The previous article Vol.32: 7 Requirements to Deliver Consistent Message Online & Offline was about requirements to deliver consistent message online and offline for synergy.
This article discusses developing online and offline contents to deliver consistent message with consistent corporate branding.
1. What kinds of corporate contents are there?
The following are some of the major corporate contents.
1) Company information
This is information about the company. This includes basic information and data of the company, company vision/strategy and statement including message from the top executive and history of the company to name a few. In short, they are the kind of web contents posted in “About Us” section of company websites and information included in company brochure.
2) Information for media - Press/news release
This was originally announcement/information delivered from the company to mass media exclusively but today it is accessible by the general public also with the emergence and proliferation of the Internet. Topics include everything, from management/corporate information such as company policy/strategy, organizational/leadership announcement and financial performance announcement to new products and services announcement.
3) Financial information (IR information)
This is company information focusing on financial information and other information relevant for investment. Topics range from message to shareholders, presentation (webcast, PPT materials etc.) and events schedule to annual reports. Press releases of financial performance announcement also fall under this category as well.
4) Career information
This is information relevant for job seekers. Topics range from basic company information and contents introducing their employees to event schedule and procedures of application. Some companies use basic company information mentioned above while some others tailor basic company information to meet needs of job seekers to make it separate content.
5) Information of other topics
Some companies have independent strategic corporate contents such as environmental preservation, sustainability/CSR, and Diversity & Inclusion. And in addition to annual report, many companies publish other reports of sustainability, CSR and environmental preservation. How they categorize differs from company to company.
2. Who are main targets of corporate contents?
In theory everyone can be target but assumed specifics (buying persona) depend on contents. For instance, it would be financial institutions and individual investors for financial (IR) information, media and journalists for press/news releases, job seekers for recruiting information, and business partners for company information and financial information.
In reality, it really depends on the objectives of the individual audience. What can be said is that people who access to corporate content are mostly current and potential business person.
3. How are branding and style?
From the assumed objective/ setting of usage and target, it is natural that branding and style of corporate content would be rather official (i.e. not too casual and personal). The degree of how much formal depends on the industry and company.
1) Visual
CI (Corporate Identity) logo and colour is usually developed and determined, and are used consistently throughout the content regardless of types of media/communication channels. CI is an intellectual property and the companies usually acquire copy right. And to assure consistent use of CI and consistent branding, most companies produce guidelines/manuals.
Key images are also usually created, determined in line with corporate branding and therefore this is usually of not too casual and personal. This is also used consistently regardless of types of media and communication channel/tools. Many companies include key image issues in their branding guidelines/manuals.
Design and layout is also usually kept conservative and simple compared to product and entertainment contents. Many companies include this issue also in their corporate branding guidelines and manuals.
2) Text
Corporate contents are usually subjective and their style of writing is usually of business writing. Headlines and texts are developed from company perspective. Body texts are usually written usually in third person. Sentence structure is usually kept simple. Clarity is also important and ambiguity needs to be kept to minimum. Some companies have guidelines or rules of text style, at least in writing press/news releases.
One of the possible exceptions of not being written in third person is content introducing employees to job seekers (new graduates). This is when, for example, it is in interview style or strategically written in first person, introducing the company and how it is working in the company from the eye of the employee.
4. What kind of media and communication channels are used?
Both online and offline media and communication channels/tools are used. Most common ones are website, online and offline news releases, and brochures (offline) and PDF files/HTM pages (online) of various reports and company information.
For online contents, use of rich content such as webcast (streaming content) is effective and in fact already used by many companies for delivering financial presentation, often together with presentation materials. This is a good way to deliver offline event information to as many online audiences as possible who cannot attend offline event. This is also a good way of online and offline integrated communication for synergy.
In addition, more and more companies make effective use of webcast (a few minutes online video) for other strategic contents as well with the popularization of YouTube. More use of effective use of rich content in addition to basic text (static) content is one of the assumed trends even in corporate contents.
5. What is the author’s conclusion?
Corporate contents are in general conservative, kept simple and business like because of the target and the nature of the content to deliver consistent message. Contents can be made attractive and effectively delivered by good designing, layout and text style. And for online contents effective use of web 2.0 technologies can make creative, rich contents. This has already been a trend, and is likely to continue in the future as well.
Underling the consistency is corporate branding. To assure consistent corporate branding, guidelines and manuals are usually developed and rolled out, covering issues such as CI logo, visuals and design/layout. This is applied to all contents and media/communication channels/tools.
Saturday, 26 June 2010
Saturday, 12 June 2010
Vol.32 – 7 Requirements to Deliver Consistent Message Online & Offline
The previous article Vol.31: 10 Dos and Don'ts to Deliver Consistent Message Online & Offline was about integrating contents developed with advertising to deliver consistent message by integrating each media while maximizing effectiveness of each media for online and offline synergy.
This article presents requirements to deliver consistent message online and offline, i.e. achieving what have been discussed in the last 7 articles from Vol.25 through Vol.31. They are, in essence, the same as developing and executing any kind of strategy; however, there are a few points that are specific to this topic.
1. Big picture including clear objective/vision/goal and strategy
Needless to say, objective, vision and goal are required, and then comprehensive strategy of online and offline synergy, filling the gap between the vision/goal and current circumstance, needs to be developed.
Objective needs to be clear and vision needs to be something that can be visualized and make members feel “wow” and energized. Goal needs to be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and tangible.
Current circumstance including external and internal environment, past performance and feedback from the market (customer, audience) and all other stakeholders needs to be analyzed (quantitative and qualitative) to identify the problems, together with risk analysis. Then prioritize focuses (problems to tackle/solve), which means strategy. This will be made into action plan in execution.
Benchmarking and learning from best practices of other companies/industries are often helpful for breakthrough, out-of-the box thinking.
Some people may say that vision and strategy comes first and others may say that people (core team) comes first. As the concept of “getting the right people to get on the bus then decide where to go” from the book Good to Great – Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t (Collins, 2001), it is usually better to have the core team first and let them develop strategy led by an individual responsible and accountable for the task. This is because it means fair process and team building, to foster commitment and ownership of the core team members. It is only in an emergency when strategy development and implementation needs to be done 1oo% top down that people comes after.
2. Buy-in from the top and senior management
Buy-in from the top and senior management is required for successful implementation of the strategy. Without buy-in. strong leadership and commitment from top and senior management will not be available, meaning organization (employees/members) cannot be navigated to achieve the goal/mission. Also, necessary resources cannot be obtained.
3. An appropriate individual responsible/accountable for the assignment
Leadership and management skills/competencies, and background covering the overall realm (assignment) are the requirements of the individual responsible and accountable for the assignment. He/she does not necessarily have knowledge and expertise in all detailed aspects of the assignment (or rather, people with such knowledge and expertise are usually difficult to find).
If there is a particular issue that needs to be strengthened (e.g. web marketing needs to be focused, building organization is the weakest, processes needs to be reviewed and simplified, building networks with external stakeholder is vital), an individual who is strong in that particular issue is highly desired.
4. No traditional barriers of functions etc.
Delivering consistent message by integrating online and offline media in web 2.0 world cannot be fulfilled in the traditional framework. PR/communication and marketing needs to be converged as mentioned in Vol.7: The New Rules of Marketing, PR and IR in Web 2.0 Online World. Marketing/communication of corporate and product also needs to be converged and integrated. Moreover, external and internal communication needs to be integrated and aligned.
If all mentioned are converged and integrated, all media and communication tools, whether online or offline, would naturally be integrated with optimization.
This is usually more difficult to achieve in a big organization where division of labour needs to be adopted. Possible solutions include cross-function committee, with defined processes and systems in which all related functions are involved.
5. Resources including acquisition/allocation/management with optimization
Resources include budget, manpower (people and organization), infrastructure (hard such as equipment and soft such as software and systems) and information. These resources can be obtained internally and externally; the latter can be acquisition (e.g. external hiring, purchasing infrastructure) and/or lease and alliance.
Resources needs to be allocated with optimization, and appropriately managed with regular monitoring. This is a big challenge when traditional functional barriers are abolished and the individual appointed for the task needs to be political savvy to overcome this. Resource allocation needs to be flexibility changed based on regular monitoring and changes in environment/circumstances.
It is highly desired that people are diverse in terms of skill, competencies and expertise because the task encompasses wide a range of scope meaning diverse skill set and competencies in total are required to accomplish the task. This has much overlap with the next requirement.
6. Knowledge and knowhow necessary to leverage characteristics of each media
Needless to say, knowledge and knowhow of each online and offline media/communication channel are vital as a team/committee. Therefore, necessary skills and competencies, both soft and hard, first needs to be defined, from which requirements of team/committee members are identified, to be assigned.
Knowledge and knowhow often comes from external sources, such as consultants and agencies, online and offline training/education including lectures and seminars, and information in all possible channels and format (publications and online article to name a few).
Having said that, it is through experience that organization and individuals acquire knowledge and knowhow the most. For this reason, assigning team/committee members needs to be done from people development perspective as well as based on their current skills and competencies. This often means succession planning for key roles and positions, which requires defining skills and competencies that becomes necessary in the future although they may not be necessary today.
System that enables continuous obtaining of new knowledge and knowhow is inevitable to keep up with the changing environment and evolution of each media. This is prominent for web/Internet hence the word “dog year”.
7. Change management for right mindset of all individuals
All points mentioned above can only be achieved only with change in mindset and behaviours of all individuals of all levels in the organization. This often means cultural change which requires change management.
This is usually time consuming but needs to be fulfilled with persistence by consistent delivery of message especially to internal stakeholders, actions and behaviours of the management, and celebrating quick wins to gain momentum, all aligned.
This article presents requirements to deliver consistent message online and offline, i.e. achieving what have been discussed in the last 7 articles from Vol.25 through Vol.31. They are, in essence, the same as developing and executing any kind of strategy; however, there are a few points that are specific to this topic.
1. Big picture including clear objective/vision/goal and strategy
Needless to say, objective, vision and goal are required, and then comprehensive strategy of online and offline synergy, filling the gap between the vision/goal and current circumstance, needs to be developed.
Objective needs to be clear and vision needs to be something that can be visualized and make members feel “wow” and energized. Goal needs to be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and tangible.
Current circumstance including external and internal environment, past performance and feedback from the market (customer, audience) and all other stakeholders needs to be analyzed (quantitative and qualitative) to identify the problems, together with risk analysis. Then prioritize focuses (problems to tackle/solve), which means strategy. This will be made into action plan in execution.
Benchmarking and learning from best practices of other companies/industries are often helpful for breakthrough, out-of-the box thinking.
Some people may say that vision and strategy comes first and others may say that people (core team) comes first. As the concept of “getting the right people to get on the bus then decide where to go” from the book Good to Great – Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t (Collins, 2001), it is usually better to have the core team first and let them develop strategy led by an individual responsible and accountable for the task. This is because it means fair process and team building, to foster commitment and ownership of the core team members. It is only in an emergency when strategy development and implementation needs to be done 1oo% top down that people comes after.
2. Buy-in from the top and senior management
Buy-in from the top and senior management is required for successful implementation of the strategy. Without buy-in. strong leadership and commitment from top and senior management will not be available, meaning organization (employees/members) cannot be navigated to achieve the goal/mission. Also, necessary resources cannot be obtained.
3. An appropriate individual responsible/accountable for the assignment
Leadership and management skills/competencies, and background covering the overall realm (assignment) are the requirements of the individual responsible and accountable for the assignment. He/she does not necessarily have knowledge and expertise in all detailed aspects of the assignment (or rather, people with such knowledge and expertise are usually difficult to find).
If there is a particular issue that needs to be strengthened (e.g. web marketing needs to be focused, building organization is the weakest, processes needs to be reviewed and simplified, building networks with external stakeholder is vital), an individual who is strong in that particular issue is highly desired.
4. No traditional barriers of functions etc.
Delivering consistent message by integrating online and offline media in web 2.0 world cannot be fulfilled in the traditional framework. PR/communication and marketing needs to be converged as mentioned in Vol.7: The New Rules of Marketing, PR and IR in Web 2.0 Online World. Marketing/communication of corporate and product also needs to be converged and integrated. Moreover, external and internal communication needs to be integrated and aligned.
If all mentioned are converged and integrated, all media and communication tools, whether online or offline, would naturally be integrated with optimization.
This is usually more difficult to achieve in a big organization where division of labour needs to be adopted. Possible solutions include cross-function committee, with defined processes and systems in which all related functions are involved.
5. Resources including acquisition/allocation/management with optimization
Resources include budget, manpower (people and organization), infrastructure (hard such as equipment and soft such as software and systems) and information. These resources can be obtained internally and externally; the latter can be acquisition (e.g. external hiring, purchasing infrastructure) and/or lease and alliance.
Resources needs to be allocated with optimization, and appropriately managed with regular monitoring. This is a big challenge when traditional functional barriers are abolished and the individual appointed for the task needs to be political savvy to overcome this. Resource allocation needs to be flexibility changed based on regular monitoring and changes in environment/circumstances.
It is highly desired that people are diverse in terms of skill, competencies and expertise because the task encompasses wide a range of scope meaning diverse skill set and competencies in total are required to accomplish the task. This has much overlap with the next requirement.
6. Knowledge and knowhow necessary to leverage characteristics of each media
Needless to say, knowledge and knowhow of each online and offline media/communication channel are vital as a team/committee. Therefore, necessary skills and competencies, both soft and hard, first needs to be defined, from which requirements of team/committee members are identified, to be assigned.
Knowledge and knowhow often comes from external sources, such as consultants and agencies, online and offline training/education including lectures and seminars, and information in all possible channels and format (publications and online article to name a few).
Having said that, it is through experience that organization and individuals acquire knowledge and knowhow the most. For this reason, assigning team/committee members needs to be done from people development perspective as well as based on their current skills and competencies. This often means succession planning for key roles and positions, which requires defining skills and competencies that becomes necessary in the future although they may not be necessary today.
System that enables continuous obtaining of new knowledge and knowhow is inevitable to keep up with the changing environment and evolution of each media. This is prominent for web/Internet hence the word “dog year”.
7. Change management for right mindset of all individuals
All points mentioned above can only be achieved only with change in mindset and behaviours of all individuals of all levels in the organization. This often means cultural change which requires change management.
This is usually time consuming but needs to be fulfilled with persistence by consistent delivery of message especially to internal stakeholders, actions and behaviours of the management, and celebrating quick wins to gain momentum, all aligned.
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