication theory goes back to Aristotle’s major work – “The Art of Rhetoric”. This theory talks about three parts of every speech: the speaker, the subject and the hearer. Based on this theory the modern strategy has: organization, messages, and the constituency.
Developing Corporate Communication Strategies
The three subsets of an organization strategy include:
Determining the objectives for a particular communication – what does the organization want each constituency to do as a result of the communication?
Deciding what resources are available for achieving those objectives.
Money
Human
Resources
TimeDiagnosing the organization’s reputation – reputation is based on the constituency’s perception of the organization rather than the reality of the organization itself.
Analyzing Constituencies
In this analysis following facts are determined:
Who your organization’s constituencies are
What each thinks about the organization, and
What each knows about the communication in question?
Delivering Messages Appropriately
It involves a two-step analysis for companies.
A company must decide how it wants to deliver the message (choose a communication channel) and what approach to take in structuring the message itself.
Constituency Response
It has to satisfy two questions- did each constituency respond in the way the corporate wished? And should the corporation revise the message in light of the constituency responses?
Conclusion
By creating a coherent communication strategy based on the time-tested theories presented here, an organization is well on its way to reinventing how it handles communication.
Examples
Everybody who uses a computer knows what www.google.com offers and how easy it is to find something on the net which is growing as deep as ocean and as wide as desert, but w hat is the value or benefit that Google offers us? It is just the instant co mmunication o f required I nformation, and it makes Billions of Dollars by selling that information through a concept called "adwords". Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. As a first step to fulfilling that mission, Google's founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin developed a new approach to online search that took root in a Stanford University dorm room and quickly spread to information seekers around the globe. Google is now widely recognized as the world's largest search engine -- an easy-to-use free service that usually returns relevant results in a fraction of a second.
Experience
As an advertising guy I have had always felt that the quality of the information communicated must be far better than the quantity of the message, well anyone can state this or simply say "You don't need to be an ad guy to say this", but I' am talking about the message in an"ad copy", while designing posters and other promotional materials many of my clients persuade me to give complete information about the offer, product ,etc., but I have succeeded in many campaigns which just had an image which speaks for itself and little information explaining the offering.
Reference:
1. Corporate Communication by Paul A. Argenti (pg. 1-12)
