May 8, 2014: What's in a name?

At the moment, my partner and I are trailing through websites and books searching for a name for our baby daughter, who will arrive in May. We have seen scores of lists, and can (if you kindly ask us) recite the most popular baby names in Europe for the last...
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A call to all corporate communicators out there!

The marketing and communication industry is booming and buzzing with ideas and new developments. The economic downturn may have tempered the mood a little bit, but the industry is thriving again. Social media, creative solutions, new practices and the demand for the services of communicators makes this in fact one...
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Wednesday, 18 March 2015

The end of an era?

In recent weeks I have given various talks at universities in Spain, the UK and the Netherlands. I have been telling master students about the changes that are afoot within the corporate communication world, illustrating how particular cases of corporate success and failure, as well as spending patterns, demonstrate a shift away from a ‘positioning’ and ‘broadcasting’ model of corporate communication to one that is premised on more interactive forms of stakeholder dialogue. Students have responded positively to the talk, and obviously they can only react to whatever I put in front of them! But nonetheless they seem to have been swayed by the underlying logic.

This logic goes something like this. In the 1990s, corporations increasingly started to recognize the value of corporate communication and particularly its strategic role in building and maintaining strong reputations – reputations that have a direct cash value, in that various stakeholders would prefer to do business with a reputable organization, and choose it over its competitors. Reflecting this recognition, new terminology and models emerged that allowed corporations to “manage” these strategically important reputations. Better metrics and positioning mantras came in to help communicators in this, and so as to ensure that their corporations would continue to thrive and prosper.

The key downside of this positioning thinking was that that at times it reinforced an assumption that the minds of stakeholders can in a sense be managed, and even controlled. Models of reputation management often linked corporate messages to direct outcomes in terms of awareness, attitude or broader reputational change on the part of stakeholders. The assumption was, in other words, that corporate communicators can strategically plan and design their messaging in order to in effect ‘take up’ a reputational ‘position’ in the minds of stakeholders. This implies a somewhat linear model of communication that assumes a relatively straightforward process of sending and receiving messages, where any outcomes are already largely predetermined or given. It also neglects stakeholders as active agents, who instead are cast as passive pawns in the skillful hands of a communicator.

This thinking has to some extent been overtaken by current events. Stakeholders have in recent years become much more active in voicing their expectations towards organizations and empowered by new technologies have also started to expect more interactive and dialogue based forms of communication. This in turn has led to some in the industry proclaiming that the old models of corporate communication are obsolete or ‘dead’, and that we are seeing a wholesome change towards interactive models of communication. A recent Harvard Business School book for example proclaims the virtues of interactive, conversational forms of corporate communication as in effect replacing “the traditional one-way structure of corporate communication with a dynamic process in which leaders talk with employees and not just to them” (Groysberg & Slind, 2012).

It is no doubt true that more interactive forms of communication are enabled by new technologies and social media (in comparison to broadcast media) and such forms of communication are also increasingly expected by stakeholders. But proclaiming that there is a wholesome paradigm shift may be a rushed judgment, or at least too early to tell. Others in the industry have taken a more moderate view in suggesting that what we are seeing is a gradual change in that individual stakeholders can now share experiences, opinions and ideas about organizations, and organize for action, at scale. This offers challenges but also opportunities to organizations in terms of word-of-mouth and peer-to-peer influence when individuals self-organize and may become advocates for the organization. In other words, whilst the mechanics in a sense might have changed the overriding principle is to some extent still the same – that is, when individuals hold an organization in esteem, value its reputation, and decide to buy from, work for, invest in or otherwise decide in favor of the organization, they are more likely to become genuine advocates and supporters.

Yet, in recent weeks, I have also started to reflect on my own message to my students. The direct reason is some research I am doing for Fairphone, a social enterprise that aims to develop the world’s first fair and sustainable smart phone (http://www.fairphone.com/). The people from Fairphone are doing something incredibly admirable, in having us all think about how we consume and that we should in fact have higher standards in relation to our consumption of common technological products such as smart phones. What is more they bring their message to the world exclusively through social media (Facebook and twitter), backed up with some old-fashioned press work. This makes them an interesting case of the new model of corporate communication, although obviously they are not a corporate organization but a social enterprise.

To cut a long story short, the exclusive reliance on social media may determine who they will reach with their message. Their own research shows that most of their captive audience involves 40 year old white males, with a relatively high disposable income, highly educated and with a strong political awareness (which apart from income includes me!). There is obviously an element here that social networking dynamics, in terms of how their message gets disseminated, may as much reflect social and economic ties, as that it really forges new ones. In other words, networking dynamics through Facebook and twitter and the community that Fairphone has built around it may help them cement and solidify connections with their buyers and followers, but it may be a lot harder for Fairphone to use social media to move beyond this captive audience and build new relationships, particularly with another demographic.

Whilst this does not suggest necessarily that another strategy would be better for Fairphone, it does lead me to reflect on the value of traditional broadcast media such as advertising, events or promotions. Their beauty lies in exposure and reach that can cut across different segments of a market or of society. Granted, such reach often comes with a lot of waste and spillage (in reaching the wrong people or people who are not swayed by the message), but it seems to me that whilst industry gurus and analysts might say that the “old” ways of corporate communication are “dead”, traditional approaches and broadcast media may continue to have a place, and indeed live on, but perhaps in a slightly different way and alongside social media.

References

Groysberg, Boris and Slind, Michael (2012), Talk, Inc.: How Trusted Leaders Use Conversation to Power their Organizations. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.